Self-Compassion

Improve Sleep and Resilience with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Medical professionals are burdened daily with the pain and suffering of patients. Many work long hours, and regularly face stressful situations. This burden does not come without consequence: 60 percent of physicians report having experienced burnout at some point in their careers.” – Emily Nauman

 

Stress is epidemic in the western workplace with almost two thirds of workers reporting high levels of stress at work. In high stress occupations, like healthcare, burnout is all too prevalent. It is estimated that over 45% of healthcare workers experience burnout. Currently, over a third of healthcare workers report that they are looking for a new job. Nearly half plan to look for a new job over the next two years and 80% expressed interest in a new position if they came across the right opportunity.

 

Burnout is the fatigue, cynicism, emotional exhaustion, sleep disruption, and professional inefficacy that comes with work-related stress. It not only affects the healthcare providers personally, but also the patients, as it produces a loss of empathy and compassion. Sleep disruption is an important consequence of the stress. “Poor or inadequate sleep can contribute to poor personal health and burnout and adversely affect the quality of care” (Kemper et al. 2016).

 

Regardless of the reasons for burnout or its immediate presenting consequences, it is a threat to the healthcare providers and their patients. In fact, it is a threat to the entire healthcare system as it contributes to the shortage of doctors and nurses. Hence, preventing existing healthcare workers from burning out has to be a priority. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to be helpful in treating and preventing burnout, increasing resilience, and improving sleep. Another factor that could affect healthcare workers’ responses to stress is self-compassion. By treating oneself with kindness and understanding the effects of stress can be mitigated. So, it makes sense to investigate the relationship of mindfulness and self-compassion to stress symptoms in healthcare workers.

 

In today’s Research News article “Are Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Associated with Sleep and Resilience in Health Professionals?” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1334256059931650/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4523072/

Kemper and colleagues do just that. They solicited participation of adult healthcare workers (n = 213) via email which provided a link to a survey that measured demographic characteristics, mindfulness, self-compassion, sleep, resilience, global mental and physical health, and perceived stress. Simple correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were performed upon the survey responses.

 

They found that the higher the level of mindfulness, self-compassion, resilience, and physical and mental health the lower the level of sleep disturbance and the greater the level of resilience. The greater the level of perceived stress the greater the sleep disturbance and the lower the resilience. Mindfulness and self-compassion were highly related and the higher their levels the greater the levels of physical and mental health and the lower the levels of sleep disturbances and perceived stress.

 

These findings underscore the significant positive relationships between mindfulness and self-compassion with resilience and with mental and physical health and significant negative relationships with sleep problems and stress. Hence, being more mindful improves the chance that the healthcare worker will be more resilient, healthier, less stressed, and sleep better. Similarly, having greater self-compassion, being kind and understanding toward the self, also improves the chance that the individual will be more resilient, healthier, less stressed, and sleep better. So, mindfulness and self-compassion appear to improve the health and well-being of healthcare workers. But, it should be noted that the study was correlational and did not manipulate mindfulness and self-compassion. So, causal connections cannot be conclusively demonstrated.

 

So, improve sleep and resilience with mindfulness and self-compassion.

 

“Mindfulness gives doctors permission to attend to their own health and well-being. But it also allows doctor to help patients by listening more, talking less, and seeing what the patients need.” – Catherine Beach

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Kemper, K. J., Mo, X., & Khayat, R. (2015). Are Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Associated with Sleep and Resilience in Health Professionals? Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 21(8), 496–503. http://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2014.0281

 

Abstract

Objectives: To describe the relationship between trainable qualities (mindfulness and self-compassion), with factors conceptually related to burnout and quality of care (sleep and resilience) in young health professionals and trainees.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Large Midwestern academic health center.

Participants: 213 clinicians and trainees.

Outcome measures: Sleep and resilience were assessed by using the 8-item PROMIS Sleep scale and the 6-item Brief Resilience Scale. Mindfulness and self-compassion were assessed using the 10-item Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale, Revised and the 12-item Self-Compassion Scale. Health was assessed with Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Global Health measures, and stress was assessed with the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale. After examination of descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations, multiple regression analyses were done to determine whether mindfulness and self-compassion were associated with better sleep and resilience.

