What is Mindfulness?
Although there are many ways mindfulness has been defined, ultimately it’s an experience and so even the most poetic amongst us will fall short of describing it in a way that we will be able to understand. That is, how can you describe to someone who has never had an orange before what it tastes like? That being said, there are certain features of a mindful experience:
1. Non-judgmental stance
- First step is to be aware of judgments and how they impact you.
- Does not mean you are “neutral” or don’t have an opinion about things.
- Observing facts rather than your interpretation of the facts.
- Turn judgments into a description of facts, likes/dislikes, preferences, or consequence rather than your subjective experience/impression.
- Don’t judge your judging!
2. Acceptance
- Acknowledgment of what happened or acceptance of what is.
- Acknowledgment of the facts of a situation and realistic limitations.
- This can also relate to things going on within your, like thoughts, emotions, sensations and urges.
- Can involve sadness or grief.
- Does not mean approval, resignation, or passivity.
- Is not anti-change: it is a prerequisite for change! What you resist persists.
3. Leveraging our attention to observe experiences
- Training in Attentional control (e.g. focusing exercises, the opposite of multi-tasking)
- Looking at your thoughts vs. from them
- Allowing thoughts to be present without allowing them to impact your behavior
- Does not involve changing your thoughts
- Is the opposite of thought suppression
- It may take some repeated exploration.
How is mindfulness relevant to rehabilitation?
We can intentionally shape the direction of plasticity changes in our brain. By focusing on wholesome thoughts, for example, and directing our intentions in those ways, we can potentially influence the plasticity of our brains and shape them in ways that can be beneficial. That leads us to the inevitable conclusion that qualities like warm-heartedness and well-being should best be regarded as skills.
-Richie Davidson, PhD, Mindful, August 5, 2015
Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to reorganize, creating new neural connections over the lifespan. Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are generated.
What are the skills trained by the practice of mindfulness?
Attention regulation
Meditation Instructions:
- Pay attention to an anchor (i.e., like your breath)
- Return to the anchor as attention wanders
Changes noticed clinically:
Enhanced ability to “snap out of it and get a (your) reality check”
Brain Regions involved:
Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) is involved in detecting distractions. It then signals other brain networks to bring things back in focus. For example, the ACC and the frontal insular cortex recruit other networks to regain cognitive control. Experienced meditators have been found to have increased cortical thickness.
Body awareness
Meditation Instructions:
Focus on internal and external body experiences (e.g., breath, body areas in body scan, etc.)
Changes Noted Clinically:
- Cultivates enhanced body awareness
- Increased body awareness, subtly of sensations, (interoception)
- Increased emotional awareness & differentiation
- Increased ability to name emotions (feelings)
- The brain regions involved in the above processes are the same regions for empathy (self-compassion improves with mindfulness training, independent of compassion training)
Brain Regions involved:
- Insula and Temporo-parietal junction
- Somatosensory Cortex also involved
- Some research indicates thickening of Right Anterior Insula
Emotional regulation
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
Meditation Instructions:
- Let all emotions & experiences arise in awareness
- Allow yourself to feel it all
- Accept that they are here, non-judgmentally
- Let go of pushing away experience, i.e., “reactivity”, e.g., like a little kid in the park, there is no need to chase the kid all over the park, eventually the kid while tire and come back to the parent.
Changes Noted Clinically:
- Increased emotional regulation
- decreased reactivity & negative moods (e.g., removing the weeds from your garden)
- increased positive moods (Increased Left PFC) (e.g., planting flowers in your garden)
Changes & Brain Regions Involved:
- Increases of positive reappraisal of experiences mediated by Dorsal Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC) (i.e., being able to see things in a way that is better for you)
- Increases in non-reactivity to inner experiences (i.e., holds you back from reacting negatively in a way you don’t want when you feel negatively) mediated by Ventral-Medial PFC, Hippocampus & Amygdala
- PFC projections to Amygdala (a seat in the brain for fear and emotional control) exert inhibitory top down regulation, that is, the PFC can quieten the Amygdala so you can perform the way you want (get your executive functions online)
- Emotional regulation involves the vmPVC & Hippocampus, suppressing fear allowing control over behavioral reactions to emotions.
- Neuroimaging shows vmPFC & hippocampus dysfunctional in PTSD & MDD
- Increased gray matter in hippocampus for meditators after 8 week MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)
- Reduced scores on perceived stress positively correlated with decreased gray matter in right amygdala
PARASYMPATHETIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
Meditation Instructions:
- Mindfully breathe diaphragmatically
- Allow your breath to anchor your awareness
Changes Noted Clinically:
Relaxation. This relaxation and random (uncomfortable/tense) thoughts get associated internally, helping relax the emotional tension when you get those thoughts or face those stressful situations again in the future.
Brain Regions involved:
Mediated by vmPVC & Hippocampus
Change in perspective in the sense of self
Meditation Instructions:
Detachment with the static sense of self
Changes Noted Clinically:
Self-reported changes in self
Brain Regions Involved:
Medial PFC, posterior cingulate cortex, insula, parietal junction
Reference
- Hölzel, B. K., Lazar, S. W., Gard, T., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Vago, D. R., & Ott, U. (2011). How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(6), 537–559. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611419671
- MacFarlane, Ginny. Live Course “Mindfulness for Physicians”. University of Toronto 5 Weekend Program in Counselling & Psychotherapy. September 2019- May 2020.
- MacFarlane, Ginny. http://mindfulmood.com/