Meditation and Mindfulness Strategies

by Richard Boyd, Body Mind Psychotherapist, Energetics Institute, Perth, West Australia

Copyright 2010

Introduction

Eastern thought has never separated the interdependency between the body and the mind. Eastern traditional medicine and psychology has always had a sense of holism or the assumption of the need to consider the whole person when viewing one aspect of their nature that may be manifesting illness or dis-ease.

Meditation and mindfulness have come to be powerful tools in the diagnostic and healing approaches of the Eastern traditions, which are now increasingly being adopted into Western society and within medicine and psychology as credible tools for healing and self development. The Western approach strips away any association of spirituality with these techniques since “spirit” is a disallowed concept within medicine, psychology, science and increasingly within our secularised society.

The Role of Meditation in Healing

Meditation is defined in the Tibetan Buddhist system as a method for acquainting the mind with virtue. The more familiar our mind is with virtue, the calmer and more peaceful it becomes. When our mind is peaceful we are free from worries and mental discomfort and we experience true happiness.

In many respects there are 2 types of meditation.

Analytical meditation is where you adopt your meditation posture and contemplate the logic and meaning of a subject or object you have heard or read. As a result you will reach a mind that has a conclusion or causes a special feeling to arise and exist. This style of meditation may also be a contemplation via walking meditation or via being alone with one’s thoughts and feelings.

This conclusion or special feeling is actually the object or the focus of the second type of meditation, known as Placement meditation. Here one strives to concentrate on the conclusion or special feeling single-pointedly for as long as possible in order to become deeply acquainted with it. Placement meditation is the classic view of meditative practice here in the West, but the Eastern view places emphasis on firstly reading and hearing to learn logic or instruction, then Analytical meditation then Placement meditation.

Because in the West we have a legacy of disowning spiritual practice in all matters scientific and psychological, the first two steps are typically not mentioned, and meditative practice has a more secular look and feel.

Neuroscience has now shown how imagination is now being seen to effect brain changes at the neural pathway level. This basic truth of Eastern thought, that creative visualisation meditation creates the actual basis for changing oneself to a new reality is now being understood at a Neuroscience level. Faith and fact are starting to find common ground with Neuroscience research. Brain scans show that in action and imagination many of the same parts of the brain are activated. This is why visualising can improve performance.

Scientists have done experiments where control groups have visualised exercising their muscles whilst another group did actual physical exercise. The actual group who did exercise increased muscle strength by 30% whilst the visualisation group had increased their muscle tone and strength by 22% as a group. The explanations for the increase by the visualisation group lay in the fact that the motor neurons of the brain that “program” movements are activated and strengthened, resulting in increased strength when muscles are contracted.

Likewise a study done by researchers with women who had small breasts also produced remarkable results. A group of women had their chest measurements taken, and underwent a 60 day visualisation meditation process where they imagined their breasts growing, and putting on new bras and clothes which would reflect their new shape. After the trial, upon new measurements being taken, over 20% of the women were found to have increased their bra size by an alphabetic size (i.e. “A” to “B” cup), after those were eliminated who had simply increased weight or with monthly hormonal changes underwent cyclical changes in their size. This group reported that the changes remained in place 6 months after the study finished.

Neuroscience now sees that mental imagery and actions are working from the same brain areas, and are from the same motor program in the brain. Both mental imagery and actions are thought to be slowed because they are products of the same motor program in the brain, which explains why meditation is best done in a still posture which eliminates body centric movements, which can then trigger action, which affects the same motoric program we are using to achieve a result with via meditation. To achieve the best meditation outcome we need to be still in our body.

Meditation is simply at one level working with the mental “scripts”, or beliefs that we originally laid down through learning via action and imagination in the first place. Our learnt or conditioned self creates good, neutral or bad habits. Once the brain develops a consistency or habit it will rigidify that via other processes so we develop unconscious competence or a tendency to unconsciously adopt or repeat this action or belief again. This in turn further rigidifies or entrenches that script within the brain, so while we are “plastic” our paradox is we can easily become rigid, obsessive, routine or unconscious in life with many things we do.

The reason meditation can create change is that the sensory information created by visualisation is taken literally as if it came from our eye sense awareness channel. Imagination is sight to the brain, and reacts accordingly. Neuroscience has shown how the brain can reorganise quickly to process information via other brain channels as individual parts of the brain are not necessarily committed to processing particular senses.