Results: Respondents had an average age of 28 years; 73% were female. Professions included dieticians (11%), nurses (14%), physicians (38%), social workers (24%), and other (12%). Univariate analyses showed normative values for all variables. Sleep disturbances were significantly and most strongly correlated with perceived stress and poorer health, but also with less mindfulness and self-compassion. Resilience was strongly and significantly correlated with less stress and better mental health, more mindfulness, and more self-compassion.

Conclusions: In these young health professionals and trainees, sleep and resilience are correlated with both mindfulness and self-compassion. Prospective studies are needed to determine whether training to increase mindfulness and self-compassion can improve clinicians’ sleep and resilience or whether decreasing sleep disturbances and building resilience improves mindfulness and compassion.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4523072/

 

Be a Better Parent with Self-Compassion

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Parental depression negatively affects fathers’ and mothers’ caregiving, material support, and nurturance, and is associated with poor health and developmental outcomes for children of all ages, including prenatally. Depressed mothers are more likely than non-depressed mothers to have poor parenting skills and to have negative interactions with their children.” – Child Trends

 

Clinically diagnosed depression is the most common form of  mental illness, affecting over 6% of the population. In general, it involves feelings of sadness, emptiness or hopelessness, irritability or frustration, loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, sleep disturbances, tiredness and lack of energy, anxiety, agitation, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or blaming yourself for things that aren’t your responsibility, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide. Needless to say individuals with depression are miserable.

 

Depression does not occur in isolation. When an individual in a family is depressed it affects all of the members of the family. When it is a parent, it affects how the child is raised and what he/she experiences during the formative years. This can have long-lasting effects on the child. So, it is important to study how depression affects childrearing and the child and what are the factors that might mitigate or eliminate the effects of parental depression on the child.

 

A characteristic of western society is that many people don’t seem to like themselves.  The term used to describe this that I prefer is self-dislike. This is often highly associated with depression. Its opposite is self-compassion; being kind and understanding toward yourself in the face of inadequacies or short-comings. So, it would make sense to investigate the relationship of self-compassion with depression and child rearing. In today’s Research News article “Self-Compassion and Parenting in Mothers and Fathers with Depression.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1331610153529574/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923280/

Psychogiou and colleagues do just that. They recruited parents of young children (2-6 years of age) who were also suffering with depression. They measured them for depression, self-compassion, parental emotions, children’s internalizing and externalizing, and parental coping with children’s negative emotions.

 

They found that for both mothers and fathers, low levels of depression were significantly associated with high levels of self-compassion. Parenting ability was also associated with self-compassion, with mother who were high in self-compassion expressing fewer critical comments and more positive comments toward their children. In addition, parents who were high in self-compassion had fewer distressed reactions to their children’s behavior. High parental self-compassion was also significantly associated with the children having low internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Hence, depressed parents who have high levels of self-compassion are less critical of their children, responded better to their children’s behaviors, and produced less self-blame (internalizing) in their children.

 

These findings suggest that self-compassion may be to some extent an antidote to depression and to mitigate the effects of that depression on parenting. It would appear that if the parent is kind and understanding toward themselves it reduces their depression level and the kindness and understanding appears to transfer to their children producing more positive and productive parenting behaviors. But, the interpretation of these findings must be tempered as the results are correlational and as such do not demonstrate causation. Future studies should attempt to manipulate self-compassion and determine the effects of increasing it on depression and parenting. Since, mindfulness practices are known to increase self-compassion and improve caregiving and parenting, it would make sense to apply mindfulness training to depressed parents and observe its effects.

 

So, be a better parent with self-compassion.

