#297 Processing Obstacles to Meditation Practice, Cognitive Defusion, Attitudes, Moods

     After practicing sitting meditation for some time, one notices that the power of various apparent obstacles to this practice progressively, markedly diminish. Tickles, stiffness, muscle aches, mind chatter, obsessing over time, all gradually lose problematic intensity, and fade into the background, barely noticeable.
     Anything we perceive or think of, then focus on, and then quickly identify with, can become all-consuming, huge. This is exactly what we do by default, when we start to meditate, and this is precisely why most people stop meditating. Some people are simply not ready for cognitive defusion - letting go of identifying with transient attitudes & moods. To do so requires one to physically process (interoceptive exposure) ie sit still with & observe the temporary discomfort associated with not running from demons, nor chasing after magical solutions. Yes, it is very much like an addict undergoing detox.

     “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” William James

     "An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_%28psychology%29

     "A mood is an emotional state. Moods differ from emotions in that they are less specific, less intense, and less likely to be triggered by a particular stimulus or event. Moods generally have either a positive or negative valence. In other words, people typically speak of being in a good mood or a bad mood." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mood_%28psychology%29 

http://stevemccurry.com/

#296 Wisdom, Meditation, Deep Insight, Mature Understanding, Deep Wellbeing

     Wisdom “is perhaps the most complex characteristic that can be attributed to individuals or to cultures.
     All authentic religions — including revealed traditions such as Christianity and Islam — contain contemplative or mystical branches. These are vitally important because they practice contemplative disciplines (eg meditation, contemplation, yoga) that foster an array of psychological and spiritual skills such as concentration, emotional maturity, and wisdom. When these skills mature, they can culminate in a direct insight into reality that yields a radically different (transrational, transconceptual, or transcendental) kind of wisdom known, for example, as jnana (Hinduism), prajna (Buddhism), ma’rifah (Islam), or gnosis.
     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.

     See also: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/03/contributions-of-mindfulness-other.html

http://www.nicabm.com/powerofmindfulness/info/?ap_id=740023&del=affemail

#295 Metacognition, Cognitive Defusion, Executive Control

     We're all on autopilot most of the time, caught up in the momentum of the story of our lives, like swimmers in a fast-moving river. This momentum includes automatic reactive thought patterns and persistent moods, and provide the illusion of stability and control. Momentum seems strong, most of it causes suffering, and is entirely optional.

     "A clue as to how a standardized form of mindfulness meditation practice (ST-Mindfulness) affects mood and distress comes from findings that it leads to beneficial changes in cognitive processing in people with mood disorders, chronic functional disorders and chronic pain. Thus, ST-Mindfulness is reported to reduce self-reported rumination, which is the negative repetitive, self-related internal cognitions that predominate in major depression. In chronic pain and functional disorders, ST-Mindfulness is reported to reduce patients’ tendency to catastrophize and engage in repetitive negative cognitions such as, the pain is 'terrible and I feel it’s never going to get better'.
     Based on these self-reports of decreased rumination and related findings, numerous reviews have converged on metacognition - insight into one’s own thinking process, sometimes described as 'decentering' or 'reperceiving' - as a grand-mechanism underlying ST-Mindfulness efficacy. According to this view, metacognition is an emergent property of mindfulness practice in ST-Mindfulness that is derived from training in subsidiary mechanistic processes including attention and emotion regulation. Drawing on this emergent metacognitive capacity, ST-Mindfulness practitioners learn to monitor their moment-by-moment experience so that they can 'step back' from negative, distressing thoughts and feelings in order to view them as 'mental events' rather than as unmediated reflections of reality."

       Kerr CE et al. Mindfulness starts with the body: somatosensory attention and top-down modulation of cortical alpha rhythms in mindfulness meditation. Front Hum Neurosci 2013; 7: 1-15.

Photo: fathernature   www.dpreview.com

#294 All Imperfect, Carrying a Heavy Load, Self-Acceptance

     "Mindlessness is defined by rule-governed behavior, rigid thinking patterns and automatic emotional experiences. Mindfulness (the antithesis of mindlessness) involves observing and describing one’s internal experiences (emotions, thoughts, and bodily sensations) without reacting to them."

       Fink S et al. Sexual body esteem and mindfulness in college women. Body Image 2009; 6(4): 326-9.


     "One common element of psychological disorders is the inability to effectively regulate emotions and self-evalua- tions in different contexts."
        Steger MF, Kashdan TB. The unbearable lightness of meaning: Well-being and unstable meaning in life. The Journal of Positive Psychology 2013; 8(2): 103-115.

