Control Blood Pressure with Mindfulness

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“A chronic state of arousal isn’t healthy. It causes hypertension, and it has been implicated in diabetes, asthma, and various gastrointestinal disorders. Part of the arousal response is to turn off the immune system, so you are breaking down instead of healing yourself.” ~ Erika Friedmann

 

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) is an insidious disease because there are no overt symptoms. The individual feels fine. But it can be deadly as more than 360,000 American deaths, roughly 1,000 deaths each day, had high blood pressure as a primary or contributing cause. In addition, hypertension markedly increases the risk heart attack, stroke, heart failure, and kidney disease.  Hypertension is present in about 70% of first heart attacks, about 80% of first strokes, and about 70% of chronic heart failures. It is also a very common disorder with about 70 million American adults (29%) having high blood pressure and only about half (52%) of people with high blood pressure have their condition under control. Additionally, nearly a third of American adults have prehypertension, with blood pressure higher than normal, but not yet considered hypertension.

 

High blood pressure, because it doesn’t have any primary symptoms is usually only diagnosed by direct measurement of blood pressure usually by a health care professional. When hypertension is chronically present over three quarters of patients are treated with antihypertensive drugs. But these medications often have adverse side effects. So, patients feel lousy when taking the drugs, but fine when they’re not. So, compliance is a major issue with many patients not taking the drugs regularly or stopping entirely.

 

Obviously there is a need for alternative to drug treatments for hypertension. Stress is known to be a contributing factor to hypertension. It acts in part by increasing activity in the sympathetic nervous system, the activating component of the peripheral nervous system and by increasing the release of stress hormones. So controlling stress would appear to be a reasonable non-drug approach to reducing high blood pressure.

 

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs were designed specifically to reduce stress. They include meditation, body scan, and yoga practices. Meditation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/21/control-blood-pressure-with-meditation/), and yoga (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/yoga-contemplative-practice/), and body scan (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/29/get-your-calm-on/)  have  been shown to be successful in reducing both the psychological and physiological responses to stress. So, it would seem appropriate to use these techniques as alternatives to drug treatment for hypertension.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effect of Group Mindfulness-Based Stress-Reduction Program and Conscious Yoga on Lifestyle, Coping Strategies, and Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressures in Patients with Hypertension”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4685370/

Nejati and colleagues compared hypertensive patients randomly assigned to receive an 8-week MBSR program or no treatment. They found significant positive improvements produced by MBSR treatment including improved lifestyle (nutrition, exercise, health responsibility, stress management, interpersonal support, and self-actualization), coping strategies (problem-focused and emotion-focused), and blood pressure (systolic and diastolic).

 

These results are impressive, but need to be tempered with the fact that the control condition was a no treatment condition. Without an active control many potentially confounding variables are present. But the results reinforce previous studies that make a compelling case that mindfulness practices such as MBSR are excellent alternatives to medication for the treatment of hypertension.

 

So, control blood pressure with mindfulness.

 

“Meditation can help us in many aspects of our lives, whether it be physically or mentally. It is a discipline that when practiced daily significantly decreases stress related diseases such as high blood pressure while increasing a deep relaxation response and the feel-good factor.” – Zenlama
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Get more Spiritual with Mindfulness

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“While the stillness and connecting with one’s inner self cultivated through mindfulness are certainly an important part of a spiritual practice, feelings of wonder and awe — the amazement we get when faced with incredible vastness — are also central to the spiritual experience. And according to new research, mindfulness may actually set the stage for awe.” – Carolyn Gregoire

 

Mindfulness practices developed primarily as spiritual practices. Contemplative practices developed millennia ago and were seen in Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity and many native (so called primitive) religions. They were used to heighten the practitioner’s experience with ultimate reality, whether that be a deity or seeing the nature of reality. By calming the mind and reducing the internal chatter contemplative practices are thought to open up a transcendent reality not otherwise attainable. So, mindfulness and spirituality/religion have been intimately linked. (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/16/why-are-we-spiritualreligious/).

 

It has only been in the last few decades that mindfulness has been practiced as a secular activity. This allowed it to flourish in a skeptical west which saw it as a heathen religious practice. As a result, mindfulness practices were employed for secular purposes such as improvement of health, psychological well-being, and cognitive development. But, now because their secular benefits have been firmly established by science, mindfulness practices have become accepted and firmly embedded in western life. The establishment of their acceptability, has led to a re-emergence of their initial purpose of the development of spirituality.

 

Adolescence is often a time of rapid spiritual development as the teens begin to seek deeper understandings of reality and life. But, there has been very little research into the emergence of spirituality and religious practice in adolescents. In today’s Research News article “Support for adolescent spirituality: contributions of religious practice and trait mindfulness”

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Cobb and colleagues explore spirituality, religious practices, and mindfulness in 11 to 16-year old adolescents. They asked “two questions: (1) do different portraits of spiritual life exist for adolescents involving religious practice and spiritual experience and (2) might religious practice and trait mindfulness offer support for the development of spiritual experience.” They used statistical techniques to identify different clusters of activity and discovered four unique profiles of spirituality and religious practices: Highest Overall Spirituality, Spiritual Experience, Religious Practice, and Lowest Overall Spirituality.

 

The adolescents indicating Highest Overall Spirituality had a strong religious practice and strong spiritual beliefs and experiences. The Spiritual Experience group had a moderate-high level of spiritual experience and Spiritual Self-Discovery, but generally did not religiously practice. Religious Practice group was defined by moderate-high levels of private religious practice and religious identity and relatively low spiritual experience and values. Finally, the Lowest Overall Spirituality group had low levels of spiritual experience and low levels of religious practice.

 

Spirituality/religious practice groups and percentage of adolescents in each group.

Spirituality
High Low
High 28% 11%
Religious Highest Overall Spirituality Religious Practice
Practice Low 28% 34%
Spiritual Experience Lowest Overall Spirituality

 

Cobb and colleagues also found that the adolescents in the high spirituality groups had significantly higher mindfulness than those in the low spirituality groups regardless of the level of religious practice. This analysis implies that high mindfulness is associated with spirituality while religious practice is not.

 

The authors speculate that mindfulness is a “gateway” to great spiritual awareness and ultimately a more integrated spiritual life. That would certainly fit with the origins of mindfulness practices as means to attain spiritual development. But, their results do not demonstrate that mindfulness causes spirituality as there was no active manipulation of either. It is possible that high levels of spirituality cause high mindfulness or that some third factor such as familial spirituality might simultaneously increase both spirituality and mindfulness. Research is needed wherein mindfulness training is implemented and its effects on spirituality measured. In addition, it will be important to explore these relationships in older individuals to establish that the relationship of mindfulness and spirituality is not simply restricted to adolescents.

 

Regardless, it is clear that spirituality and mindfulness are intimately connected, that an ability to quiet the mind and look inside is highly associated with spiritual experience. So, get more spiritual with mindfulness.

 

“My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.” ― Albert Einstein
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

Lower Aggression with Mindfulness

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“There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death. Whether it’s the mundane violence we do to our bodies by overeating toxic food or drink or the extreme violence of child abuse, domestic warfare, life-threatening poverty, addiction, or state terrorism.” – bell hooks
Aggression and violence are highly linked to substance abuse particularly alcohol. It is estimated that the proportion of violent offenders who are likely to be drinking at the time of the offense is up to 86 percent for homicide offenders, 37 percent for assault offenders, 60 percent for sexual offenders, up to 57 percent of men and 27 percent of women involved in marital violence, and 13 percent of child abusers. This relationship appears to have a causal connection to the effect of these substances on the nervous system with many drugs of abuse affecting the brain in such a way as to release aggressive tendencies. Obviously, there is a need to find methods to help deal with aggressive tendencies in substance abusers.

 

Mindfulness has been shown to be helpful in the treatment of substance abuse and for relapse prevention (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/addiction/). It is also know to assist with emotion regulation and anger management (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/emotions/). So, it would seem reasonable to believe that mindfulness may be related to aggressive behavior in substance abusers.  In today’s Research News article “Dispositional Mindfulness and Aggression Among Women in Residential Substance Use Treatment”

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Shorey and colleagues investigated the relationship between mindfulness and aggression in women who were undergoing residential substance abuse treatment. They found that the higher the level of mindfulness the lower the levels of aggression in the women, including verbal aggression, physical aggression, and aggressive attitude.

 

It should be noted that these results were correlational in nature and as such causation cannot be determined. It is possible that high mindfulness lowers aggressiveness, or that low aggressiveness causes increased mindfulness, or that some other factor is related to both. It will require an active controlled test perhaps including mindfulness training to determine if mindfulness may be a useful treatment for aggression in substance abusers.

 

Nevertheless, it would appear that there is a negative, inverse, relationship between mindfulness and aggression in women in substance abuse treatment. There are a number of possible explanations for the relationship. Since mindfulness improves emotion regulation it may assist the women in reacting in a controlled and appropriate manner when anger and frustration arises rather than evoking aggressive behavior. Also, since mindfulness is known to reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/) and attempting to control an addiction is stressful, it is possible that mindful women may be better at coping with stress rather than lashing out aggressively. Finally, since mindfulness appears to improve the response to substance abuse treatment it is possible that an improved ability to control urges for substances relaxes the women making them less aggressive.

 

Regardless of the explanation, the results suggest that mindfulness is associated with lower aggression.

 

“The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” – Pema Chodran

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Help Cancer Survivor Memory with Yoga

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“Up to 75% of cancer patients experience some form of cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) during cancer treatments (eg, chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, hormone therapy), and this impairment persists for months or up to 20 years in 20% to 35% of survivors.” – Janelsins, et al.

 

Cognitive impairments are a frequent side effect of cancer treatment. This has been dubbed “chemo brain.” Patients often refer to it as a mental cloudiness. The patients report problems including forgetting things, trouble concentrating, trouble remembering details like names and dates, trouble multi-tasking, like answering the phone while cooking, taking longer to finish things, disorganized and slower thinking, and trouble remembering common words. These cognitive impairments generally produce problems with work and even social relationships such that patients tend to isolate themselves. They can also produce treatment problems as the patients often forget to take their medications.

 

These problems result from the fact that chemotherapy, radiation therapy and many cancer drugs directly affect the nervous system. One of the potential intermediaries is sleep disruption as cancer treatments are known to produce sleep problems and lack of sleep is known to produce cognitive problems like those reported with “chemo brain.” At present there are no known treatments for these treatment induced cognitive impairments. Contemplative practices have been shown to affect memory (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/memory/), promote increased sleep quality (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/sleep/) and have positive effects on cancer treatment and recovery (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cancer/).  So, perhaps contemplative practices may be useful for the alleviation of “chemo brain” symptoms.

 

Yoga has been shown to improve sleep quality in recovered cancer patients. So, it would seem to be a likely contemplative practice candidate for the treatment of the cognitive effects of cancer treatment. In today’s Research News article “YOCAS©® Yoga Reduces Self-reported Memory Difficulty in Cancer Survivors in a Nationwide Randomized Clinical Trial: Investigating Relationships Between Memory and Sleep”

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Janelsins and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial of the effect of a yoga practice program on the sleep and cognitive symptoms of recovered cancer patients. They randomly assigned the patients, 2 to 24 months after completing surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy, to either a yoga or a standard care group. The toga practice consisted of twice weekly 75-minute yoga sessions for four weeks. The study found that the yoga practice both reduced memory problems and sleep impairments. In addition, they showed that the sleep improvement was in part responsible for the yoga produced improvement in memory.

 

These results of this was a well conducted controlled trial are encouraging. Additionally, the yoga practice did not produce any adverse effects. So. the results suggest that yoga practice is a safe and effective treatment for the sleep and memory problems that accompany recovery from cancer. They further suggest that at least in part, the poor sleep quality in recovered cancer patients is responsible for some of the memory impairment and the sleep improvement produced by yoga may in part be responsible for some of the memory improvement seen in these patients.  Since, yoga has many other physical and psychological beneficial effects (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/yoga-contemplative-practice/), it would seem to be an almost ideal addition to the usual care that recovered cancer patients receive.

 

So, help cancer survivor memory with yoga.

 

“The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head – chemo-brain they call it. It’s awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.” – Christopher Hitchens

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve High Level Thinking with Mindfulness

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“Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.” – Og Mandino

 

In the modern world education is a key for success. Where a high school education was sufficient in previous generations, a college degree is now required to succeed in the new knowledge based economies. There is a lot of pressure on students to excel so that they can be admitted to the best universities and there is a lot of pressure on university students to excel so that they can get the best jobs after graduation. As a result, parents and students are constantly looking for ways to improve student performance in school.

 

The primary tactic has been to pressure the student and clear away routine tasks and chores so that the student can focus on their studies. But, this might in fact be counterproductive as the increased pressure can actually lead to stress and anxiety which can impede performance. A better tactic may be the development of mindfulness skills with contemplative practices. These practices and high levels of mindfulness have been shown to be helpful in coping with the school environment and for the performance of both students and teachers (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/school/). So, perhaps, mindfulness training may provide the needed edge in school.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effects of a Mindfulness Meditation Course on Learning and Cognitive Performance among University Students in Taiwan”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1151653591525232/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4657094/

Ching and colleagues took advantage of the natural experiment provided in a private university which required a semester long mindfulness course as a core course for all students. The course taught meditation, body scan, and everyday mindfulness skills. They compared students who completed the course in the fall semester to those who were scheduled to take the course in the spring semester. They measured the students with the College Learning Effectiveness Inventory (CLEI) which measures psychosocial factors including thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to academic outcomes and also measured performance on the cognitive tasks of vigilance, choice reaction times, spatial working memory, and memory scanning.