 

“We are all used to working on our self-esteem by asking ourselves, “Am I being a good parent or a bad parent?” The problem is that having high self-esteem is contingent upon experiencing success. If we don’t meet our own standards, we feel terrible about ourselves. Self-compassion, in contrast, is not a way of judging ourselves positively or negatively. It is a way of relating to ourselves kindly and embracing ourselves as we are, flaws and all.” – Kristin Neff

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Psychogiou, L., Legge, K., Parry, E., Mann, J., Nath, S., Ford, T., & Kuyken, W. (2016). Self-Compassion and Parenting in Mothers and Fathers with Depression. Mindfulness, 7, 896–908. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0528-6

 

Abstract

Depression in parents impairs parenting and increases the risk of psychopathology among their children. Prevention and intervention could be informed by knowledge of the mechanisms that break the inter-generational transmission of psychopathology and build resilience in both parents and their children. We used data from two independent studies to examine whether higher levels of self-compassion were associated with better parenting and fewer emotional and behavioral problems in children of parents with a history of depression. Study 1 was a pilot trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy that included 38 parents with recurrent depression. Study 2 was a longitudinal study that consisted of 160 families, including 50 mothers and 40 fathers who had a history of depression. Families were followed up approximately 16 months after the first assessment (time 2; n = 106 families). In both studies, self-compassion was assessed with the Self-Compassion Scale. Parents reporting higher levels of self-compassion were more likely to attribute the cause of their children’s behavior to external factors, were less critical, and used fewer distressed reactions to cope with their children’s emotions. Parents’ self-compassion was longitudinally associated with children’s internalizing and externalizing problems, but these associations became nonsignificant after controlling for child gender, parent education, and depressive symptoms. Future larger scale and experimental designs need to examine whether interventions intended to increase self-compassion might reduce the use of negative parenting strategies and thereby the inter-generational transmission of psychopathology.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4923280/

 

Change Brain Activity in Depression with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Skeptics, of course, may ask what good are a few brain changes if the psychological effects aren’t simultaneously being illustrated? Luckily, there’s good evidence for those as well, with studies reporting that meditation helps relieve our subjective levels of anxiety and depression, and improve attention, concentration, and overall psychological well-being.” – Alice Walton

 

In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that the brain is far more malleable than previously thought. Areas in the brain can change, either increase or decrease in size, connectivity, and activity in response to changes in our environment or the behaviors we engage in. This process is referred to as neuroplasticity. The nervous system is constantly changing and adapting to the environment. For example, the brain area that controls the right index finger has been found to be larger in blind subjects who use braille than in sighted individuals.  Similarly, cab drivers in London who navigate the twisting streets of the city, have a larger hippocampus, which is involved in spatial navigation, than predefined route bus drivers. Hence experience changes size, activity, and connectivity of the brain. These changes in the brain are called neuroplasticity.

 

Over the last decade neuroscience has studied the effects of contemplative practices on the brain and has demonstrated that these practices produce neuroplastic changes in widespread areas. Indeed, mindfulness practices have been shown to not only alter how we think and feel but also to alter the nervous system, producing changes in the size, activity, and connectivity of specific structures and systems in the nervous system. Depression has been shown to also involve changes to the nervous system and is significantly improved by mindfulness practices. As a result of mindfulness practices’ ability to alter the brain and relieve depression, these practices have been incorporated into various psychotherapies for depression.

 

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) was specifically developed to treat depression. It has been shown to be remarkably effective. Putting all these pieces together, it would seem likely that MBCT relieves depression by altering neural systems. In today’s Research News article “Multi-dimensional modulations of α and γ cortical dynamics following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in Major Depressive Disorder”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1184978338192757/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4454126/

Schoenberg and Speckens investigated changes in brain activity produced by MBCT using sophisticated techniques to explore the electrical activity that can be recorded from various regions of the scalp (Electroencephalogram, EEG). They compared patients with major depressive disorder who were randomly assigned to receive 8-weeks of group Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) or treatment as usual, waitlist control. They found that MBCT treatment produced clinically significant improvements in depressive symptoms, self-compassion, over identification with painful thoughts and feelings, and mindfulness. This is not surprising, and replicates the well-established finding that MBCT is highly effective in treating depression.

 

They recorded the EEG of both groups while they performed a Go/NoGo task. Performance on this task has been shown to be deficient in depressed patients and indicates deficient executive function. They found that MBCT significantly downregulated α and γ power in the electrical activity of the brain. This indicates that there was and increase the excitability of the cerebral cortex. This is generally associated with greater positive mood and decreased negative emotions. This suggests that MBCT may relive depression by its effects on the neural systems underlying the depressed mood.

