Week 8 Mindfulness and Flow Flashcards
What is Mindlessness?
Habitual, passive, mind-numbing, short term stress relief, distractions, out of sync with surroundings, boring, empty, autopilot
Absence of mindfulness
Leads us to be out of sync with our surroundings
Not paying attention to our situation - just checking out
Not necessarily a bad thing - sometimes our brains need a break
But if we do this habitually - might be missing out on a part of the human experience
What is mindfulness
Intentional and effortful
Present moment awareness/ momentary awareness
Nonjudgmental - notice you are having that thought and you learn to let it go
In sync with surroundings - paying attention to our sensory experience
Search for optimal experience -
Undervalued in north america - become more mainstream, but compared to east asia - undervalued
Amy Wrzesniewski - how do people function optimally at work?
Found that ⅓ of hospital cleaners considered their work a calling
They did whatever they could to make the health care experience for staff and patients
Vigilant about sanitation
Changing pictures in rooms for long term patients
Everyday they found new ways to improve the environment
Ellen Langer - Novelty at a residential care facility
Langer and Rodin 1976 - examined the effects of perceived control
One group were given a pep talk about making decisions and given a plant
The second group were given a talk about how the staff would help them
They were also given a plant and told the staff would look after it
Over 3 weeks the self-decision group were more alert and happier - they found novelty everyday as their plants and lives changed
Greater mortality in the second group -: Only half as many people in the group encouraged to make choices had died, relative to the group encouraged to take advantage of staff support
Mindfulness as a State of Mind
Western and buddhist mindfulness conceptions
Western - independent, external awareness
Buddhist - one component on the road to enlightenment, introspective
THREE requirements of being mindful - drawing novel distinctions:
- Overcome the desire to reduce uncertainty in daily life
- Override a tendency to engage in automatic behavior
- Engage less frequently in evaluations of self, others and situations
Mindfulness as a state of mind
Bishop and colleagues
Self-regulated attention - current personal experience
Emotional openness: acceptance and appreciation of internal experiences
Mindfulness Qualities
Nonjudging, nonstriving, acceptance, patience, trust, openness, letting go, gentleness, generosity, empathy, gratitude, lovingkindness
Jon Kabat ZIn Definition
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way, on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally
Medical doctor
Creator of the centre for mindfulness in medicine, health care and society at the university of Massachusetts Medical School
Student of Zen buddhist teachers
His practice of yoga and buddhism led him to integrate their teachings with science
He teaches mindfulness, which helps with stress, anxiety, pain and illness
Creator of mindfulness-based stress reduction
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Kabat-Zinn’s work:
Increase in hardiness and coherence (meaning-making
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Decreases in automatic thinking
Stroop test: Red
China, participants were involved in an 8-week course involving mindfulness as a component. Participants who were involved in the mindfulness training were better able to resist automatic responses on the Stroop color test and other memory tasks.
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
Reduction in depressive relapse, sexual dysfunction, social anxiety, stress
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Psychiatric diagnoses, depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, sleep, positive self feelings, PTSD
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Benefits for children - mindful parenting
Interaction with compassion
“moment-to-moment awareness” (p. 255) of the parent–child relationship with the goal of interacting with more compassion toward our children
children start to internalize as well, as they have more exposure to mindfulness techniques through watching their parents cope with difficult situations.
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Benefit for couples conflicts
Higher positive affect during conflict - keep big bad feelings away
Problem solve and work towards a goal
Better conflict resolution
Better at adapting and changing direction
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Helpful for coping with stigma
Gener-noncomfortiming individuals in singapore - reduce depression, anxiety lower wellbeing - mindfulness appeared to moderate the connections found between gender nonconformity and depression
parents of children on the autistic spectrum - trait mindfulness - protect these parents from the depression, anxiety, and other negative emotions that might be felt as a result of stigma
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness based therapies and treatments
Not always accepted by all cultural groups
Difficulty allowing issues about prejudice or discrimination to surface - brings stress
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Increased ability to multitask
Increasing our cognitive flexibility
Neurobiological Findings Mindfulness
Better spatial abilities regardless of gender
Increased ability for awareness and potential increased neuroplasticity in the brain
emotional regulation is thought to occur in two distinct ways.
