"Mindfulness is a way of being - a basic human quality of awareness that is cultivated by learning to pay wise attention to whatever is happening in our lives. People who participate in a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, learn through their own experience how to take better care of themselves, by understanding the interplay of mind and body, allowing for greater access to inner resources for coping, growing and healing. MBSR is an approach that combines meditation, dialogue, reflective inquiry, mindful yoga and movement, as means to assisting participants to work more effectively with stress, pain and illness, as well as the challenges of life in the 21st century."
“When we cultivate our capacity for balance and attunement, we can experience joyful inner liberation, no matter what the outer circumstances.”Jack Kornfield
"Love is omni-inclusive, Progressively exquisite, Understanding and tender And compassionately attuned To other [and] self." R. Buckminster Fuller[I replaced "than" with "and"]
attunement: • bringinginto a harmonious or responsiverelationship; • causing (a person, company, etc.) to have a better understanding of what is needed or wanted by a particular person or group; • becoming aware or responsive; • a feeling of being "at one" with others.
It takes an amazing degree of generosity to accept each and every thing that happens to us in our lifetime. And when we have indeed embraced all of it, with a clear, open, loving heart-mind, then we have indeed lived life well, and evolved fully ...
We can all agree that every one of us is very interested & highly motivated to have & enjoy maximal personal health & quality of life. What constitutes professional behavior & good citizenship, and how best to promote these is more controversial & challenging. Yet I've come to understand that an individual's attention to self-care & wellness, their professionalism, good citizenshipoverlap greatly. From the other direction, I suggest that it's not possible (except perhaps for sociopaths) to enjoy optimal health while behaving unethically. If someone commits a horrific crime, chances are s/he will be found criminally insane (innocent by virtue of insanity). But I suggest that anything short of consistent prosocial, civilized, allocentric / ecocentric behavior is unhealthy - creates needless additional suffering - for the individual "actor" and society. Individuals (except sociopaths) are an integral part of society and nature - whatever benefits or harms one, has the identical effect on the other. So progressive maximal personal evolution of consciousness, fully integrated into one’s life, is the path to maximal health & well-being for oneself (wellness), one's profession (professionalism) and society at large (good citizenship). Teaching self-care - at the deepest level eg via mindfulness (MBSR) - is I suggest, a highly effective way of teaching professionalism and good citizenship in our multicultural, multi-faith, multi-ethnic society. Our world is literally dying for these qualities.
Interim report of the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG)
Executive Summary:
The Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group has carried out an eight-month inquiry into the potential for mindfulness training in key areas of public life - health, education, workplaces and the criminal justice system. We find that mindfulness is a transformative practice, leading to a deeper understanding of how to respond to situations wisely. We believe that government should widen access to mindfulness training in key public services, where it has the potential to be an effective low-cost intervention with a wide range of benefits. We urge all political parties to consider our recommendations for inclusion in their manifestos for the 2015 General Election, as part of the pressing task of tackling the country's mental health crisis.
Key Recommendations:
Health
We recommend that access to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is substantially widened for adults with a history of depression, because it significantly reduces risk of depressive relapse and can reduce healthcare use.
Workplace
We recommend that public sector employers such as the NHS and civil service pioneer good practice and set up mindfulness pilot projects, which can be evaluated as part of their responsibility to combat stress.
Education
We recommend making mindfulness in schools a priority for development and research. Mindfulness programmes are popular with children and teachers, and research has shown promising potential, with an impact on a wide range of measures including wellbeing, executive function (attention, focus), emotional self-regulation and improved relationships.
Criminal Justice System
We recommend those in the criminal justice sector develop and evaluate pilot projects to identify appropriate forms of mindfulness teaching and establish their acceptability and effectiveness.
We travel - looking for what? What does being at homefeel like? Is home really just a place? Isn't home a state of being? When we have strong preferences - one way or another - we're far from home. Even when we're physically in our own house, unless we're at peace - with ourselves & our environment - we're not really at home.
"Ethical value ... is built into the very fabric of consciousness. ... true well-beingcan only come from expressions of generosity, kindness, & wisdom, while greed, hatred, & delusion will always result in harm." Andrew Olendzki PhD
The above statement is not to be confused with a "should", be it societal or religious. People over the ages have come to understand this as a natural law - simply the way things work - much like gravity. Nevertheless, each person seems to need to discover or relearn this for themselves. "Shoulds" tend to automatically generate resistance in us at some level. A less confrontational way of learning wise advice (that seldom sinks in immediately), is by holding it in the back of our minds as a riddle, a koan, or open question - to be pondered over a long time, even a lifetime. Life presents innumerable opportunities to learn experientially how things work.