     The longer and more continuously we practice mindfulness, the more aware we become of how deeply conditioned mindlessness is. There also seems to be a powerful, automatic, self-protective mechanism which only allows us to see ourselves very gradually. We are only able to peel away the onion layers at the rate we can handle successive reality checks - that we are but imperfect human beings. An elderly Zen master once famously said "Life is a series of embarrassments." We seem to accept imperfection in others, but need to formally practice self-acceptance.

     See Kristin Neff's excellent TedX: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/02/290-self-esteem-narcicism-self.html

Mr. Pickles in deep meditation, Jet in attendance - Photo: Mandy Wintink

#293 Presence, Therapy & Healing

     “Therapeutic presence is the state of having one’s whole self in the encounter with a client by being completely in the moment on a multiplicity of levels – physically, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually. Therapeutic presence involves being in contact with one’s integrated and healthy self, while being open and receptive to what is poignant in the moment and immersed in it, with a larger sense of spaciousness and expansion of awareness and perception. This grounded, immersed, and expanded awareness occurs with the intention of being with and for the client, in service of his or her healing process. The inner receptive state involves a complete openness to the client’s multidimensional internal world, including bodily and verbal expression, as well as openness to the therapist’s own bodily experience of the moment in order to access the knowledge, professional skill, and wisdom embodied within. Being fully present then allows for an attuned responsiveness that is based on a kinesthetic and emotional sensing of the other’s affect and experience as well as one’s own intuition and skill and the relationship between them." 

       Geller SM, Greenberg LS. Therapeutic presence. A mindful approach to effective therapy. APA, Washington, DC, 2012.

Photo: Sara Naomi Lewkowicz   http://saranaomiphoto.com/Los-Ni%C3%B1os-Felices-/13/

#292 Presence - Healing Ourselves & Others

     Presence has been defined as "an intersubjective and intrasubjective energy exchange with a person, place, object, thought, feeling, or belief that transforms sensory stimuli, imagination, memory, or intuition into a perceived meaningful experience" and also as: "a powerful interhuman connection experienced by all realms of the universe. It is being with the rhythms of the sounds and silences, the visions and blindness of the whole-in-motion.
     Whole-in-motion and being in rhythm reflects the embodiment of mind, body and spirit."
     An example where presence was experienced: "the nurse was conscious of her own thoughts feelings and actions ... mutually shared ... The patient sensed the nurse's compassion and felt understood."
     An example of lack of presence: the nurse competently attended "to a patient's IV therapy, yet failed to acknowledge the patient either verbally or with eye contact. In this interaction, there was no connection between the nurse and the patient in either the physical, emotional or spiritual realms of the patient's world. ... the nurse was not cognisant of her own nor the patient's humanness, and therefore there was an absence of presence."

       Welch D, Wellard S. The phenomenon of presence within contemporary nursing practice: a literature review. Aust J Holist Nurs 2005; 12(1): 4-10.

At the Halifax Seaport Market, February 23, 2013

#291 Colonialism, Creolization & Mindfulness

     "Colonialism is ‘the conquest and control of other people’s land and goods... the takeover of territory, appropriation of material resources, exploitation of labor and interference with political and cultural structures of another territory or nation.’" Loomba A. Colonialism/postcolonialism. ed 2, Routledge, NY, 2005. Quoted in Kral MJ et al. Unikkaartuit: meanings of well-being, unhappiness, health, and community change among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada. Am J Community Psychol 2011; 48(3-4): 426-38.

     The paper above deals the destructive impact of colonialism on the Inuit. But none of us is spared from the massive impact that multinational big business has on our local economy, culture, community, and ultimately our individual life. One of the many warning signs comes from this morning's headline in my small city of Halifax, NS: "Last year the Mainline Needle Exchange handed out close to 565,000 sterile needles to intravenous drug users. This year, the program has handed out about 660,000 needles, and the year isn't over yet. That's a 14 per cent jump in demand." http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/03/01/ns-halifax-needle-exchange-mainline.html

     "I call creolization the meeting, interference, shock, harmonies and disharmonies between the cultures of the world . . . [it] has the following characteristics: the lightening speed of interaction among its elements; the awareness of awareness: thus provoked in us; the reevaluation of the various elements brought into contact (for creolization has no presupposed scale of values); unforeseeable results. Creolization is not a simple cross breeding that would produce easily anticipated results." Glissant E. Poetics of relation (B. Wing, Trans). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press 1997. quoted in Kirmayer LJ. Culture and psychotherapy in a creolizing world. Transcult Psychiatry 2006; 43(2): 163-8.

     As Einstein said, "We cannot solve the problems of today at the level of thinking at which they were first created." To not just scrape by, but actually thrive in our increasingly complex, potentially disorienting environment, we must intentionally, wisely, continuously upgrade our level of consciousness via mindfulness-enhancing practices.