 

They also found an enhancement of the α-desynchronisation occurring in response to the Go/NoGo task when negative material was presented, but decreased α-desynchronisation when positive material was presented. This suggests that MBCT activates the neural networks underlying positive emotion. These are the systems that are usually relatively inactive in depression. This again suggests that MBCT may relieve depression by enhancing the activity of neural systems responsible for positive mood, thus working in opposition to the negative mood so characteristic of depression.

 

Finally, they found that MBCT increased intra-hemispheric α-coherence of the fronto-parietal circuit. This coherence has been shown to be related to improved attention and reduced mind wandering. In depression, mind wandering is highly related to rumination which tends to reinforce and support the depressed state. This suggests that MBCT may relive depression by enhancing the coherence of neural systems responsible for attention, thus inhibiting the mind wandering and rumination so characteristic of depression.

 

Hence the present study found evidence for changed electrical dynamics in the cortex of depressed patients following Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). The changes that were observed reflect changed processing of emotional information and attention, such that positive mood was enhanced, negative mood was reduced, and mind wandering and rumination decreased. All of these processes tend to counteract depression and may at least in part be responsible for the effectiveness of MBCT in treating depression.

 

So, change brain activity in depression with mindfulness.

 

“Being in the present moment, accepting what is, without wanting to change or interpret it, will greatly enhance emotional well-being, leading to healthier thinking patterns that will touch and better every other aspects of your life.” – Jonathan Banks

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Caregiver Quality of Life with Yoga

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“Caring for someone with dementia is made up of an infinite number of small moments where we can go either way, adding more stress or bringing more ease. The problem when we are not mindful is our words come out and our actions unfold too quickly for us to have a chance to choose the wisest, most beneficial route. Mindfulness practice slows us down and takes some of the edge off our reactive tendencies.” – Marguerite Manteau-Rao

 

Caregiving for dementia patients is a daunting and all too frequent task. It is estimated that over 15 million Americans are dementia caregivers. It is an intense experience that can go on for four to eight years with increasing responsibilities as the loved one deteriorates. In the last year, 59% of the caregivers report that they are effectively on duty 24/7. It is sad that 72% report relief when their loved one passes away.

 

This long and difficult process can take a major toll on the caregiver. On a practical level they frequently experience financial problems from lost income and have their careers interrupted. But, the greatest problems occur due to the intense levels of stress experienced by the caregivers. Around 2/3rd of caregivers report high emotional stress and over 1/3rd report high physical stress. This stress, in turn can have emotional consequences with over 1/3rd of caregivers reporting depression and many report family problems. In addition, dementia caregivers are more likely to have physical issues such as high levels of stress hormones, reduced immune function, increased hypertension, and coronary heart disease. Needless to say caregivers need care for themselves.

 

Reducing stress is very important for dementia caregivers. Stress not only jeopardizes their own health but also the quality of care they provide for their loved ones. Since mindfulness training has been shown to be effective in reducing both the psychological and physical responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/), it would seem be potentially useful for the relief of caregiver stress. Indeed, mindfulness training has been shown to reduce stress and depression, improve the quality of caregiving, and improve the quality of life for the caregiver (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/caregiving/). Hence, it would seem reasonable to further explore mindfulness practices to care for the caregiver.

 

In today’s Research News article “Yoga and compassion meditation program improve quality of life and self-compassion in family caregivers of Alzheimer’s disease patients: A randomized controlled trial”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1170247206332537/?type=3&theater

Danucalov and colleagues applied an 8-week program of yoga and compassion meditation to a group of female Alzheimer’s caregivers and compared their response to those of a wait-list control group. At the end of yoga and compassion meditation training in comparison to before training and to the control group, the yoga group reported significant improvements in their quality of life including physical, psychological, environmental, and social domains. They showed increased mindfulness, improved vitality both immediately and in general, and increased self-compassion and self-kindness.

