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THE BENEFIT OF BEING PRESENT

THE BENEFIT OF BEING PRESENT. How Mindfulness Practice Positively Impacts Our Health and Well-Being. Garrett Hooper Body Mind Wellness Challenge March 2010.

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THE BENEFIT OF BEING PRESENT

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  1. THE BENEFIT OF BEING PRESENT How Mindfulness Practice Positively Impacts Our Health and Well-Being Garrett Hooper Body Mind Wellness Challenge March 2010

  2. “Mindfulness is a moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible.”Jon Kabat-Zinn, Coming to Our Senses

  3. What is Mindfulness? • Present moment awareness • Non-judgmental • Non-reactive • Openhearted • Challenge to the monkey-mind

  4. Mindfulness is not…. • Thinking • Daydreaming • Spacing out • Repeating affirmations • Self-hypnosis • Sleeping

  5. Mindfulness Is… • Stopping our automatic, habitual pattern of reactivity • A space between one’s perception and response • Reflectivity, not reflexivity • Investigative awareness • Observation, discrimination, causality

  6. Orientation to Experience • Attitude of curiosity • Where the mind goes… • What is the object of experience? • Everything is relevant • Not trying to produce a “state” • Acceptance of each moment

  7. The Stress Response • Good stress, bad stress • Life on the Serengeti • Life commuting on the 405 • Chronic stress shutdown • Immune system • Digestive system • Reproductive system

  8. Predictions • Reduced use of strategies to avoid aspects of experience • Increase dispositional openness • Change of psychological context • Improved affect tolerance • Emotional awareness • Relationship between thoughts, feelings, and actions

  9. Predictions • Insight into the nature of thought • Passing events of the mind, NOT inherent aspects of the self • Awareness of thoughts as… • Contextual • Relativistic • Transient • Subjective

  10. Origins • Most cultures have some form of mindfulness practice: • Breath meditation • Mantra • Yoga • T’ai Chi • Contemplative prayer

  11. Why Mindfulness? Physiological Benefits • Decreased heart-rate during meditation • Lower blood-pressure in normal and moderately hypertensive individuals • Quicker recovery from stress • Increase in alpha rhythms (relaxation) • Increase in synchronization (hemispheres) • Reduced cholesterol levels • Reduction in the intensity of pain

  12. Why Mindfulness? Psychological Benefits • Greater happiness and peace of mind • Less emotional reactivity • Increased empathy • Enhanced creativity • Heightened perceptual clarity • Reduction in acute and chronic anxiety • Enhanced self-actualization

  13. Therapeutic Interventions • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) • Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) • Reduction of symptoms: • Chronic Pain • Anxiety • Depression • Eating Disorders • Fibromyalgia • Psoriasis • ADHD

  14. MBSR • 8-week program: meditation, body scan, hatha yoga • Baer’s Meta-analysis: MBSR effective in reducing stress, increasing well-being • Research: reduction of stress in medical students • Shapiro, et al., 1998; Rosenzweig, et al., 2003 • Research: reduction of stress in cancer patients • Carlson, et al., 2004; Tacon, et al., 2004.

  15. The Science of Mindfulness • Reduction of negative affect • Increase in left-side activity of the prefrontal cortex • Increase in immune-system functioning • Increased gamma-wave oscillations (synchrony) Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., et. al. (2003). Alterations in brain function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65, 564-570.

  16. Everyday Mindfulness Breath Meditation  Walking Meditation  Eating Meditation

  17. Making Time for Mindfulness • Set aside 5-10 minutes per day • Find time before, during, or after one of your regular activities: • Add 5 minutes of mindfulness during mealtime • Meditate for a few minutes before watching TV • Meditate before work begins, during your lunch hour, or at the end of the workday

  18. References Baer, R. A. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10(2), 125-143. Bishop, S. R., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N. D., Carmody, J., Segal, Z. V., Abbey, S., Speca, M., Velting, D., Devins, G. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 11(3), 230-241. Brown, K. W., Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848. Rosenzweig, S., Reibel, D. K., Greeson, J. M., Brainard, et. al. (2003). Mindfulness-based stress reduction lowers psychological distress in medical students. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 15(2), 88-92. Shapiro, S. L., Schwartz, G. E., & Bonner, G. (1998). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on medical and premedical students. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21, 581-599.

  19. References Tacón, A. M., Caldera, Y. M., Ronaghan, C. (2004). Mindfulness-based stress reduction in women with breast cancer. Families, Systems, & Health, 22, 193-203. Teasdale, J. D., Williams, J. M., Soulsby, J. M., Segal, Z. V., Ridgeway, V. A., & Lau, M. A. (2000). Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 615-623.

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