Mind/Body/Spirit Synergy: Mindfulness

I am in the process of developing my mindfulness skills. There are various definitions for the term.  "Mindfulness as a psychological concept is the focusing of attention and awareness, based on the concept of mindfulness in Buddhist meditation." "Mindfulness helps us to stop living by reacting to pressure, freeing us from destructive mental and emotional patterns.  It changes our habitual way of reacting unhelpfully.  We learn and practice staying calm and making sound and creative choices.  To be mindful is to be in each moment and live our lives with understanding."

I finished reading Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom, by Rick Hanson (2009). The book editor describes Buddha's Brain ---"a clinical psychologist and a senior neurologist explain how the brain benefits from contemplative practice and show readers how to develop greater happiness, love, and wisdom by drawing from breakthroughs in modern neuroscience."

Buddhism is not my spiritual practice but I do see great benefit from the Buddhist philosophical approach for emotional and physical well-being. Since solid research has demonstrated that mindfulness meditation does change the biochemistry of the brain, I believe we should use this knowledge to improve our emotional health. There are cultural differences between Eastern thinking and Western thinking. But often these differences are exaggerated by our own insecurities.

It is disconcerting to me when meditation practices advocate letting go of your sense of self, be impersonal---etc. As a Westerner, and from the USA, we tend to see Eastern practices as creating an overly compliant, dependent populace. (Yes this a naive, biased, stereotype but it seems to be human nature to be negatively biased about the unknown, which may actually be an evolutionary survival mechanism. Buddha’s Brain, the book, addresses topics like this.) And I am sure many Easterners view our striving for assertiveness as arrogant and aggressive. To me it seems the best place to be is living in the middle and having the ability to choose behavioral responses from either end of the continuum that enhance one’s life and well-being.

Constant aggressiveness creates a body chemistry overloaded with stress hormones, which is damaging to the body. Being overly compliant also creates an over abundance of stress hormones. Both behavior choices displaying “fight or flight” stress reaction. So perhaps we are not on opposite ends of a continuum but we are actually standing side by side—brothers and sisters under the skin.

One then sees that the best place to be is to be impersonal, let go of excessive self-interest. It is not easy; it is a mental discipline. How many of us make ourselves sick worrying over things we cannot change. Possibly we could have a positive effect if we calmed our minds to allow creative insight and intuition.

If the ego self is overly invested in controlling a situation for a specific outcome, we limit our possibilities. I am in a time of transition between being retired from a career that defined my livelihood, and my emotional sense of self-worth and self-competence and I am transitioning to ……? That blank space creates an inner tension and stress. When my ego self takes over and I worry about the future, or crave the economic stability of the past, my thinking becomes stuck, frozen.

Mindfulness meditation has helped me realize that quieting the mind puts me in touch with my own inner knowing and allows room for inspiration from the higher realms of Spirit. At the same time the body responds by cutting back on cortisol the stress hormone and releases happy, calm hormones such as dopamine and oxytocin.

It is my hope you will join me in my mindfulness adventure. I intend to post my insights and thoughts for the day. My spiritual inspiration has opened my eyes---this is part of my new life and I still have much to contribute. Best Wishes!

Embrace the Power of Spring: Time to Create a Wellness Life-style

Spring arrived in St. Louis! It was 30 degrees Fahrenheit and we had a blizzard of snow. Snow came down like a white blanket—so thick I could hardly see the houses across the street. It was heavy wet snow that accumulated to an eight-inch depth in about six hours. But that was last Saturday. Today, one week later, the snow is gone and my neighbors’ jonquils are blooming on the sunny side of the house.

Spring is always a good time to focus on growth, change and evolving. Perhaps this is why so many of our New Year resolutions loose momentum—the energy for growth actually initiates in spring. I like living in a temperate climate the changing seasons are very apparent with the changing quality of light. The quality of light is why I love the paintings of Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) a Valencian Spanish painter.

St. Louis is in the same latitude as the Costa del Sol (Spain’s Mediterranean seashore); this always fascinates me. Our weather is more variable and can be harsh in the summer and winter because of the land features. But back to the topic which is---embracing the energy of spring.

Embrace the power of spring—take steps to create a wellness life style.

It may seem like an overwhelming task to make changes in one’s established lifestyle. Our lifestyle has been created by thousands of life experiences and decisions---and most of these actions served us well at the time. These decisions become the core of our coping skills. Some choices have long-term positive effects and some are what is termed “maladaptive.”

