When You Are At the Beach, Are You Wishing You Were Somewhere Else? Or Can You 'Be There' in the Moment, Enjoying The Experience In Front of You?
Dr. Susan Smalley and Diana Winston, authors of "Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness" explain the basic principles of mindfulness that include being fully present with your life experiences.
Susan Smalley PhD and Diana Winston, authors of "Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness" explain how mindfulness can make boring chores, like sweeping, a lot more interesting.
Commitmentnow.com: What motivated you to write this book?
Susan Smalley, PhD: I fell into mindfulness through a brush with death (an early stage melanoma). It was a tipping point of sorts making the constant stress of 'juggling home and work' pale in comparison to the stress and anxiety of a cancer diagnosis.
Anyway, I turned my attention to alternative medicine and began meditating, practicing yoga, and trying lots of other alternative remedies. In the process, I suddenly experienced a change - from a self-centered perspective of the world to one in which I saw myself as part of a 'whole' and all the negative emotions like anger, greed, fear and envy seemed to disappear, replaced by an overflow of joy and compassion.
That lasted about a month and in the aftermath I turned back to science to figure out what happened to me. In the course of the research around meditation and mindfulness practices, I discovered that science was documenting a whole host of health benefits on the body and mind - including better physical health and a general improvement in happiness or well-being.
Diana and I decided to write a book bringing together the science, art and practices of mindfulness so that anybody could learn the basic principles and practices of mindfulness along with the science documenting their effectiveness.
Diana Winston: I had been a mindfulness practitioner since my early twenties. Ultimately I started to teach mindfulness in a Buddhist context, which I really enjoyed doing, but the longer I taught; the more clearly I realized that these practices could be helpful not only to a Buddhist audience, but also to others no matter what their background. I later joined Sue at MARC where I taught mindfulness to a diverse population across the lifespan.
Many people were benefiting from these ancient teachings and they made so much sense in the modern context. The book grew out a desire to share it with even more people.
Commitmentnow.com: What is mindfulness and how can a person incorporate this into their everyday life?
Dr. Smalley: Mindfulness is about being fully present with your experiences in an open and curious way. It's easy to bring mindfulness into your daily life by having an intention or wish to do so and then practicing how.
Right now you can be mindful by just noticing your attention, where it is and is it a stance of curiosity or criticism? you might take a breath and observe yourself breath in and out for a second or two. That's being mindful, attending to what's happening right now without criticism but rather with acceptance for things just as they are.
Commitmentnow.com: Can you share with us your own personal stories of bringing mindfulness into your life?
Dr. Smalley: I do what's called 'formal practice' everyday. I get up early in the morning and usually read something (like poetry, philosophy, or books I find inspirational) and then I meditate (sit silently) for 10-20 minutes. Once a week I meet with friends in my neighborhood and we do a meditation together for 30.
Then throughout the day, I 'practice' informally, meaning I remind myself to 'be mindful' throughout the day. For example, throughout the day I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and just notice where my attention is, what is my body experiencing (sitting, standing, walking), what noises do I hear? what's going on? On top of that, I practice yoga and I 'jog' (every day one of the two) both of which can be a great place to practice mindfulness.
Diana: I have had a daily meditation practice for many years but now I am a new mom so my formal daily practice has changed significantly. But mindfulness hasn't been deterred at all. In fact, now that I have a baby I have to be more mindful-- for my own mental health and her well being!
Daily life mindfulness for me includes breastfeeding and following my breathing-- tuning into her, yet staying connected to myself. I also take long mindful walks with her in a sling. I use the daily activity of changing her diaper to practice being present, noticing my bodily sensations and my breath.
Commitmentnow.com: How can mindfulness be like a 'seat belt' of mental health? How does it protect against unhappiness, depression, and anxiety?
Dr. Smalley: We like this analogy because 'seat belts' protect you from road hazards like mindfulness can 'protect' you—or help you better cope with the challenges that are part of life.
We all experience a wide range of emotions and thoughts and bodily sensations that can be painful - mindfulness doesn't remove them, but it helps you relate to the pain differently. Instead of being 'swept away' by painful life events (and the thoughts/feelings/ that go with them) or even positive life events (and our tendency to want to cling to those), mindfulness helps you relate to such experiences in a more 'unentangled way.'
Science is showing that mindfulness is effective in reducing depression, anxiety, and promoting happiness. One of the most documented findings across studies of mindfulness is that people say they 'feel better', 'feel happier', and are less stressed.
And in studies of people with depression, adding mindfulness to the psychosocial treatment usually used to prevent ‘relapse’ reduced the reoccurrence of a depressive episode by half.
Commitmentnow.com: How can a person cultivate mindfulness as a way to better enjoy things like the great summer weather, or a trip to the beach?
Dr. Smalley: It's important to learn to just BE! One of my students we talk about in the book went to Mexico and spent the whole time wishing she were in Hawaii! She realized what was the point of traveling if she wasn't going to "be there". So when you are somewhere beautiful, take the time to enjoy it.
Relax, notice your mind trying to create activities or busyness for yourself (a long ingrained habit) and let yourself settle into the experience in front of you.
If you're outside, take in the view, feel the sun on your skin, notice the sounds, etc. and just keep coming back to the present moment.
Commitmentnow.com: How can mindfulness help our body be more healthy? Can you recommend some ways that mindfulness can be used to enhance our health?
Dr. Smalley: There are lots of studies showing that mindfulness can promote body health—such as reducing blood pressure and lowering risk factors to heart disease and boosting the immune response to fight disease. It’s also proving useful in helping people make healthy behavioral changes like dieting, exercise, and quitting smoking or excessive substance use.
In one study in the UK, patients in a weight loss program taught mindfulness lost on average of 5 pounds more than those not taught in the program over a six month period, but only if they kept practicing mindfulness (if they stopped, there was no difference in weight loss).
Overall, science shows that mindfulness seems to promote better health habits and helps people wanting to make behavioral change do so more effectively.
Commitmentnow.com: How can we use mindfulness when we have to do a boring chore, such as sweeping the kitchen?
Diana: Mindfulness can make so-called boring chores way more interesting. For instance, let's say you are sweeping, then really become present to the sweeping. That is, notice your bodily movements, feel the movement of your arms, notice your breathing.
Also notice if you have feelings of boredom and just get curious about them. Hmmm, I'm bored, what's that like? Usually we create stories about experiences that make them a lot worse than they are. See if you can just be with the simplicity of your actions with new found interest and curiosity.
Commitmentnow.com: How can mindfulness help us consciously regulate pain? Can you give some examples how a person with constant back ache would use this to control their back pain?
Dr. Smalley: Again, you don't learn to control pain per se. Rather you begin to relate to pain differently. Let's say you have a constant back ache. You might notice it right now. What does it feel like? What are the actual bodily sensations? If it is too much you can turn your attention to another part of the body like the soles of your feet and notice what they feel like on the ground, what does the pressure of each toe on the feel like, move from one foot to the other, notice the sensations of weight, pressure, solidness.
Then turn back to your back, while you were attending to your feet, did you notice any difference in your back sensations?
Perhaps you felt the pain a little less or a little more. That is evidence that the back pain 'changes' - it's not always the same.
Mindfulness is a means of exploring that....it increases perhaps with attention (science shows that attention to pain can increase it while distraction away from pain decreases it).
But more importantly, with mindfulness you can begin to notice the pain for what it is—a throbbing sensation, or sharp shooting pain, but probably not static and probably shifting in intensity while you study it.
Mindfulness was first brought to a medical setting (at U Mass by Jon Kabat-Zinn) to treat chronic pain patients (the ones told to just “go home and live with it”); And it helped. Even 3 years after the patients were taught mindfulness, their reported pain levels were less (on average) than those not taught mindfulness.
Commitmentnow.com: Can a woman in labor use mindfulness to cope with contractions and labor? If so, how?
Diana: Aha, I'm an expert on that! I used mindfulness significantly during my labor, particularly during early labor. I think I spent about 12 hours in walking meditation, going up and down the hallways, mindful of my feet, legs, and breathing.
When I had a contraction, I would try to feel it as just a set of sensations, rather than creating a whole story in my mind about how awful it was. I was with each contraction one at a time and it made them a lot more tolerable.
During the pushing phase my experience was especially heightened, and my mindfulness really kicked in. Because of my years of practice I felt so completely present for the experience—not lost in worry or fear—so when my daughter arrived, I could deeply connect with her in the space of awareness and compassion.
Commitmentnow.com: How can mindfulness be used to cope with depression?
Dr. Smalley: There are studies showing that people with depression benefit from mindfulness - but in the studies of clinical depression, mindfulness is part of a psychotherapeutic intervention—like Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT )(and delivered by trained mental health professionals).
We see mindfulness as a very useful adjunct to treatment for depression or as a therapeutic intervention (in the case of MBCT). As noted above, MBCT was twice as effective as CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy without mindfulness) in reducing relapse to depression.
Scientists studying WHY mindfulness is helpful note that patients learn to “relate” to their thoughts and moods differently; with more distance, or what is called “meta-cognitive awareness” (what we described as unentangled participation) and that distance makes it easier to “let go” and “reframe” maladaptive thoughts for more adaptive or helpful ones.
Commitmentnow.com: If a person came to you and explained that they get anxious when they drive, what exercises involving mindfulness would you suggest?
Diana: First, I would recommend a mindfulness practice to help with anxiety before getting into the car. So before you get into the car you can take a few deep breaths, maybe sit for a few minutes in meditation if you are an anxious driver.
Then if it comes up while you're driving, see if you can find your breathing and try to calm it down a bit, and also notice the anxious feelings. What do they feel like in your body? A quickly beating heart, a tight chest.
See if you can relax those areas. Often when we bring our mindful attention to a difficult sensation or emotion, just by paying attention to it we calm it down. Usually we want to run away from it, but mindfulness encourages us to give that loving attention to it and let it be.
Commitmentnow.com: What connection is there between mindfulness and feeling joy and loving kindness? How can a person enjoy more loving kindness in their life--and less self-hatred?
Dr. Smalley: Loving kindness seems closely tied to mindfulness. In studies of self-compassion (loving kindness directed toward oneself) researchers identify “mindfulness” as a key component along with kindness and the recognition that we are all part of a shared “human condition.”
So since they are closely intertwined, if you increase mindfulness you may increase loving kindness (compassion toward self and others) and vice versa.
Also, our research at MARC shows that mindfulness is positively associated with what's called 'self-transcendence' a part of personality described as feeling “part of something larger than oneself
Commitmentnow.com: How can they get past their negative feelings and thoughts?
Dr. Smalley and Diana: To get “past” their negative feelings and thoughts, it's important to relate to them in ways that are curious and kind and accepting. There's an analogy we often use about this relationship: that of lying on your back on the grass watching the clouds float by in the sky. Think of the mind as the sky and the thoughts and feelings and body sensations as the clouds. With unentangled participation (an intentional stance of mindfulness), you observe your thoughts (clouds) go by; you know they were created by you (i.e. you are participating in them) but you are not entangled, you just watch them go by with a curious stance (like you might have watching clouds go by in the sky). That's probably an easy thing to do with some sorts of thoughts ("there's a glass" That flower is white', The tea is cold") but harder with others ("I look fat", "I'm angry", She's being mean to me").
As you practice mindfulness, you can learn to see negative thoughts and feelings in a neutral way - just like 'That flower is white" you might see "that emotion is anger" and with practice you can learn to let them come and go more easily, instead of getting stuck in them.
Commitmentnow.com: If a person experiences stress a lot in their life, how can they change their reactions to the stress? For example, a woman who is forced to run into an ex-boyfriend with his new girlfriend may experience sadness and stress. How can she cope differently with seeing this reminder of a rejection?
Diana: Mindfulness is not a quick cure all. It takes persistent practice over time. But what happens as we practice is we gain a different ground of being. Where we used to be anxious and reactive and fearful and sad, we start to feel more states of peace and ease and calm. Over time that becomes who we are.
So when life hands us difficult situations, we have both tools for dealing with it and new ingrained responses. In this case she might notice the sadness of the situation, really feeling it (mindfulness doesn't turn you into a zombie), but she might also take a breath, feel the sadness in her, know it is a temporary state, and remind herself of her own inherent goodness.
To buy "Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness" click here.
About the Authors: Susan L. Smalley, PhD, is the founder and director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at UCLA, bringing twenty years of experience as a professor and behavior geneticist to the emerging area of mindfulness research.
Diana Winston, a nationally known mindfulness teacher, has been practicing mindfulness for twenty years in the United States and Asia. She is director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA's MARC.