 

These findings are remarkable and potentially important. Yoga and compassion meditation training markedly improved the psychological and physical conditions for the caregivers producing a major improvement in quality of life. Training also increased their vitality which is critical given the intense fatigue that the caregiving can produce. How this practice might produce these benefits was not explored. But, the documented ability of yoga practice in reducing stress responses would seem a likely explanation. In addition, the compassion meditation may be a useful component as Loving Kindness Meditation has been shown to improve self-compassion and kindness toward others (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/loving-kindness/).

 

Regardless of the explanation, it appears clear that mindfulness training is effective in improving the physical and psychological problems experienced by dementia caregivers.

 

So, improve caregiver quality of life with yoga.

 

“Many of us follow the commandment ‘Love One Another.’ When it relates to caregiving, we must love one another with boundaries. We must acknowledge that we are included in the ‘Love One Another.” ― Peggi Speers

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Fertility with Mindfulness

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“Using your mind to improve your fertility? Not as strange as you might think! If you have ever blushed, you’ll understand what I mean. That embarrassment you felt, visible to the world. Research shows emotions influence all body functions, especially fertility hormones. Fertility Mindfulness tips the odds of conceiving in your favor. Re-align your mindset and prepare for conception success, no matter what you have experienced.” – Helena Tubridy

 

Infertility is primarily a medical condition due to physiological problems. It is quite common. It is estimated that in the U.S. 6.7 million women, about 10% of the population of women 15-44, have an impaired ability to get pregnant or carry a baby to term and about 6% are infertile.

 

Infertility can be more than just a medical issue. It can be an emotional crisis for many couples, especially for the women. Couples attending a fertility clinic reported that infertility was the most upsetting experience of their lives. Women with infertility reported feeling as anxious or depressed as those diagnosed with cancer, hypertension, or recovering from a heart attack. Men’s reactions are more complicated. If the reason for the infertility is due to an issue with the woman, then men aren’t as distressed as the women. But if they are the ones who are infertile, they experience the same levels of low self-esteem, stigma, and depression as infertile women do. In addition, infertility can markedly impact the couple’s relationship, straining their emotional connection and interactions and the prescribed treatments can take the spontaneity and joy from lovemaking making it strained and mechanical.

 

The stress of infertility and engaging in infertility treatments may exacerbate the problem. The anxiety and stress may actually make it more difficult to conceive. In fact, recent studies found that higher rates of infertility treatment success in people who were undergoing a mind–body interventions. So, reducing stress and anxiety may be beneficial for conception. Since mindfulness training has been shown to reduce anxiety (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/anxiety/) and stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/) it is reasonable to believe that mindfulness training may be helpful for conception in women with fertility issues.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on fertility quality of life and pregnancy rates among women subjected to first in vitro fertilization treatment”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1162617577095500/?type=3&theater

Li and colleagues conducted a 6-week mindfulness training with women undergoing in-vitro fertilization treatment. In comparison to a treatment as usual control group, they found that the mindfulness training produced significant improvements in mindfulness, self-compassion, emotion regulation, improved coping responses and fertility quality of life. There was also a decrease in the influence of infertility on physical health, cognition, and behavior. Importantly, the treatment resulted in significantly higher proportion of the participants who had a viable pregnancy by virtue of in vitro fertilization.  Hence it appears that mindfulness treatment improves the women’s psychological and physical well-being and this in turn improves their ability to have a successful outcome to in vitro fertilization, becoming pregnant.

 

These are wonderful and encouraging findings that mindfulness can have such significant positive benefits for women with infertility. The fact that mindfulness is known to reduce the physical and psychological responses to stress, reduce anxiety, and improve emotion regulation is likely responsible for these benefits. This allows the women to better cope with the difficulties of infertility and its treatment.

 

Mindfulness training is a safe and effective treatment with many benefits for virtually everyone and for many psychological and medical issues. The results from this study add infertility treatment to the usefulness and positive effects of mindfulness training. This can be of great benefit to large numbers of women who struggle with infertility.

 

So, improve fertility with mindfulness.

 

“My bottom line is that if mindfulness and meditation are things that you would be interested in anyway, then using them as a strategy to help cope with fertility treatment sounds logical and beneficial.” – Erin Stronach

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Love thyself

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“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” ~Malcolm S. Forbes

 

There is a widespread problem in the west that many people don’t seem to like themselves.  The term used to describe this in psychology is self-loathing, although this term is far too strong and is not an appropriate descriptor for the majority of people. In general, the dislike of self has a much smaller magnitude than the word loathing implies. As a result I prefer self-dislike.