We can and routinely do, use parts of our brains for many different tasks. The brain seems to process incoming sense signals according to which operator brain processes can effectively process signals from a particular sense and in a particular circumstance.

Ultimately meditation promotes happiness in its practitioners. Meditation practice demonstrates the best method to show anyone that happiness is a state of mind, and that real happiness lies in the mind, not in external cravings, objects or environments. In therapy we at IBMP encourage our clients to adopt both a yoga and a meditative practice in their lifestyle as part of their resources in life. Once a client works through major distortions or the crisis that brings them to seek help, both yoga and meditative practices are encouraged for the person to develop their own awareness, mindfulness, and stronger sense of self, and of happiness.

Research has found the following benefits come from the adoption of a regular meditation practice:

Better sleep as measured by duration and depth of sleep( longer REM stages ).
Increased energy levels.
Inner calm and peace.
Decreased anxiety and recurrent negative or fearful thoughts in mind.
Lifting of Depressive symptoms.
Increased concentration and focus of mind.
Increased happiness and sense of control in life.
Reduced muscular tensions.
Reduced racing thoughts and obsessive thinking traits.

The Role of Yoga in Meditation and Healing

The other major consideration is the role of yoga in meditation. In some Eastern systems yoga was devised as the process of “preparing for meditation”. By this the process of relaxing the body and inducing a bodily suppleness also created a suppleness of the mind, which aided the meditative process, and especially allowed for long periods of still meditative body posture, and also for a calm mind with less distracting thoughts during meditation.

Some yoga systems went on to evolve their practice to be both meditative during the bodily or breathwork focussed actions of their yoga practices. Meditation and yoga became one and the same practice. Today we find a range of yoga systems which have varying emphasis on the bodily postures, breathing practices, and with or without meditative emphasis. Each system has its benefits.

Neuroscience has now shown how yoga is now being seen to effect brain changes at the neural pathway level. Research and a major study by psychologists found that of all the major exercise types undertaken in the West, Yoga had the most lasting benefits to both the body and mental state of the participant. The reason was found to be that Yoga produces the highest levels of the GABA neurotransmitter in people who do an hour of Yoga versus people who do an hour of other physical exercise.

GABA is the primary type of the Inhibitory class of Neurotransmitters that our body produces, and is the basis for feeling calm and relaxed. Low levels create severe sleep difficulties, anxiousness and hyperactivity and mental racing, and low GABA is normally found in Depression sufferers. GABA is now being linked by Neuroscience to the processes that facilitate the creation of new neural pathways in the brain. Meditation is one such process that seeks to create new information and feeling state pathways in the brain, whether done from a combination of yoga with meditation, or classic meditative practice alone.

Yoga postures are in themself significant in the healing and wellness processes of a person. Meditation emphasises the adoption of the lotus posture for meditative practice. This cross-legged, straight spine, still posture is designed to calm the “monkey mind” or fast racing thoughts that often show up in meditation.

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) has been found to use such a lotus posture to naturally make small adjustments to the spinal vertebrae, which is the process of Proprioception, and equates to our brains Parietal lobe noting whether we are in balance within our bodies. The brain and ANS from this place then activates the Parasympathetic state of the ANS, and evokes a peaceful state of bodymind which is perfect for meditation practice. The body also feels light and relaxed for it is upright, at rest in a balanced state, and is centred against the effects of the G forces of gravity that are ever pressing down against us. This evokes the equivalent state of centredness and balance in the mind.

As there are a profusion of nerves and blood vessels emanating from within and between the spinal vertebrae, the ANS can fully communicate to peripheral organs, tissues and complexes that must be relayed from the spinal complex. This means that a healing and resetting of the stasis of the bodymind system also takes place when the spine is given the optimal postures to stop blocking signals, blood and sensation being communicated between the brain, ANS, and the peripheral sites themself.

The various yoga postures each work on opening up and freeing blocks in one or more areas of the bodymind system. Taken together as a group of postures in one session of 30 minutes or an hour of yoga, the entire bodymind system and its peripheral organs, tissues and processes will each be “unblocked” by the postures bringing conscious attention to the site of blockage, and the use of breathing into the block, or by resting in the tension, one will over time unblock, and allow ANS Proprioception to resume or activate. Yoga postures are not accidental or incidental. Each has a purpose, a role, and is part of a complete system

Yoga also promotes the belief that yoga and meditation practice with the correct posture will elicit the flow of spiritual energy from the container of the base chakra deep in our lower pelvic girdle, right up the spine to other chakra sites, and up and out the crown chakra on top of our heads. Yoga and meditation will create the basis for regular energy flow so undercharged areas are recharged, blocked or overcharged sites are released and flow back into a balance, we detoxify negative energies, and access to deeper or higher states of consciousness are possible.

Shamanism has always promoted the adoption of certain ways of holding the body in deliberate posture in order to elicit altered states of consciousness. Shamans report using deliberate postures in rituals designed to achieve such outcomes as healing, shape-shifting, transformation, spirit or soul journeys, ancestor contact, divination and initiation of new comers. Postures are sometimes enhanced through internal and external stimulus such as humming, chanting, drumming, gonging, and music.

The reasons cited for this are the alignment of the mind to the vibration of the sound energy, and the effect that the sound has on the auditory cortexes in the brain, which share processes with parts of the brain that open up awareness and trance states. The Autonomic Nervous System(ANS) also has been found to be influenced by sound stimulus and to evoke Endocrinal system secretions that promote healing and wellness as a result.

There has been a trend within society to develop, market and promote new hybrid forms of yoga, that combine such other disciplines as Pilates, exercise workouts, and a range of other inclusions. Some of these new offerings are touted as Transformational but yet the combinations they offer seem to appeal to the ego and Narcissism of potential attendees. The images now being crafted with these offerings are increasingly targeted at perfectionistic and rigid narcissistic people.

If one remembers the key drivers for doing yoga are spiritual as well as physical then the flashy new forms of hybrid yoga marketed with model like images of beautiful perfect bodied women may create physical release and Parasympathetic relaxation. However they may also create possibly more mental and spiritual suffering outcomes in the way of egoic pride and narcissistic attitudes, than peace, happiness or true spiritual growth.

It is another example of how we put ourselves under pressure to conform to unrealistic and unhealthy stereotypes, even with a modality or activity that is supposed to be about health and wellness. This is not surprising given our society is more secular and our sciences and psychologies continue to disown spirit and spirituality in all areas of life, and instead promotes ego driven role models for us to aspire to.

When it comes to yoga we should be cautionary about overturning thousands of years of evolved and experientially developed wisdom of our bodymind, as expressed in its age old forms and disciplines. It is one area of the healing arts that we should be cautionary about as yoga may not best be subject to major revision or “transformation”.

The Role of Mindfulness in Healing

Mindfulness is a term commonly associated with Buddhism. It is a practice that has been used for thousands of years in conjunction with meditation to transform the mind into a supple and stable state that allows a person to be and act with wisdom and skill in all situations. The practice is widespread and central to Buddhist practice and has proven effects in healing bodily and mental illness, as well as being the basis to transform the mind of the practitioner.

In Tibetan Buddhism the practice of mindfulness is defined by one tradition as “a mental factor that functions not to forget the object realised by a primary mind”. What that means is that a person develops a mind that prevents us from forgetting an important truth or object of the mind even in the face of challenges and disturbances from within us, or from the external environment, or both. This is the aim, but is not easily achieved and traditionally requires the practice of concentration through meditation to achieve results. Mindfulness functions to overcome and prevent distractions in the mind of a person so they can stay focussed on the truth or object they are concentrating on.

Here in the West not everyone has the time or the belief in Buddhist faith to practice meditation and mindfulness in a strictly integrated way, but the benefits of mindfulness practice and meditation are beginning to be understood and appreciated in Western forms of psychology. There have been numerous clinical trials done under scientific rigour that demonstrate a measurable Bodymind benefit to psychological and physical well-being from mindfulness practice. Mindfulness practice can be used to interact and affect our sense awareness processes to trigger improvements in immune system functioning, blood pressure, pain levels and chronic muscular tension. The benefits to the mental life of a practitioner are shown to improve mental clarity, reduce trauma arousal states, lower stress, anxiety, and depression.

We do not need to be practicing Buddhists to gain some of the key benefits of Mindfulness awareness. What is primarily beneficial for anyone is to develop the ability to pay attention, or being attuned to your experience and bodily sensations – both internal and external. Within this awareness you are able to point focussed awareness on whatever object you choose. You develop a reality where background awareness of everything exists and at the same time you can place your mind towards an object of interest. It is sometimes thought that the aim of mindfulness is to be calm and relaxed in every moment, and while this effect emerges from creating such a mind, the purpose is more about developing awareness and acceptance. With awareness and flexibility, one learns to pay attention to one’s own experience, remembering the patterns or habits that we experience, and to observe without judgement.

The benefits in therapy are that a client can start to directly see their own distorted patterns, their triggers and the escalating steps within a reacting body and mind. One develops a curiosity about all this, and develops an attitude of compassion and acceptance toward oneself and one's experience.

Meditation and mindfulness practice starts to put distance between “us” and our mind and body, and invites us to notice and accept our thoughts and bodily sensations as events occurring in the bodymind rather than as a 'truth' that defines us. We are able to separate the person or “I” from our sensations and thoughts and so start to work with them to heal them and redirect them. We notice that our sensations are harmless, and our thoughts are just thoughts.

Mindfulness helps us to not get swept away with the chain of momentary events that run our BodyMind. We get to be observers who can laugh or cry at the unfolding “movie” playing out on our own mind screen, and see that there is no need to push or force ourselves in some way in order for things to be different. It becomes clear that the difference is most significant and lasting when we change our inner perceptions and reactions to the “out there”, than to be constantly trying to control external events with our will, our logic, our power, resources or force of some kind.

Change can and does come through awareness and acceptance. We can learn to be with the fullness of our experience - our joy, our excitement, our aliveness, as well as our fear, our sadness, and our heartache. We learn to tolerate all our states of BodyMind without fear and without anxiety that something “bad” will happen to us as a result. We see how these BodyMind states do not need to overwhelm us, and how the use of breathing and guided postural changes in a charged emotional moment, can drastically affect the sensations and thoughts, and their intensity.

One learns how to be with oneself which is in itself a place of peace and acceptance. One learns that no one feeling will exist permanently or “run us”, and we can learn to see and experience our feelings and not feel overwhelmed by them. When we stop running from ourselves with distractions like addictions, distractions, business, and intense experiences, we can begin to practice 'being with' ourselves.

It takes practice to create mindfulness. But it takes an enormous toll on the BodyMind to live out of integrity with oneself, by living to an image rather than to one’s true self. The projection of power, success, image and pretence in itself means considerable energy trying to be someone or somewhere we are not. Yet many of must invest in a constant form of image creation and constant pretence to create a false-self image to others, which in itself involves a distorted sense of mindfulness as we constantly keep our false-self image generating. Why then not invest this enormous energy in creating a truly happy, peaceful and self aware true-self?

Most of us have become “human doings” rather than “human beings” as we neurotically are always on the move, doing things to avoid our own real anxious natures. Most of us struggle just to sit and be, and become anxious and restless if faced with this choice. This is the running from ourselves that many do for an entire lifetime. When we have been working hard at not being who we are, it can feel unusual to just 'let ourselves be'.

Being rather than doing invites a quieter mind and more relaxed body. We have the opportunity from this quieter, more relaxed state to experience our true self and our world differently; to notice that which we have not noticed before and to become curious and interested, rather than critical and judgemental. We are then able to see and consider new choices and to move toward something new.

The Benefits of Mindfulness

Both Buddhist texts and writers on psychology summarise the practise of mindfulness as assisting a person to:

be fully present, moment by moment
practice moral discipline
become aware of muscular tensions in the body
relax muscular tensions in the body
experience calmness and peacefulness
reduce anxiety states in the body and mind
develop self-acceptance and self-compassion
increase self-awareness of both body and mind
learn the difference between you and your thoughts
learn to live life directly and sensually rather than through your thoughts
be able to contain your thoughts, feelings and emotions
overcome overwhelming states of thoughts, feelings and emotions
become less upset by and reactive to unpleasant experiences
experience unpleasant thoughts, feelings and sensations safely
disable false self images, social masks and neurotic states of cover-up
become more connected to yourself, others, and the world around you
learn that life, your body and your mind are a continuum and not fixed
discover that everything changes; that thoughts and feelings come and go like water running down a river
become less attached to life and objects as they are impermanent and ever-changing anyway
stop trying to control life and others and accept what is

Mindfulness Practices

Starting a Mindfulness practice can be challenging unless you have setup the right inner and external conditions, and you have realistic expectations for the beginning and deepening of your practice. People who practice meditation already, or who are Buddhists often are guided to put into place the correct environment to give oneself the best chance of starting and continuing a mindfulness or meditation practice. Non-Buddhists often do not recognise that there are some preliminary factors to be taken care of before we start any such practice that aid in being motivated and able to pursue a practice beyond a few days or weeks without giving up.

The key external factor is the presence of disturbances to your senses such as noise, excessive light, heat, cold or movement. Choose a place where there is stillness and conditions that calm and settle the mind. Do not have distracting music in headphones or on a CD or DVD playing. If doing a sitting or still meditative style practice then either sit in a postural supportive chair, or sit on the floor with a small cushion under the buttocks/sacrum area. Do not lie down on the floor or on a bed, as this may induce drowsiness.

Do not set large expectations to start with. It is advisable to practice regularly for a small amount of time rather than doing a marathon very infrequently. Do not get dispirited or punish yourself with negative critical thinking such as 'I should meditate more or better” or 'I should not have a wandering mind'. Be curious and free from measurement or expectation of a certain outcome or goal. If a sitting meditation or regular practice feels beyond you, then consider meditations that require body movement and sensing into the body.

Mindfulness is not meditation itself but is an aspect of meditation practice. In this way mindfulness can be dynamic through movement such as walking as it essentially requires paying attention to what is around you as you walk. The focus remains on the placement of the mind on the present moment with what is happening to your movement or what is around you in your environment. Martial arts can promote mindfulness when taught with a spiritual discipline in mind. Traditionally yoga, tai chi and qigong request the practitioner to maintain awareness of their body in the present moment-to- moment experience. Doing any of these activities with conscious awareness is mindfulness practice.

What is common to us all is the experience of finding our mind jumping around or drifting away to some other thought, or into nothingness. If you find yourself losing the experience of the present moment, and instead having followed some thought in your mind, then do not excite your mind by jerking it back to what you were trying to focus on. Simply notice you have drifted and slowly like gently blowing a feather out of your hand, gently bring your mind back to the object or focus you had set out to focus on in this mindfulness session.

Mindfulness with Everyday Activities

Even a busy person can start to practice mindfulness. Every day brings opportunities to allow one to apply focus and concentration of the mind on some mundane object or experience and so practice mindfulness. In fact you can bring mindfulness to every moment and every activity of your day. The principles do not change. We seek to become mindful of what is directly happening in the present moment

We can attend consciously and mindfully to every activity. As we awake and go about our morning routine start to do this consciously and notice your micro-movements and the contact you make with your environment. Notice the noises outside your room when you wake, then stretch your body and notice its stiffness or tensions, or rested state. Notice the physical sensations of the water on your skin as you shower, the razor on your skin as you shave, the brush through your hair, the cup of tea in your mouth and as it is swallowed. Walk purposefully to the bus or drive consciously without radios, headphones or distractions.

Most people live unconsciously all their lives, never experiencing life directly. How many times have you driven a car from one place to another and then finding yourself unable to recall the journey ? This is unconscious living. Mindfulness reveals the full panorama of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and objects and environments we encounter in our day and in our lives. We seek neither to attach to nor to avoid these experiences, merely to let them come into contact and awareness with us, and then let them pass without us reacting strongly in any direction. We are aware and we notice but do not get entangled. The aim is to be fully in each moment as it occurs whatever it may be.

Mindfulness is a learnt discipline that works to expand and strengthen this innate and natural function of the mind. The degree of mindfulness in a person is directly related to the degree of awareness that a person possesses. Psychological health is in part an ability to be with what is, without creating distractions, distortions, obsessions or neurotic escapism. In learning to be mindful we can increase our ability to be fully present in our daily lives, develop resilience, and enhance our sense of well-being.

If you would like to learn more about mindfulness, yoga or meditation please feel free to contact the Energetics Institute.
Richard Boyd is an experienced Body Mind Psychotherapist and the Director of the Energetics Institute in Perth, Western Australia.
Mob 0407577793
email: r.boyd@energeticsinstitute.com.au
www.energeticsinstitute.com.au