"Mindfulness meditation, emanating from Zen Buddhism, has emerged as a nonreligious, popular, & accessible practice in teaching universal human qualities of focus, attention, and awareness in clinical and nonclinical populations. The concept and practice of mindfulness has gained popularity in the medical profession over the past three decades and has resulted in improved health, well-being, & quality of life. Mindfulness is a learned discipline that is not limited to any particular setting and its power is in the practice and many applications. The purpose of a daily mindfulness-based meditation, which may include a sitting meditation or yoga, is to simply practice witnessing and acknowledging whatever arises in the present moment without judging it. One’s attention is directed to anything real and tangible, such as the breath or a thought, feeling or sound without any attempt to change it. In this fashion one liberates the mind from unconsciousness and allows himself, in that moment, to live with the full extent of possibilities and greater opportunities for learning, growth, and change.
Many professions, including occupational therapy, support and accept the growing body of empirical research on the use of mindfulness primarily as a way to improve the health and well-being of clients. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is one of the most well-researched stress management programs. Kabat-Zinn, the pioneer in creating the program in 1979, has been instrumental in promoting the growth and acceptance of mindfulness to more than 5,000 medical patients and has demonstrated its efficacy. In 2007 alone, 70 scientific published articles supported the increasing interest in mindfulness." Gura ST. Mindfulness in occupational therapy education. Occup Ther Health Care 2010; 24(3): 266-73.
At the start of each 8-week MBSR-style Mindfulness Training workshop, each participant is asked to share a bit about themselves, including what brought them to Mindfulness. Even though most participants don't know each other in the group yet, there's a remarkably touching honesty in their stories. The common theme is that they're working hard, often too hard, are suffering, and are looking for a way to decrease their suffering ("better manage stress"), and perhaps regain (or find for the first time) joy in life. At some point, I suspect most of us reach this realization, though unfortunately, many simply resign themselves to this sorry state of "ordinary unhappiness". They assume that, like a huge moving train, the momentum of their lives can't be re-directed. Fortunately, those who take Mindfulness training learn practical, evidence-based skills that help develop underutilized natural capacities for dramatically shifting their "operating system" - their trajectory, from dissonance, struggle & suffering, towards congruence, ease & joy. These folks must also deal with the momentum of their lives - a lifetime of conditioning, but have an open mind and are willing to use intelligent effortto intentionally, gradually, change towards a wiser way of life.
"Wisdom is a function of deep insight into, and mature understanding of, the central existential issues of life, together with practical skill in responding to these issues in ways that enhance the deep wellbeing of all those who the responses affect." Walsh R. The varieties of wisdom: Contemplative, cross-cultural, and integral contributions. Research in Human Development 2011; 8(2): 109-127.
"... just as we as a society are learning to take more responsibility for our physical health by engaging in regular physical exercise, we can also take more responsibility for our minds & brains by engaging in certain mental exercises (mindfulness meditation) that can induce plastic changes in the brain and that may have enduring beneficial consequences for social and emotional behavior.
... qualities such as well-being ought to be viewed, at least in part, as a product of trainable skills ... interventions explicitly designed to promote well-being may have beneficial behavioral and biological effects."
Davidson RJ, McEwen BS. Social influences on neuroplasticity: stress and interventions to promote well-being. Nature Neuroscience 2012; 15(5): 689-95.
"Well-being
is actually a skill," said Dr. Richard J. Davidson, professor of
psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and
the study's senior author. "It's something that can be enhanced with
training. If we can take more responsibility for our well-being, we can
help to minimize burnout or decrease its severity."
- See more at:
http://wisdomresearch.org/blogs/news/archive/2013/09/05/mindfulness-meditation-fights-burnout-new-study-of-teachers-suggests-video.aspx#sthash.DXmVJtve.dpuf
"Life itself is a balancing act. We are each of us perched upon a precarious pole, trying to stay centered in a swaying, breezy world. It is difficult enough staying safe ourselves, let alone trying to keep track of all the things stacked upon our shoulders. Mindfulness is a tool for looking inward, adjusting our balance, and staying focused on that still center point upon which everything else is poised. The quality of the present moment of awareness - that bamboo pole upon which we all are perched - can be calm, stable, and focused. And when it is, our well-being and that of all those who depend upon us is well protected. When it is not, no amount of pointing to the doings of others can compensate or restore our balance."Andrew Olendzki PhD
"Motivation is having the energy or desire to do an action. The degree to which an individual’s psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness are being met within any performance context will determine if that person is motivated or unmotivated to perform the task(s) at hand. When a performance context facilitates the fulfillment of basic needs, that need fulfillment engenders intrinsic motivation, or autonomous types of extrinsic motivation, toward a task or performance. These self-determined types of motivation, because they involve voluntary & persistent effort toward a task, help toensure successful outcomes. The successful outcomes lead to renewed need fulfillment, more self-determined motivation, and continued success of outcomes, all of which lead to psychological well-being. If the needs are not met, an individual will not achieve psychological well-being. Self-determination theory (SDT) is concerned with human motivation. The theory examines people’s inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs, which are posited to be the foundations of self-motivation. Understanding the circumstances that bring about positive motivation is the focal point of the theory. SDT is based on the assumption that humans, with their innate psychological needs, seek challenges in an effort to master their environments. To understand the reasons why people participate in any activity, according to SDT, it is important to distinguish among a variety of types of motivation. The theory proposes that there is a continuum of human self-determination (or choice) regarding the things that we do. Along this linear continuum, various types of motivation can be described. At the far left of the linear continuum is amotivation, which is the lack of an intention to act. At the far right end of the continuum is intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing an activity for the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself. Four types of extrinsic motivation lie between amotivation and intrinsic motivation, which is at the far right side of the continuum. The first type of extrinsic motivation is external regulation. This is the least self-determined, or the least autonomous, of the externally regulated behaviors, in which actions are performed to satisfy external demands. The next type of extrinsic motivation is introjected regulation, which involves behaving so as to avoid guilt or to enhance one’s ego. Identified regulation is a self-determined, or autonomous, form of extrinsic motivation in which the person identifies with the personal importance of a behavior. Integrated regulation is the most self-determined form of extrinsic motivation. It operates when behaviors are most congruent with an individual’s values and needs." Ballmann JM, Mueller JJ. Using self-determination theory to describe the academic motivation of allied health professional-level college students. J Allied Health 2008; 37(2): 90-6.