 

The self-dislike sometimes means that the individual dislikes every aspect of themselves; but most frequently people only don’t like certain aspects of themselves. Often it is there physical appearance, their school achievement, their career, their social behavior, etc. Making matters worse, they tend to overlook their strengths and discount them, focusing instead in the parts that they find problematic.

 

The discounting and overlooking of strengths shows up in what psychologists call the Imposter Syndrome. Here very successful people do not appear to be able to assimilate their success and instead attribute it to luck. The esteem with which they’re held makes them feel like imposters. It is estimated that two out of five successful people consider themselves frauds that 70 percent of all people feel like impostors at one time or another.

 

When this issue of self-dislike was raised to the Dalai Lama he was totally perplexed and repeatedly asked for clarifications. Not liking oneself is unheard of in his culture. So, he was dumbfounded and without comment. Hence, the problem seems to be primarily one of western culture. This suggests that self-dislike is learned within a particular cultural context with western culture and its values particularly adept at producing it.

 

There are sometimes circumstances that underlie self-dislike. Abuse or bullying, belittling parents, learning disabilities, physical appearance or disabilities are apt to result in self-dislike. But, most frequently it originates from western culture’s tendency to promote unrealistic expectations.

 

Physical appearance is a good case in point where the media holds up extraordinarily attractive individuals as what we should strive to be. Very, very few people can ever measure up and so can end up disliking their appearance. Academic achievement is another case where for many anything less than an “A” is seen as failure. Once again few can measure up and most end up disliking their intellectual ability. Sports are another case where the media holds up professional athletes as role models. These are exceptional people and the vast majority of the population can’t perform anywhere near their level and thus feel inadequate. It is relatively easy to think of many other unrealistic expectations prompted by our hyper-success oriented culture.

 

What can we do to overcome self-dislike. Unfortunately, the self-dislike is usually deeply ingrained and becomes resistant to persuasion or evidence. No matter how successful the person becomes or how much praise is received the person cannot truly believe that he or she has value or worth. They believe themselves to be imposters.

 

Self-dislike is an indicator that the individual is unsatisfied with the way things are. There is a strong desire for them to be different and the individual believes that if one or more aspects of themselves changed, then things would be much better. This is in fact rarely true. An overweight person who loses a significant amount of weight doesn’t usually become happier instead it frequently produces depression. A far better approach is for people to learn to accept things, including themselves, just as they are.

 

Meditation is uniquely suited to promote accepting things as they are. So, it would seem appropriate for dealing with self-dislike. Meditation focuses on awareness of the present moment. As we’ve seen, self-dislike is often rooted in the past. By learning to focus on now, the past recedes in importance. When individuals learn to look closely at what is actually going on in the present moment they can begin to see that there is nothing wrong at all. In fact, there is tremendous good present. So, meditation can move the individual away from the past where the self-dislike originated and can then move forward in the present moment to develop self-acceptance.

 

Another method to address self-dislike is to employ what psychologists call counterconditioning where one behavior or belief is eliminated by replacing it with its opposite. Self-dislike can be eliminated by replacing it with self-love.  Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) is designed to do just that. We practice loving ourselves and wishing ourselves well. It seems overly simple, but experience and research has shown that it can have remarkable impact.

 

Self-dislike is deeply ingrained. It will not be changed overnight. It will take practice and patience to weaken and eventually overcome it. But, contemplative practice can help.

 

So, engage in contemplative practice and learn to love thyself.

 

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love & affection.” ~Buddha

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Teacher Well-Being with Mindfulness

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“The connection between mindfulness and education is both natural and fundamentally important, now more than ever.  The difference between a good teacher and a great teacher, it is often that ineffable quality that you know but cannot pin down in words.”  – The Mindful teacher

 

Teaching is a stressful profession causing many to burn out and leave the profession. A recent survey found that roughly half a million U.S. teachers move or leave the profession each year. That’s a turnover rate of about 20 percent compared to 9 percent in 2009. Indeed, anywhere from 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years, with over nine percent leaving before the end of their first year.