A positive coping skill would be playing tennis to work off stress chemicals in your body while maladaptive coping skills might include cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug use. A positive coping skill can become a stressor if your cognitive approach is perfectionist, or driven and obsessed—but this is a topic for another day.

Hopefully the decisions you made were the best you could make at the moment. Often the actions we take are the result of consensus values of our culture, society, or family obligation. Sometimes we make commitments to our work place or public institutions, such as the military, and these commitments require us to put the success and effectiveness of the institution ahead of our own wellbeing.

Sleep and rest should be a core value. I am always disturbed when I hear about the excessively long days medical interns put in. I really do not want to put my life into the hands of a sleep-deprived person. Yes, the mechanisms of adrenalin and caffeine can sharpen the mind on a temporary basis. But constant stress erodes performance and leads to careless accidents.

M. Swarbrick authored, A wellness approach. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, (2006) 29, (4) 311- 314, which identifies eight dimensions of life and discusses the positive attributes of each. Each of these areas must have a positive focus in the individual’s life. It is the balance and harmony of the spirit and mind (seemingly the interaction of spirit and mind mediates the emotions) and the end result is wellness in the body.

Eight Dimensions of Life

• Emotional—Coping effectively with life and creating satisfying relationships
• Environmental—Good health by occupying pleasant, stimulating environments that support well-being
• Financial–Satisfaction with current and future financial situations
• Intellectual —Recognizing creative abilities and finding ways to expand knowledge and skills
• Occupational—Personal satisfaction and enrichment from one’s work
• Physical—Recognizing the need for physical activity, healthy foods and sleep
• Social—Developing a sense of connection, belonging, and a well-developed support system
• Spiritual—Expanding our sense of purpose and meaning in life

Here is an example of a life review:

• Emotional:

I am succeeding at: ________________________________________________________

I want to change: ____________________________________________________

My new behavior choice: _______________________________________________________

This simple format could be applied to any of the Wellness Lifestyle areas. I do not believe in making change so difficult and unappealing that one says, “forget this” and makes no improvements. Life is about change and evolution. Like wine as we age we improve, become richer and my full-bodied. (a metaphor and a double-entendre)

I went to an alternative physician, a wonderfully talented, knowledgeable person. However she handed me a list of 50 things that I needed to do right now to reach optimal health. I looked at that list of recommendations and just got angry. Truthfully, I was offended. She made me feel that I had never done anything right in my life. I take personal pride in the fact that I try to live a well-rounded healthy life—eat appropriate food, get adequate rest, exercise regularly. Once I calmed down, I rethought the information and decided to take a “one step at a time” approach to change. She had recommended many organic teas to support liver cleansing, kidney health, heart health, etc.

I knew that I had taken many antibiotics over the past year and these can accumulate in the liver and impair kidney function. I decided these teas could make a positive improvement in my wellbeing. So I added the concept of teatime to my daily routine. By finding my own values for drinking the tea I became motivated to the behavior change. After a few days, teatime became a pleasant habit, not just a discipline.

Perhaps the most difficult area to address is “Occupational” (Personal satisfaction and enrichment from one’s work). Finding a job in one’s real career interest is often difficult. I have been stuck in a job and location I did not like; so I did relocate to a different city. But this choice is not open to everyone. My preference is to live near family—not everyone wants or needs this. So what do you do if your work does not bring personal satisfaction?

An Example of Problem-solving the Occupation Dimension:

• I am succeeding at: making a living for my family, the work I do helps my clients, I am good at what I do ----It is important to realize and honor the successful aspects of life.
• I want to change: I want to get away from my current supervisor, I’m bored ---be sure it is the occupation area that troubles you, avoid projecting hurt emotions onto the wrong wellness dimension
• My new behavior choice: 1. I will seek out new training opportunities in the company or a new field, 2.  One could put up with the job---be Zen in the moment, calm acceptance, or 3. One can refocus satisfaction into an avocation--coach, teach or volunteer for something you love doing

The key to wellness in the Occupation area is that personal satisfaction and enrichment is derived from the act of work—feeling competent and capable. 

The Wellness Lifestyle is about honoring one’s own values and value as a person. Yes, It is good to have your supervisor recognize you—this could lead to a raise in pay.

HOWEVER, the heart of the matter is to nurture your own well-being mind, body and spirit. HAPPY SPRING!!