A “top-down” approach to this is where cognitive reappraisal of a situation occurs to modulate the emotional impact of the stimulus; this contrasts with a
“bottom-up” approach in which the base reaction to the stimulus is modulated without the need to cognitively reappraise and use higher-order functioning
Cultivating Mindfulness
Mindfulness-inducing techniques tend to spur positive changes
Native American tradition
Counselling students
Native American traditions (specifically Cherokee), the practice of ayeli is described as a “centering technique” - become more mindful
—involves both breathing and meditation techniques that allow participants to sit in the moment and to allow balance and integration to assist them in increasing personal wellness.
—A large part of this technique involves orienting oneself to value relations to other things.
Counselling students - mindfulness increased self-reported abilities as counsellors
Cultural intelligence
the ability to interact effectively with people who are culturally different
Mindfulness is key ingredient
Achieve positive cross cultural interactions - being aware of ones own biases and views
Cultivating Mindfulness
Can be taught to children
Self regulation, problem solving, calmness
Books videos
Great results - better self regulation, problem solving, think creatively
Flow: In Search of Absorbtion
Flow experiences observed throughout time
Mihaly csikszentmihalyi
flow : state of engagement with activity and lack of self-consciousness
persisted single-mindedly, disregarding hunger, fatigue, and discomfort—yet rapidly lost interest in the artistic creation once it had been completed
Cognitive science of flow studied under attention
Gratification from experience
Ability to be challenged leads to flow experience
The Flow State
Two conditions of flow
- Perceived challenges or opportunities that stretch
- Clear proximal goals and immediate feedback
The Flow State
Flow, boredom and anxiety
Flow - where challenges and skills match
Boredom - where challenges and opportunities were too easy
Anxiety - where demands exceed capabilities
The Flow State
STATE
Challenge and skill above ones level
Particular activity plays a role
Must have some interest in the task
Controlled and efficient attention
Athletes
Characteristics of flow
Intense and focused concentration
Merging of action and awareness
Loss of reflective self-consciousness
A sense of control
Distortion of temporal experience
Experience of intrinsic reward
The Autotelic Personality - ability to achieve flow
Combination of personality variables - curiosity, persistence, low self-centredness
may be associated with the ability to achieve flow and with the quality of flow that is experienced.
Intrinsically motivated in high-challenge, high skill situations
Exists in teenagers
Experience little stress when in flow
Cultural Comparisons and Considerations in the Flow Experience
Chinese students
Preferred skill level to be higher than challenge level
They evaluated high challenge situations negatively
Cultural Comparisons and Considerations in the Flow Experience
Japanese nuance with flow experiences
Experience similar to North Americans but they achieve flow less frequently
Japanese students more flow experiences = higher on measures of self-esteem, lower on anxiety, better coping strategies
Cultural Comparisons and Considerations in the Flow Experience
Flow can be prevented for some
Women under the male gaze performed worse - less flow
These results were not found in the male participants.
Fostering Flow and its Benefits
Two paths for becoming engaged with daily life
- Finding and shaping activities and environments
- Identifying personal characteristics and attentional skills
Immersive experience like books video games may produce flow
Flow like state experienced during gaming, internet shopping
—Lost of awareness of time, reduction in self-awareness
May not qualify as flow
—-Flow was originally defined as beneficial or constructive
—-Need to delineate between flow and addictive behavior-
Definitions of Spirituality
Spirituality - Search for the sacred
Hill et al - feelings, thoughts and behaviors that arise from a search for the sacred
Pathways to the sacred - spiritual strivings
Can include personal goals
Peterson and Seligman - spirituality
Peterson and Seligman - spirituality is the strength of transcendence
Often paired with similar but different concepts
Religion and faith ex.
40% of millennials identify themselves as religious
80% of millennials believe in God
Genz - upturn in religion - turning away for lots of different reasons but still an aspect of spirituality
FInd spirituality through taking a walk, skill development
Spiritual or Skeptical
Are we losing the value of spirituality in place of skepticism
Over time, we are seeing less religiosity
Measured by attendance at services and self-reported value of religion in their lives
However - more and more people are self-reporting that they are spiritual
As we learn more about the universe, we have more wonder and awe
What are the odds that this happened
The Positive Emotion of Elevation
- ELevation - the opposite of social disgust
- Triggered by witnessing acts of moral beauty or virtue
- Warm, glowing feeling in chest
- Makes people want to be morally better
- Increases desire to affiliate with and help other people
- Related to Fredrickson’s Broaden and Build theory
Circumstances that Cause Elevation
Haidt - give help to other people who were poor or stranded etc.
Elevation
Unexpected moment of goodness
Changes in the Thought-Action repertoire
Unexpected acts of goodness cause surprise and feeling emotionally moved
Implied changing cognitive structures - views of humanity
Optimism
Prosocial goals
Desire to be playful and open
Awe - Two Central Themes
Felt in some social situations but also non social situations
Keltner and Haidt
Vastness - anything that is experienced as being much larger than the self - physical size, social size, loudness, shaking ground, symbolic markers
Powerful
Accommodation - Piagetian view of adjusting mental structures - not assimilation
Confusion, obscurity, and existing knowledge doesn’t suffice
Awe - additional flavours
- Threat -ex. charismatic leaders or natural scenes
- Beauty ex. People, scenes
- Ability - exceptional talent
- Virtue - people who display exceptional virtue often trigger elevation
- Supernatural causality - perception that God or other entity is manifesting itself
Awe and Spirituality
When experiencing awe, we feel pleasantly insignificant and connected to the whole world, a helpful antidote to feeling like the most important person in the universe
This connection is often described as spirituality
Benefits of Spirituality
Live longer
Report higher levels of happiness
Experience more commitment to their romantic partners, better marital functioning
Promote the health development of their children
Cope better with the death of a loved one
Lower risk of depression and suicide
Better mental health generally
Less drug and alcohol use
Positive outcomes of stressful life experiences
The True Benefits of Spirituality
May lead to well-being
Most of this research has been done with christian participants
Ghorbani- examined these outcomes in muslim individuals
Links between religiosity and happiness
Better overall mental health when living in accordance with one’s spiritual values
Search for the sacred = increased hope and optimism; successful aging
Mechanisms that lead to positive outcomes are unclear
—–Some studies show no link
Nuanced relationship with well-being
–Sense of community
–Collectivist values
–Direction of correlation
Beneficial in times of strife
Coping with adversity
Mental health and physical health issues
Spirituality and Cultural Context
Linked to positive outcomes for many groups
US data - African americans, latinx
Postpartum depression, achievement
Spirituality and Cultural Context
Negative effects of racism buffered by spirituality
Positive, especially because perceived racism has so many negative effects
Spirituality and Cultural Context
Spirituality in LGBTQ individuals
Not necessarily more liberal than average
Pray as frequently as non LGBTQ, attend services
Negative religious rhetoric may cause problems
How to increase spirituality?
- Determine the type of people that you want to surround yourself with. Join groups and events where you are likely to find them;
- Volunteer or donate to a cause that is important to you;
- Learn to meditate. There are many different techniques and types of meditation, it’s a matter of experimenting until you find one that suits you. You may even create a meditation routine specifically for you.
- Use movement to connect with your own body. Research shows that “green exercise” decreases stress, improves mood and enhances focus. Whether walking, running, or practicing breathing exercises, go outside.
- Create rituals. Which small activity increases your sense of calm? And how can you transform it into a daily ritual?