 

The high stress of the occupation shows up in higher rates of anxiety disorders, but particularly in physical ailments, with higher rates of laryngitis, conjunctivitis, lower urinary tract infections, bronchitis, eczema/dermatitis and varicose veins in female teachers. There is a pressing need to retain good teachers. So, it has become very important to identify means to help relieve the stress and lower burnout rates.

 

Mindfulness has been shown repeatedly to decrease physiological and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/destress-with-mindfulness/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). Mindfulness has also been shown to help improve performance and relieve stress in students (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/08/building-a-better-adult-with-elementary-school-mindfulness-training/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/09/04/go-to-college-with-mindfulness/). In addition, mindfulness has been shown to decrease burnout in the medical profession (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/10/burnout-burnout-with-mindfulness/). So, it would seem reasonable to suspect that mindfulness training would help teachers to reduce stress, the consequent physical symptoms, and burnout.

 

In today’s Research News article “The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Educator Stress and Well-Being: Results from a Pilot Study”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1118695004821091/?type=3&theater

Frank and colleagues investigate the effectiveness of a mindfulness -based stress reduction (MBSR) program to improve high school teacher stress and well-being. They found that MBSR produced significant improvement in emotion regulation, self-kindness, mindfulness, overall self-compassion, and sleep quality in comparison to a no-treatment control group.

 

Hence it appears that MBSR is effective in improving well-being and reducing stress in high school teachers. Of course, more research is needed particularly with randomly assigned active control conditions and long term follow-up. But, these results are very promising. Given the importance of education to the well-being of our entire society, helping to relieve the problems experienced by teachers has to be a high priority.

 

This as well as research with students points to a development of a total mindful environment in education, where both students and teachers are trained in mindfulness and mindfulness practice is incorporated in the school day. The research suggests that this could have a major positive effect on education.

 

So, teach and learn with mindfulness

 

“I had decided that this would be my last year teaching until the mindfulness program began at my school. Now I am rededicated to my profession.” – Teacher, East Oakland

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Love thyself

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“Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.” ~Malcolm S. Forbes

 

There is a widespread problem in the west that many people don’t seem to like themselves.  The term used to describe this in psychology is self-loathing, although this term is far too strong and is not an appropriate descriptor for the majority of people. In general, the dislike of self has a much smaller magnitude than the word loathing implies. As a result I prefer self-dislike.

 

The self-dislike sometimes means that the individual dislikes every aspect of themselves; but most frequently people only don’t like certain aspects of themselves. Often it is there physical appearance, their school achievement, their career, their social behavior, etc. Making matters worse, they tend to overlook their strengths and discount them, focusing instead in the parts that they find problematic.

 

The discounting and overlooking of strengths shows up in what psychologists call the Imposter Syndrome. Here very successful people do not appear to be able to assimilate their success and instead attribute it to luck. The esteem with which they’re held makes them feel like imposters. It is estimated that two out of five successful people consider themselves frauds that 70 percent of all people feel like impostors at one time or another.

 

When this issue of self-dislike was raised to the Dalai Lama he was totally perplexed and repeatedly asked for clarifications. Not liking oneself is unheard of in his culture. So, he was dumbfounded and without comment. Hence, the problem seems to be primarily one of western culture. This suggests that self-dislike is learned within a particular cultural context with western culture and its values particularly adept at producing it.

 

There are sometimes circumstances that underlie self-dislike. Abuse or bullying, belittling parents, learning disabilities, physical appearance or disabilities are apt to result in self-dislike. But, most frequently it originates from western culture’s tendency to promote unrealistic expectations.

 

Physical appearance is a good case in point where the media holds up extraordinarily attractive individuals as what we should strive to be. Very, very few people can ever measure up and so can end up disliking their appearance. Academic achievement is another case where for many anything less than an “A” is seen as failure. Once again few can measure up and most end up disliking their intellectual ability. Sports are another case where the media holds up professional athletes as role models. These are exceptional people and the vast majority of the population can’t perform anywhere near their level and thus feel inadequate. It is relatively easy to think of many other unrealistic expectations prompted by our hyper-success oriented culture.