MINDFULNESS for Health-Care & Other Professionals:
An 8-week Immersion in Self-care
Dr. John Lovas Thursday Evenings, 5:30 – 8:00 pm early October – November each year
Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University
Halifax, NS, Canada
Course Synopsis
Working
in health care, other professions, and life in general, is very
stressful at times. Yet to truly enjoy life, and best serve our
patients, clients, coworkers, families and society, we ourselves need to
be healthy. Effective, regular self-care is not only sensible, but also
a professional responsibility. Mindfulness – a universal, but
underdeveloped way of relating both realistically and kindly to
ourselves and the world – is becoming a well-recognized foundation of
self-care.
This
continuing education course is designed for health-care & other
professionals who spend an unhealthy portion of their life caring for
everyone but themselves. The course provides a unique opportunity to
learn about and experience a profoundly beneficial program of self-care
practices.
Not
simply a technique, mindfulness is a state of being “that emerges
through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and
nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”
(Kabat-Zinn) Mindfulness training “increases awareness of thoughts,
emotions, and maladaptive ways of responding to stress, thereby helping
participants learn to cope with stress in healthier, more effective
ways.” (Bishop et al)
Course Objectives
Participants will learn and practice sitting meditation, walking meditation,
qi gong breathing, standing meditation, and partake (voluntary) in
discussions about integrating mindfulness into our professional and
private lives.
Intended audience: Dental, medical, legal & other professionals. You and your entire office are invited to engage
in a profoundly positive transformative learning experience. Attendance
is limited to 20.
Homework: Participants are encouraged to engage in up to 45 minutes
of daily practice at home. We derive from this ‘practice’ precisely what we
put into it.
John G.L. Lovas BSc, DDS, MSc, FRCD(C)
Dr.
Lovas obtained science and dental degrees from the University of
Toronto, and specialty training in oral pathology at the University of
Western Ontario. He’s served as chief examiner in oral pathology for the
Royal College of Dentists of Canada and as president of the Canadian
Academy of Oral Pathology. Dr. Lovas was full-time faculty at the
Faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University, teaching oral pathology
& oral medicine for 31 years, and served as Assistant Dean for
Student Affairs until his retirement in 2014. He obtained
teacher-training in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at UMass
Medical Center, the Omega Institute in New York, and the Rochester
Medical School. For over ten years Dr. Lovas has been leading
Mindfulness workshops for dental, dental hygiene, medical, law and other
students, practitioners and staff.
Course Schedule
5:30 – 6:00 pm Registration & Light Dinner 6:00 – 8:00 pm Thursday evenings. Please note that we will postpone any sessions that the majority cannot
attend (eg for inclement weather).
Participants are expected to attend at least 7 of the 8 sessions. Positive
group dynamics depend on consistent attendance and participation.
Reflecting on what motivates you to train in mindfulness is worthwhile. Mindfulness requires time, and initially, an investment of energy just to see if it will be as valuable as you first thought. Many today start practicing mindfulness because of its well-documented effectiveness in "self-regulation" ie managing stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, etc. The initial intention is often to get rid of a problem. Common MISCONCEPTIONS about mindfulness: It is NOT about escaping reality, zoning out, or even having reduced levels of alertness / consciousness / engagement. Mindfulness involves sustained, continuous, equanimous awareness. It’s NEITHER a hypnotic trance, NOR hypervigilance. Mindfulness is more like the calm, stable quality of awareness a dentist experiences while receiving dental care. She has calm, clear, detailed awareness throughout the procedure, without anxiety or drowsiness. Mindfulness training – and self-care in general – are NOT self-centered, selfish acts, quite the opposite. Our personal well-being “… is essential for the health of society ... growing evidence suggests ... that performance is intimately tied to emotional well-being, sense of community, sense of meaning and purpose, emotional regulation, self-reflection, and so forth.” Hart 2009
