Lecture 1- Why Mindfulness Matters

Question 1

If we really watch our minds…

in Buddhism…

another point…

Question-

Answer 1

If we really watch our minds carefully we start to notice we’re repeatedly always comparing ourselves to others.

• We have a hard wired propensity to try to enhance our self esteem which in humans is our comparrison to others in the troupe
• It’s said in the Buddhist tradition to be the last neurotic tendency to fall away before enlightenment

We all get hooked on different domains and dimensions of this (of comparison)
Who’s wealthier? Who’s more intelligent? Buff? Artistically talented, stylish, has a better behaved spouse, etc…
QUESTION- Who here wins in all these comparisons?

Question 2

Question: Who among….

Answer 2

Who among us is going to die?
No wonder happiness is so elusive. We’re preoccupied with ourselves and change (resisting change) and in the end we all eventually fall apart and die and don’t rank very high in the troupe at all

Question 3

The Buddhist Scholar John Dunne said….

Answer 3

Something is missing- example of sniper on top of a building who is very aware and attentive and he’d be bringing his mind back to the present moment every time it wandered. This is not exactly the attitude you’re trying to cultivate in yourselves as psychotherapists nor in your patients.

WHAT’S MISSING? [The Roger’s]

Carl Rogers 1902-1987- He taught clinicians how to be present with their patients (humanistic approach)

Mr.Fred Rogers- He taught
kids no matter who they are or what they’re done, they’re perfect just the way they are.
So this adds a non-judgement or acceptance to the experience. A kind of kindness or friendliness.

Putting these components together we can think of Mindfulness as: Awareness of present experience with acceptance.

Question 4

Often independently…

Buddha quote-

Answer 4

Often independently many different religions and philosophical schools have either developed forms of Mindfulness practices themselves, or the’ve hit on insights similar to those that we find when we practice mindfulness. It just so happens that of all the world’s wisdom traditions, Mindfulness practices have been developed and refined the most in Buddhist monasteries.

Buddha “I teach the origins of psychological suffering and it’s alleviation”

Question 5

Dunning-Kruger effect

Answer 5

Peoples’ actual competence is proportionally inverse to their perceived confidence (The Homer Simpson effect).
The way this works with Mindfulness is that people who have done more mindfulness practices tend to see themselves as being less mindful than people who have done less practice.

In measuring mindfulness you do much better to ask about everyday Mindlessness than about mindfulness

Question 6

Many people are drawn…

Answer 6

• Many people are drawn to Mindfulness during difficult times and hope its going to get rid of difficult emotions. That’s not how it works
• We feel ALL of our emotions (the pleasant and unpleasant) more vividly and in the process we suffer less, but still feel the pain.

Question 7

Skills we will be learning to develop (under the umbrella of Mindfulness practice)

Answer 7

1- Focused attention (concentration), helps us to observe things clearly. Choosing an object and following it closely

2-Open monitoring (choiceless awareness, mindfulness per se) We use this to see how the mind creates suffering. Attending to whatever predominates in consciousness at the moment.

(THESE both develop the first two aspects of Mindfulness-Awareness of present experience) (SLR Camera example)

3-Acceptance and loving kindness practices - used to soothe and comfort us (puppy example-super cute …
this can be hard, constantly letting go…)

“A soft and spacious mind”
Joseph Goldstein

Most of the Mindfulness practices we will talk about will help develop one or another of these three skills

Question 8

Mindfulness practice itself is a form…

Anxiety…

At ABCT (Association for behavioural and Cognitive Therapies)….

Mindfulness is an….

What we do to develop…

Answer 8

• Mindfulness practice itself is a form of empirical enquiry, an investigative tool for a sort of inner rather than outer science. It enables us to carefully observe the processes that create stress and that alleviate it, in our own minds/bodies as well as in others.
• Anxiety, depression, the challenges of intimate relationships and aging can all be helped by these practices
• at ABCT Mindfulness is now at the Vanguard of scientifically supported psychotherapeutic interventions

-Mindfulness is an ATTITUDE TOWARDS EXPERIENCE
(AWARENESS of PRESENT EXPERIENCE with ACCEPTANCE)

-What we do to develop mindfulness are these mindfulness practices (akin to going to the gym and working on strength training)

Question 9

MYTH:

Answer 9

• Mindfulness practices are designed to develop a ‘blank’ mind (bazooka joe comic)
• It’s not about loosing our capacity for hardcore processing. It’s not about forgetting our postal codes or getting the thought stream to STOP
• The mind evolved to secrete thoughts. They are normal. It’s about changing our relationship to the thought, so we’re no longer identified with or believing each thought that arises in our mind.

Question 10

The practices themselves are taking….

Important…

Answer 10

• The practices themselves are taking new forms as they are being used in modern scientific psychotherapy.
• In the West, in Psychotherapy we have a strong emphasis on the nuance of the interpersonal relationships of all kinds. This is starting to change Buddhist practices.
• While ancient religious and philosophical traditions are providing tools for scientifically informed paths to well being, insights from science are prompting those ancient traditions to evolve as they are being practiced in the modern world

Important- Practice Practice Practice. Mindfulness development is Dose Dependent.

Question 11

(3) More about what mindfulness practices can do…

Answer 11

• Mindfulness practices can change both the structure and the functioning of our brain as well as improving all sorts of health outcomes
• Meditation/Mindfulness practice is now moving into the fields of psychology, neuroscience and medicine. The positive effects are being studied (on the mind brain and whole body)
• Mindfulness practices actually keep important parts of our brain from withering away with age
• Activating brain circuits associated with being happy, energized and enthusiastically engaged in life.
• It’s encouraging for those of us who have found mindfulness practices to be personally transforming and to those who have taught them with positive results to others to know that:
• SCIENCE is now validating time honoured observations about their power.

Question 12

Personal Example

and

professor says that

Answer 12

Think of a recent moment that you really enjoyed, that really matters. Think of the example that came to mind for you.
Was it essentially a moment in which you were thinking about the past or the future? Or rushing through something to get to the good stuff?
Or was it a moment in which your mind and body had come together to be in the same place fully?

(prof looking at his own mind)

• 50% of the moments of my life I’m wishing away -hoping to get to the good stuff - that Shangri-La.
• Putting aside any discussion about what might happen after the body dies, clearly while we’re here it’s a series of moments (the Now).

Question 13

Mindfulness practice is NOT:

Answer 13

• about withdrawing from life rather it’s to AWAKEN the mind and the body to more fully participate in life.
• to seek Bliss but simply to be open to and accepting of all sort of states that arise - including the blissful ones
• about the mind being separate from the body

Question 14

FACT:

then-
Judith Viorst

Answer 14

LIFE IS DIFFICULT FOR EVERYBODY
EVERYTHING CHANGES, LOSS IS INEVITABLE
-She wrote a book called necessary losses
-She maintains the you can understand a lot of human suffering by looking at how we deal with change and with loss.
THIS STARTS EARLY
-I don't wanna give up my diapers
-Big Boy Bed?
-First Day of School

Very often change comes with some sort or RESISTANCE

Question 15

(2) Mindfulness practices ALSO help…

Answer 15

• us to better get along with other people, at home or outside
• They help us to see the other more clearly and not believe so much in our judgements so we don’t get caught in condemning the other person who upset us
• It helps us not take things so personally. So we can realize the other persons behaviour most of the time isn’t really about ME. It rather reflects the other persons struggles and difficulties at the moment and all the factors and forces that have made them who they are.
• It can help us to actually be present in relationships and this is essential in providing empathy and support in connection with others
• It teaches to not act out on urges compulsively so when we’re in an interaction with another human being and something comes up where we’re going to react out of anger/fear we stop, take a breath, a moment to see what’s going on and try to find a way to respond in a more meaningful and helpful way.

Question 16

Why does Mindfulness matter?

Where does the term come from?

Answer 16

Mindfulness can provide a path towards greater well-being and can help us to better understand the cause of our psychological or physical suffering.

Mindfulness as we use it in Western Psychology and neuroscience is a translation of a Pali term (the vernacular language in which the teachings of the historical Buddha were first written down).

The Pali word is ‘Sati’ and it connotes:
Awareness (to be aware)
Attention (to pay attention)
Remembering (to remember to be aware and to pay attention)

So Mindfulness is the intention to pay attention each moment of our day

Question 17

NPR Interview

Answer 17

Terri Gross with Robert Sapolsky (the well known stress physiologist. He studies Baboons
“Stress Physiology is far more complex than we had anticipated. We thought there were a handful of hormonal systems with predictable interactions. But it’s very complicated”
-PRIMARY CONCLUSION: It’s very bad for your health to be a low ranking male in a baboon troop

Question 18

Because of their practical nature Buddhist…

2 points

Answer 18

• Because of their practical nature Buddhist beliefs don’t have to interfere with peoples own cultural identifications, philosophic beliefs or even religious traditions.
• This has made them good candidates for study neurobiologically and to integrate into medical and psychological treatments.

Question 19

(1) (we all end up dead and not ranking so high in the troupe)
Mindfulness practices can help with all this.
-Elaborate

Answer 19

• To see and accept things as they are rather than as we wish them to be
• Being better able to deal with illness and death (it’s not an accident so many hospice workers practice mindfulness meditation because it helps them be able to accept the reality that they are working with)
• It can help loosen our preoccupation with self. It’s shown to quiet parts of the brain that are associated with self referential thoughts
• It helps us to experience the richness of the moment, promotes savouring - an important component of most paths to well being (research has shown)
• It connects us to a world outside of ourselves and this is particularly vital given our poor prognosis. Its a reason why mindfulness practices figure so strongly in so many spiritual traditions

Question 20

Examples of Mindlessness-

with a coda

Answer 20

(prof gives his example of finding himself on the freeway going in the wrong direction.)

-The body doing something on auto-pilot
lost in fantasies of past and future
We’re always imagining NOW if what we’re doing is going to lead to pleasure/gratification in the future. Even when we walk in to a restaurant and look a t the menu.

The Leading cause of injury Sunday Morning in Emergency rooms in Manhattan–Bagel Cutting injuries/incidents

-Then there is the Mindlessness trying to get through activities in order to ‘get to the good stuff’
(lemme finish the dishes so I can have tea, finish paper work to be with me kids, get through traffic to get to the performance)

So if we look at our minds we’re often trying to get rid of this moment in order to get to some other moment -some imagined Shangri-La moment - in which we think we’re gonna feel more gratified.

Question 21

We can understand the development of different

Answer 21

We can understand the development of different Religious and Philosophical schools throughout history as responses to our evolutionarily determined and neurobiologically hardwired predispositions towards psychological distress AND as ways of finding inner happiness or well being in the face of our shared biological and existential predicaments (the ones we’ve been describing)