 

What can we do to overcome self-dislike. Unfortunately, the self-dislike is usually deeply ingrained and becomes resistant to persuasion or evidence. No matter how successful the person becomes or how much praise is received the person cannot truly believe that he or she has value or worth. They believe themselves to be imposters.

 

Self-dislike is an indicator that the individual is unsatisfied with the way things are. There is a strong desire for them to be different and the individual believes that if one or more aspects of themselves changed, then things would be much better. This is in fact rarely true. An overweight person who loses a significant amount of weight doesn’t usually become happier instead it frequently produces depression. A far better approach is for people to learn to accept things, including themselves, just as they are.

 

Meditation is uniquely suited to promote accepting things as they are. So, it would seem appropriate for dealing with self-dislike. Meditation focuses on awareness of the present moment. As we’ve seen, self-dislike is often rooted in the past. By learning to focus on now, the past recedes in importance. When individuals learn to look closely at what is actually going on in the present moment they can begin to see that there is nothing wrong at all. In fact, there is tremendous good present. So, meditation can move the individual away from the past where the self-dislike originated and can then move forward in the present moment to develop self-acceptance.

 

Another method to address self-dislike is to employ what psychologists call counterconditioning where one behavior or belief is eliminated by replacing it with its opposite. Self-dislike can be eliminated by replacing it with self-love.  Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) is designed to do just that. We practice loving ourselves and wishing ourselves well. It seems overly simple, but experience and research has shown that it can have remarkable impact.

 

Self-dislike is deeply ingrained. It will not be changed overnight. It will take practice and patience to weaken and eventually overcome it. But, contemplative practice can help.

 

So, engage in contemplative practice and learn to love thyself.

 

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love & affection.” ~Buddha

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Go to College with Mindfulness

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Many people have fond memories of their college years. It is likely, however, that they forgot about the stress and angst of those years. The truth is that college is generally very stressful for most students, from the uncertainty of freshman year, to the social stresses of emerging adulthood, to the anxiety of launching into a career after senior year. Evidence for the difficulties of these years can be found in college counseling centers which are swamped with troubled students. In fact, it’s been estimated that half of all college students report significant levels of anxiety and depression.

To make matters worse, many college students do not get sufficient sleep. In one study only 11% of college students reported getting sufficient sleep while 73% reported sleep problems. In another study it was found that about 27% of college students have overt sleep disorders such as narcolepsy or insomnia. These sleep problems are associated with lower grades. Many students attempt to combat this problem with heavy use of legal and illegal stimulants which further disrupt sleep and produce other problematic side effects..

So, it is important to find a safe and effective way to reduce stress, depression and anxiety and promote sleep in college students. Mindfulness training has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/29/get-your-calm-on/ and to reduce depression http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/04/get-out-of-the-dumps-with-loving-kindness-meditation/. In addition, it has been shown to improve sleep quality http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/mindfulness-is-a-snooze/. So, mindfulness training would appear to be well suited to deal with the problems of college students.

In today’s Research News article “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Koru: A Mindfulness Program for College Students and Other Emerging Adults”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1082437775113481/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4016159/

Greeson and colleagues test the effectiveness of a mindful meditation program with college students. The found that the student who participated in four 75-min meditation training sessions reported lower perceived stress and fewer sleep problems while having higher levels of mindfulness and self-compassion. When the wait-list control group was later provided with the meditation training, they evidenced the same improvements.

The improved sleep quality was positively associated with increased levels of mindfulness and self-compassion. In turn, the improved self-compassion after meditation training involved increased kindness toward both themselves and humanity in general, and decreased self-judgment, social isolation, and a lower tendency to over-identify with their problems. All of these changes after meditation training had moderate to large effect sizes which suggests that the training effects are of sufficient magnitude to be clinically useful.

These are exciting findings. A simple, relatively brief training is shown to be a safe and effective method to address the stress, mood problems, and sleep disturbance occurring in college students. This, if implemented widely, could greatly improve both the college experience and academic performance.

So, go to college with mindfulness. It will produce even fonder memories of the college years.

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies