stress

Mindfulness, Stress Reduction, Healthcare System, Spirituality

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stress wheel

Mindfulness, Stress Reduction, Spirituality, Healthcare System:

The current popularity of mindfulness is largely attributed to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s work at the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. I suspect a combination of timing, insight and serendipity were responsible for this event. When I came across this program many years ago I had already been teaching meditation and related approaches for many years but had always seen these things as a niche approach for a limited number of people. Mindfulness had historically been a central part of a spiritual tradition and to re package it as a stress reduction approach in a major health care system was a novel and effective idea. Not only did it immediately have a positive impact on stress related issues but it opened up mindfulness to a much wider population by making it a secular approach to overall health. It became a non threatening spiritual discipline without the usual polarizing concepts that people argue about when discussing spirituality. The reason I say this is because reducing stress opens up people to a much bigger experience of themselves and their relationship to the world around them. Once the fear from stress is reduced we are able to revisit our sense of interconnectedness which is a central aspect of the spiritual experience. I rarely bring up spirituality in my classes yet it inevitably is brought up by the participants as they discover the connection between stress reduction and spirituality.

The healthcare system has provided an unexpected opportunity for many people to explore things that they normally would not be open to. In so doing, the healthcare system is beginning to realize it’s positive effect in the lives of so many people. It is beginning to see the potential for true healing rather than just treating disease. Both of these issues need to be addressed in a truly effective system. The outcomes of this simple mindfulness program have been so profound that many other “delivery systems” have embraced mindfulness. We now see it in the schools, business, sports, the arts and practically every aspect of life. I still think the healthcare system is the hub of the delivery wheel, and like so many strong hubs, it gives support and strength to all the spokes.

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Mindfulness, Stress and Attention

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attention matter

Let’s explore attention as it relates to mindfulness and stress by starting with a baseline definition:

“Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information, whether deemed subjective or objective, while ignoring other perceivable information. Attention has also been referred to as the allocation of limited processing resources.[1]

Attention remains a major area of investigation within education, psychology, neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and neuropsychology. Areas of active investigation involve determining the source of the sensory cues and signals that generate attention, the effects of these sensory cues and signals on the tuning properties of sensory neurons, and the relationship between attention and other behavioral and cognitive processes like working memory and vigilance. A relatively new body of research, which expands upon earlier research within neuropsychology, is investigating the diagnostic symptoms associated with traumatic brain injuries and their effects on attention. Attention also varies across cultures.[2]

The relationships between attention and consciousness are complex enough that they have warranted perennial philosophical exploration. Such exploration is both ancient and continually relevant, as it can have effects in fields ranging from mental health and the study of disorders of consciousness to artificial intelligence and its domains of research and development.”

Attention as it relates to mindfulness and stress is all of the above and more. We need something to steer awareness/consciousness and that is attention. Attention is like a rudder in a boat. We need the rudder to plot a course and take us from place to place. Applied to stress, attention is the game changer. When we go into a stress reaction our main coping mechanism is an ability to disconnect as a way of protecting us from anything unpleasant that may happen. We disconnect from all that is us…our bodies, thoughts, emotions and breath. In addition, there is a tendency to remain disconnected over a period of time thus perpetuating the fight or flight response. It’s “as if” the body senses when we are disconnected and interprets that as meaning there is still danger present. As long as the body interprets it that way, it is going to continue the disconnection as a way of coping with the fear of present danger. It’s really a catch 22 in that we won’t come out of fight or flight until we sense there is no more danger and we won’t let go of that fear until we reconnect to the body.

This reconnecting after fight or flight used to be a natural process that kicked in smoothly and returned us to balance. This doesn’t seem to be happening like it used to. It seems like we need to take an extra step to help facilitate that process. That extra step is mindfulness. It teaches us how to reconnect from everything that we disconnected from as a result of fight or flight. As we reconnect to the body, thoughts, emotions and breath it is “as if” the body senses that because of this reconnection it is safe to assume that the danger has passed. When this assumption takes place the body shifts the autonomic nervous system back into balance and brings us out of fight or flight.. That, in a nutshell, is the relationship of attention to mindfulness and stress.

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Mindfulness and the Stress of Change

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change circle

Have you ever asked yourself why something as prevalent as change creates so much stress? If you read the various studies on stress you will find that change is the number one factor in causing stress. Change manifests itself in all human experience. Since the nature of life is change then how have we arrived at a point where the very nature of our lives as humans is at the core of creating stress? It’s like we are allergic to life. We seem to have lost the ability to go with the flow and welcome change as a friend.

I think change reminds us that we are all mortal and that someday we will die. Although we see change on multiple levels it is the ultimate change of dying that drives the stress reaction. The stress reaction, or fight or flight, is our biological response to danger. Fight or flight is designed to increase our chances for survival in a situation that involves extreme danger. Without our ability to shift into survival mode we would surely be at a disadvantage. The primary emotion generated in fight or flight is fear, specifically fear of dying. This is a very useful emotion in a situation that requires us to mobilize all our resources to survive. When we get stuck in fight or flight, which so many of us do, we end up living with the fear of death. That fear is the ultimate experience of change and ends up expressing itself in the way we experience life in general. We take the assumptive leap of looking at all change as being connected to the change of death and surely it is. So being saddled with the generalized fear of dying we begin to interpret that all change will eventually lead to death…which it does, and that it is something to be afraid of. The key is to shift the nervous system out of fear mode to an experience that has no fear and that welcomes change as a friend. How does this happen with mindfulness?

The main thing that mindfulness does is have a profound effect on our nervous system in such a way as to resolve the fear that results from being stuck in fight or flight. The first thing mindfulness teaches us is that the nature of life is change and that we need to learn how to flow with the constant change. This is implicit in the mindfulness practice that involves training the attention to remain in the present moment by fully experiencing the nature of change. At the same time we are fully experiencing change we are noticing that there is an experience of no change just beneath all of the change. We begin to connect with that ground of being that never changes and acts as the foundation and anchor for a life of constant change. Without this foundation/anchor of no change the very nature of life continues to be the source of stress reminding us that we too will change and ultimately die and that it is to be feared. Partnered with the sense of the inner stability of permanence, change and death becomes our friend and a source of exploration, amazement and joy. That sense of permanence is found in the present moment. It is the only place where permanence survives and is the place where mindfulness begins. Once the connection to the permanence of the present moment is realized, the stress of change goes away and life is experienced without fear. At that point anything is possible and life blooms as it was meant to. Mindfulness, the experience of the present moment, gives us that gift and allows for constant change to co exist with permanence in harmony.

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Mindfulness Based Stress Beating Tips

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Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Mindfulness Based Stress Beating Tips #1

To reduce stress through the practice of mindfulness takes a certain level of commitment. It is fairly simple to understand the concept of paying attention moment by moment but because it involves doing things in a new way there is a level of patience needed to get through the beginning phase of practice. In our “instant” culture this can certainly be a challenge at times. Rest assured though, that regular practice will ultimately create positive change.

Mindfulness Based Stress Beating Tips #2

There are two kinds of mindfulness practice. One kind is the meditation practice which uses the core practice of paying attention moment by moment without judging our breath, bodies, thoughts, emotions, beliefs and attitudes. It involves going inward with silence and stillness in order to fully experience these things. The second practice is mindfulness in everyday life which is bringing that moment to moment awareness to our experiences outside of the meditation practice. Mindful eating, walking communicating, exercising, brushing teeth etc…..all activity becomes part of mindfulness in everyday life. Although the emphasis is traditionally placed on the meditation practice, the everyday/informal practice is just as important. In fact, both are needed to maintain balance in life.

Mindfulness Based Stress Beating Tips #3

The purpose of mindfulness is to allow us to break the stress cycle and begin healing from within. Stress causes us to disconnect from the present moment. Disconnecting is a natural protective coping mechanism that ends up getting stuck in us through chronic stress. Paying attention mindfully is the beginning point of this healing experience and reverses being stuck in stress/fight or flight. The process can be summed up with this sequence: 1. Mindful Attention, 2. Connection, 3. Communication, 4. Regulation, 5. Order, 6.Ease. The reverse sequence is what makes us sick on many levels. That sequence is: 1. Disattention, 2. Disconnection, 3. Discommunication, 4. Disregulation, 5. Disorder, 6. Disease.

Mindfulness Based Stress Beating Tips #4

There are certain qualities that characterize the mindful experience. 1. Non striving allows the experience to come to us rather than trying to force it. Allowing ourselves to fully experience everything without filtering out unwanted experiences is the core of the practice. Trying to force it simply takes us out of the moment. 2. Non judging is a quality that comes with practice and is facilitated by simply noticing judgment without trying to change it. 3. Letting go is another core quality and is what allows you to stay in the moment. Practice letting go of the past and the future and you will find yourself in the present moment. 4. Sense of humor is another quality that comes with present moment experience and is fun to develop and watch unfold. Other qualities that you may notice unfolding in the present moment are compassion, kindness, love, appreciation, forgiveness, gratitude and ease.

Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom. You don’t have to be swept away by your feeling. You can respond with wisdom and kindness rather than habit and reactivity.

~ Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

When we let go of wanting something else to happen in this moment, we are taking a profound step toward being able to encounter what is here now. If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don’t really know where we are standing—a knowing that comes directly from the cultivation of mindfulness—we may only go in circles, for all our efforts and expectations. So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.

~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

If we practice mindfulness, we always have a place to be when we are afraid.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

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