 

The study demonstrated that the mindfulness training produced significantly higher scores on the CLEI suggesting improved attitudes and behaviors impacting learning and academic performance. In addition, the mindfulness training produced improved performance on the cognitive tasks, including increased accuracy in the vigilance, choice reaction time, and spatial working memory tasks. These results suggest that mindfulness training can improve cognitive performance in college students and improve their psychosocial attitudes toward and adjustment to college life. Although actual grade performance was not investigated, the improved skills would predict better academic performance.

 

There are a number of known effects of mindfulness practice that could be responsible for the improved cognitive and psychosocial skills in the college students. Mindfulness training has been shown to directly affect cognitive skills (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cognition/), social skills (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/social-behavior/), and psychological well-being (see   http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/well-being/). In addition, mindfulness training is known to reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/) which may reduce the anxiety produced by the pressures of college. Finally, mindfulness training is known to improve sleep (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/sleep/) which is known to be a problem for college students. So, it appears clear that mindfulness training has many desired effects that promote school performance and thus mindfulness training should be considered for incorporation in school curricula.

 

So, improve high level thinking with mindfulness.

 

“Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.” – W. E. B. Du Bois
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Your Stress Responses with Mindful Awareness

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“Researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 80 percent of all major illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders, and infectious ailments of all kinds.” – Prescription for Nutritional Healing 4th edition

 

The mind and body are intimately connected and can never be completely separated. This can be witnessed in how the brain and the hormonal systems interact. The stress response is a case in point. Difficult, challenging, outside situations affect the mind which responds by producing psychological and physiological stress responses. These include the release of stress hormones such as cortisol. This prepares the body to fight off the potentially damaging stressors. This is normally a good thing, but if it persists over a prolonged period the stress response itself becomes damaging and a source of disease. Hence, it is important to not block the stress response but to insure that it doesn’t become a chronic condition.

 

The stress hormones including cortisol not only affect the peripheral physiology, they also affect the brain. The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are particularly sensitive to cortisol. These are also sites that are affected by meditation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/01/this-is-your-brain-on-meditation/). In addition, it has been shown that meditation reduces the psychological and physiological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). So, it is possible that meditation has its effects on stress responses in part by altering the brain structures that respond to stress hormones, that it changes the brains response to stress hormones.

 

In today’s Research News article “Can the neural–cortisol association be moderated by experience-induced changes in awareness?”

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4649618/

Lau and colleagues separated meditation naïve adults into two groups, an awareness-based compassion meditation (ABCM) group and a relaxation group. The groups practiced for six weeks for comparable amounts of time. Following practice, they found that the meditation produced a significant increase in mindfulness while the relaxation actually reduced mindfulness. These changes in mindfulness were significantly related to cortisol levels with high mindfulness associated with low cortisol. In addition, they found that both increases in mindfulness and decreases in plasma cortisol levels were associated with increases in the synchronization of spontaneous brain activities of the Hippocampus. In other words, mindfulness moderates the ability of cortisol to affect the hippocampus. Hence, meditation increased mindfulness that in turn decreased both blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol and the ability of cortisol to affect brain function.

 

These results demonstrate that mindfulness affects the stress response, with higher mindfulness associated with lower levels of stress hormones. But, they also demonstrate another effect of mindfulness on the stress system. High mindfulness was associated with a greater effect of cortisol on the activity of the hippocampus. These results then demonstrate that mindfulness has a direct effect of reducing stress hormone levels and also indirect effects by affecting the influence of the stress hormones on the brain. This is a clear case of mind-body interaction.

 

The findings of Lau and colleagues demonstrate two physiological mechanisms through which mindfulness practice has powerful effects on reducing psychological and physiological responses to stress. These results further support the use of mindfulness practice to improve stress responding and thereby improve health and well-being. These effects of mindfulness on stress may be a major reason why mindfulness training is so beneficial to a wide array of health conditions.

 

So, improve your stress responses with mindful awareness.

 

“Cortisol could be described as “Miss Misunderstood” of hormones. Elevated levels of cortisol is not always bad. Low levels of cortisol is not bad either. Cortisol is there for a reason. The body uses cortisol to deal with stress and pain and it fluctuates according to the body’s demand. The problem arises when the stress is not dealt with for an extended period of time and as a result the body’s stress adaption mechanism breaks down and cortisol levels go crazy. In order to prevent such a fate, stress reduction could definitely offer significant help.” – YawnCentral

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Feel Better Emotionally with Loving-Kindness Meditation

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“Metta is the priceless treasure that enlivens us and brings us into intimacy with ourselves and others. It is the force of love that will lead beyond fragmentation, loneliness and fear. The late Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba often said, “Don’t throw anyone out of your heart.” One of the most powerful healings (and greatest adventures) of our lifetime can come about as we learn to live by this dictum.” – Sharon Salzberg

 

In the past Psychology focused on negative states and emotions, such as mental illness and depression, anxiety, hate, anger etc. Although this resulted in greater understanding and better treatments for people who were suffering, it also resulted in a neglect of positive states and emotions such as happiness, love, compassion, joy, etc. But, in the last couple of decades it has dawned on the field that perhaps positive states may be important to cultivate. They could serve not only as antidotes and treatments for the negative states and emotions, but also could improve the existence of the mentally healthy. This new movement has been labelled Positive Psychology. It is dedicated to discovering ways to promote and enhance human flourishing; to develop better and happier lives.

 

An ancient practice of “metta” meditation has been promoted as a possible method to develop positive states and emotions. “Metta” meditation is also known as Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM). It is a deceptively simple practice (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/26/meditation-techniques-loving-kindness-meditation/) that is aimed at developing kindness and positive regard for the self and others. But, as simple as it may be, it has profound effects (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/loving-kindness/). LKM has been shown to improve positive mood, improve social interactions. and the complex understanding of others. It has also been shown to decrease negative emotions and to be an effective treatment for depression. This suggests that LKM may be an important practice for not only the treatment of negative states and emotions, but also for the promotion of human flourishing and happiness.

 

In today’s Research News article “The effect of loving-kindness meditation on positive emotions: a meta-analytic review”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1150546504969274/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4630307/

Zeng and colleagues review the literature on the effects of Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) on positive emotions and well-being. The reviewed literature showed that LKM produced significant positive effects on the practitioners’ immediate and overall daily positive emotions with moderate effect sizes. These effects were seen both with short-term and long-tern LKM practice. LKM mainly cultivated peaceful or prosocial positive emotions. Thus, the published literature supports the use of Loving Kindness Meditation for enhancing positive emotional states.

 

There is a need to investigate the mechanisms by which LKM may be having its effects. One possibility that is supported in the research literature is that LKM improves emotion regulation. This allows the individual to fully experience the emotion yet respond to it adaptively and constructively. Hence, in part LKM may enhance positive states by allowing the individual to better deal with negative emotional states. It has also been shown that LKM reduces the psychological and physiological responses to stress. By feeling less stressed LKM practitioners may experience more positive emotions. Another possibility is that LKM enhances self-regard, allowing the individual to feel good about themselves as well as others. Regardless of the mechanism, it appears clear that Loving Kindness Meditation can be recommended as a practice to enhance positive emotions and states.

 

So, feel better emotionally with loving-kindness meditation.

 

For one who mindfully develops
Boundless loving-kindness
Seeing the destruction of clinging,
The fetters are worn away.

  • Buddha

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

If a tree falls

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“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” ― George Berkeley

 

The Philosopher George Berkeley 300 years ago first posed this question for philosophical analysis. It has been discussed ever since. He posed it in a deep philosophical sense to discern if anything actually exists outside of the observer; that is whether anything exists without a perceiver. Buddhism asserts that there is nothing outside of awareness and that each individual is only pure awareness. So, Buddhism would definitely answer Berkeley’s question that there was no sound. On the other hand, materialism asserts that there is nothing but a physical world. So, a materialist would answer Berkeley’s question that the physical sound occurred regardless of whether someone was there to perceive it or not.

 

In one sense, sound requires a perceiver, as sound is a psychological experience. The tree falling creates pressure waves in the surrounding air, but these are mere vibrations in the atmosphere. It is only when you insert an observer are these oscillations in air pressure translated into something called a sound. Similarly, are leaves green without a perceiver. No, the experience of green is like a sound a psychological experience. Leaves reflect electromagnetic radiation of a particular frequency. It is only when you insert an observer are these light waves translated into something called green.

 

This answer, though, would probably have been very dissatisfying to Berkeley as it doesn’t address the deeper question that he was posing. Is there anything beyond experience? Are there physical things outside of ourselves that we are able to experience because of our senses or are things simply constructs occurring within experience without anything actually present outside?

 

Contemplative practices in general work to quiet the mind of internal chatter so that the individual attains a state of pure experience. Even when thoughts occur the practices involve simply letting the thought itself be simply another experience, letting it rise up and fall away like any other sensory experience. In essence when we are successful in a contemplative practice we have become pure real-time experiencers.

 

As a real-time experiencer, we hear the pure crash of the fallen tree and we see the pure green of the leaf. In truth, these experiences have no real outside analog. The experiences of sound and green are unique unto themselves and there is nothing physical like it. Just try to describe the sound to a person who was deaf from birth or the color to a person blind from birth. You will quickly note that there is no external referent that you can bring to these peoples’ attention that is even vaguely close to the experiences.

 

I personally, thoroughly enjoy observing wine connoisseurs attempting to describe the experience of drinking their favorite wine. A complex vocabulary has been developed but it is funny to listen to the struggle to transmit an experience that is only an internal experience to another who hasn’t themselves tasted the wine. “It’s insolent and spunky with overtones of smoke and blackberries with a satiny finish.”

 

So, what your experiencing in a deep contemplative state, or actually at all times, are completely unique to you as an experiencer, cannot be perceived by anyone else, and has no exact replica in a physical world. That would make you a perceiverless perceiver, an experiencer that cannot be itself experienced, a watcher that cannot be watched. It’s in essence the sound with no one there to hear it.

 

This does not happen without your awareness. There is nothing here except your awareness. It is what is doing the experiencing, perceiving, watching. So without awareness these things do not exist. There is no sound. There is no green. This in essence answers Berkley’s deeper question. There is nothing without awareness.

 

So, engage in contemplative practice and see what you truly are, pure awareness.

 

“Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, “The flag moves.” The other said, “The wind moves.” They argued back and forth but could not agree.

The Sixth Ancestor said, “Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves.” The two monks were struck with awe.” – The Mumonkan Case 29, translation by Robert Aitken

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve Heart Disease with Mindfulness

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“Think about it: Heart disease and diabetes, which account for more deaths in the U.S. and worldwide than everything else combined, are completely preventable by making comprehensive lifestyle changes. Without drugs or surgery.”- Dean Ornish

 

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer, claiming more lives than all forms of cancer combined. “Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack.” – Centers for Disease Control.

 

A myriad of treatments has been developed for heart disease including a variety of surgical procedures and medications. In addition, lifestyle changes have proved to be effective including quitting smoking, weight reduction, improved diet, physical activity, and reducing stresses. Contemplative practices, such as tai chi and yoga, have also been shown to be helpful for heart health (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cardiovascular/). In addition, mindfulness practices have also been shown to be helpful for producing the kinds of other lifestyle changes needed such as smoking cessation, weight reduction, and stress reduction.

 

One problem with the employment of mindfulness treatment programs to treat disease is that they require patients to meet frequently with professional therapists in either individual or group settings. This can be inconvenient, costly, and time consuming. So, it would be very helpful if mindfulness based techniques could be successfully delivered over the internet. In today’s Research News article “Web-Based Mindfulness Intervention in Heart Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1149633058393952/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4671576/

Younge and colleagues test whether a web-based mindfulness training program can be successfully used for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. They compared a randomly assigned group of patients with heart disease undergoing usual medical care plus a 12-week on-line mindfulness training to a group only receiving usual care. The mindfulness training program included different meditations, self-reflection, yoga, and practical assignments and suggestions for using mindfulness in day-to-day life. They found that the mindfulness intervention group had significantly improved exercise capacity, compared to usual treatment, as measured with a 6-minute walking test of cardiovascular function. The improvements included decreased heart rate and blood pressure.

 

The fact that mindfulness improved exercise capacity is important as it is well known that a well-designed exercise program is fundamental to the treatment of heart disease. This combined with the proven ability of mindfulness training to help with the other lifestyle changes that are helpful for heart disease suggest that mindfulness training should be included in a heart disease treatment program. The fact that the mindfulness training was delivered over the internet is very important. This markedly improves the convenience, affordability, and availability of this treatment to patients.

 

So, improve heart disease with mindfulness.

 

“If you knew you could change your lifestyle and diet and avoid heart disease and other things, you should do it.” – Laila Ali

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies