Lecture 7: Mindfulness PDF

Lecture 7 : Mindfulness Type Status Not started Why Study Mindfulness? Western research has indicated that meditation can be effectively used to: Treat psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, subs...

Lecture 7 : Mindfulness Type Status Not started Why Study Mindfulness? Western research has indicated that meditation can be effectively used to: Treat psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, sleep disorders, ADHD, and conduct disorder Recent reviews indicate that overall effect sizes are modest, but mindfulness is still considered an evidence-based treatment for most psychological disorders The small effects are comparable with what would be expected from the use of psychotropic medications (e.g., antidepressant) in a primary care population but without the associated toxicities Treat physical conditions, including chronic pain and cardiovascular disease, and enhance immune system function Lengthen life span quite dramatically – 30% reduction in mortality due to heart disease and 49% reduction in mortality due to cancer, according to one 20-year study Slow the cognitive decline associated with “normal aging” Increase activity in areas of the brain associated with optimism, empathy, attention, and emotion regulation – highly trained “super-meditators” show activity in these regions that is off the charts Awareness and Acceptance All mindfulness therapies share a common aim of cultivating an attitude of awareness of the present moment with acceptance This is an attitude that extends toward whatever is arising at the moment, including thoughts, feelings, and experiences of contact with the outer world The aim is in line with the psychoanalytic view that it is primarily experiential avoidance that causes distress Neuropsychological evidence that awareness/labeling of negative emotions actually reduces their intensity (fMRI study): Participants were shown frightening faces/faces expressing strong emotions and asked to choose a word that described the emotion on display Controls were asked merely to identify the gender of the people in the photos ➜ Labeling the fear-inducing object Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 1  Reduced activity in the amygdala, the seat of fear and other negative emotions Increased activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex (right ventrolateral and medial PFC) involved in vigilance and discrimination, relative to controls 💡☞ Naming the emotion transformed the images from objects of fear to objects of scrutiny, potentially resulting in a more effective response Study on spider phobia: Researchers recruited participants who had a spider phobia and exposed them to spiders Four experimental conditions that differed in their instructions for what to do with the anxiety 1. Label the anxiety felt about the spider 2. Reappraisal: think differently of the spider so that it feels less threatening 3. Distract from the anxiety elicited by the spider 4. No specific instruction (control) Later (on Day 2 and Day 9), participants returned to the lab and were again exposed to spiders to test the long-term effects of their emotion manipulation ➜ Those who had been assigned to labeling their emotions had lower physiological reactivity to the spiders, as measured by skin conductance responses ➜ Within the affect labeling condition, participants who verbalized a larger number of fear and anxiety words had even fewer skin conductance responses Unfortunately though, being accepting and nonjudgmental is easier said than done because of our natural human tendency to avoid painful experiences ➜ It is very difficult, if not impossible, to force ourselves to fully experience situations and emotions that we deem to be painful Traumatic experiences are a classic example of this However, even in ordinary life, we are constantly dissociating from painful situations and emotions – or ones that we think may potentially cause pain This may range from actual pain-inducing experiences to insights that might cause us to feel bad about ourselves 💡☞ There is a limit to the extent to which we can force ourselves just to “be with” our anger or sadness or fear. Meditation is a technique that can help resolve this problem of experiential avoidance. Step One in mindfulness practice is to engage in focused meditation because: 1. It is very difficult to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings if we are afflicted by “monkey mind” ➜ Focused meditation allows us to calm monkey mind 2. Focused meditation ultimately enables us to connect with the non- moving mind and the “suchness” of experience, which produces a sense of general “Okness” Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 2  Step Two: Focused meditation is just calmly abiding, with the object of concentration – not obsessive glomming There should be a relaxed connection with the object The aim is to “be present with the object,” not to lock onto it and grip it like a dog, or to concentrate on it the way you might concentrate on memorizing the details of an image As the meditation develops, allow your perception of the object to change as you are present with the object on more and more subtle levels... The focus becomes just stillness itself, rather than the physical object You find that there is something in you that is imperturbable and open, fundamentally calm Developing one-pointedness of concentration enables you to find one-pointedness in yourself, the non-moving mind, which resolves all things « Stilling the eyes is a way of stilling the mind Meditation Q & A 1. Can focused meditation produce negative effects? a. Generally safe. But for those with history of severe trauma/abuse i. In those cases, when doing focused meditation, it is recommended that one direct attention to an external object or the feet, rather than the breath, as the latter may trigger too many memories and emotions Lurid example of the agitated mind and how it causes us to be unable to sit alone with our thoughts and emotions: Participants were asked to sit in a chair, without a device or a book and without falling asleep, for 6 to 15 minutes They were given the option to self-administer mild electric shocks rather than just sit alone with their thoughts ➜ 67% of men and 25% of women did just that! Relationship between Attention and Happiness Study in which 1000 people were texted at random times throughout the day As soon as participants received text, they had to answer 3 questions 1. What are you doing right now? 2. Where is your mind right now? Is it focused on what you’re doing or is it focused elsewhere? 3. How happy or unhappy are you right at this very moment? Results: “A wandering mind is an unhappy mind” Average American adult spends 47% of waking life not paying attention to what they’re doing When they were not paying attention, they were significantly less happy Meditation and the Default Mode Network Meditators from various traditions show reduced activity in their Default Mode Network (DMN) when meditating, as well as when they are not meditating The DMN or “task negative network”: Includes posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), and angular gyrus Is active when we are not focused on a particular task Is involved in self-referencing, recognition of emotions in others, remembering the past, and imagining the future Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 3  Is associated with ruminating about the past, worrying about the future, thinking about what other people are thinking about you Mindfulness as a Two-Part Process However, use of calm-abiding practice (focused awareness) to stabilize the mind is only the first step in mindfulness practice This first step is what make the second step – mindfulness or awareness of the present moment with acceptance (open monitoring) – possible because... Calm-abiding practice connects you with the suchness of things, with the ground of reality, which imbues all things with a sense of “Okness” This causes the sense of judgment to naturally drop away, and there is a cognition that everything is exactly as it should be Integration of Body and Mind A number of modern-day teachers have emphasized that inclusion of some sort of practice that integrates the physical body with the mind, such as various types of yoga, is critical for mindfulness to be effective for modern laypeople who do not have luxury of spending 12 hours a day meditating To a large extent, becoming more mindful or aware of one’s thoughts and emotions means becoming more aware of one’s body Meditation can help us “physicalize the mind,” so that when we have a negative thought, we can actually feel it almost as something physically pulling us off center ➜ This can make it vastly easier to control negative thoughts and emotions in daily life Some yogis have demonstrated quite remarkable control over body functions, such as breathing, heart rate, body temperature and other vital function: Tummo practice ☛Using Mindfulness to Work with Negative Emotions Try to experience the emotion fully in your body- energy-mind, that is, focus on the energy and physical sensations of the emotion, but do not let yourself get caught up in the content, in the story associated with the emotion ☛Mindfulness gives us insight into the narrative we have about ourselves ★ Your ordinary mind cannot do this: remember that meditation is not done with the ordinary thinking mind When we think, we just stay caught in our own conceptual systems, our own habitual ways of looking at things ➜ Meditation accesses a deeper mind with much greater awareness that is able to solve problems more effectively ☛ Using Mindfulness to Break Habits Develop awareness of how you are feeling immediately before and during you engage in the problematic behavior If you are unable to implement the replacement activity, simply note how you feel as you continue to engage in the old habit and in particular, how you feel when you finally stop 💡 ➜ That will reduce the odds or your engaging in the behavior again in the future Acceptance and Transformation Making peace with where we are: Feeling and accepting our negative emotions allow us to transform those emotions On the other hand, ignoring, repressing, denying, or even trying to change negative emotions ties up our energetic resources and actually makes real change much more difficult. “What you resist, persists” This is the underlying premise of mindfulness practice and, as discussed earlier, it is also supported by neuropsychological research Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 4  Self-Acceptance and Self-Improvement Motivation But if I accept myself fully, won’t that undermine my motivation to try hard and improve? Actually, it’s just the opposite: beating up on yourself results in a less effectual response If an experience is painful, we tend to avoid looking at it, so we don’t learn from it The attempt to suppress the negative thoughts and emotions saps our energetic resources Feeling bad about ourselves causes us to engage in more unhealthy habits Self-compassion study Participants were told that the purpose of the study was to understand the relationship between test performance and personality and asked to identify their biggest weakness. Then they took a difficult test. Self-compassion group: saw an additional statement embedded in the instructions that read, “If you had difficulty with the test you just took, you’re not alone. It’s common for students to have difficulty with tests like this. If you feel bad about how you did, try not to be too hard on yourself.” Results: Self-compassion increased study time, which in turn predicted higher test scores, though it did not directly lead to improved performance Open, Nonjudgmental Awareness Mindfulness practice is about developing greater awareness Taken to higher levels, this can produce states of great bliss If we fully connect with the “suchness” of things in our body-energy-mind, we find a ground which holds everything and gives rise to a sensation of great bliss in the center of the body 💡 This takes the truism that true happiness must come from within to a whole new level! enlightenment is right here right now ☞ The big secret is that The experience of bliss in turn makes it possible to connect even more fully with the suchness of things, to be even more inclusive... The above is accompanied by a transformation of perception. You see that everything is perfect just as it is. You don’t need to change anything bad into anything good or to “fix” yourself in any way Ironically, this actually makes it easier to effect changes because your energy is no longer all tied up in beating yourself up Applying Mindfulness to Daily Life Mindfulness practice is not just about sitting on a meditation cushion; it’s about a way of being that extends to how we engage in all of our daily activities. It’s knowing that you are exactly where you should be this moment and appreciating this moment, engaging in activities with full focus of attention Ex: Walking meditation is about really enjoying the walking – walking not in order to arrive, but just to enjoy each step ☞ Mindfulness doesn’t just mean “noticing things.” It’s about being present with experience in a way that’s much more vivid, immediate, and real Even “negative emotions” are perceived as juicy experiences that are “OK” Mindfulness and awe Research has indicated that the emotion that confers the greatest health benefits may be awe Participants who scored high on awe had the lowest levels of interleukin-6, which is tied to inflammation ☛Lovingkindness Practice Preliminary practice (visualization + gratitude) Start by giving loving-kindness to yourself because without loving yourself, it is almost impossible to love others. If you are an empty cup, you have nothing to give. Research on Compassion Practice Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 5  Study on compassion meditation in long-term Tibetan meditation practitioners who had had logged in 10,000-50,000 hours of practice Meditators were asked to engage in compassion meditation during EEG study Compassion meditation does not focus on particular objects, memories, or images; rather the emphasis is on generating feelings of benevolence and compassion, causing them to “pervade the mind as a way of being” Controls were undergraduates who had been given a crash course in compassion meditation and had practiced for an hour Results: Long-term practitioners showed high levels of activity in gamma-band frequencies (25-42+ Hz) and increased neural synchrony This involves large regions of the brain pulsing in synchrony 30-80 times a second As they went deeper into meditation (jhana states), there appeared to be both a spreading and a strengthening of gamma wave activity When controls engaged in compassion meditation, they also showed an increase in gamma activity, but the increase was slight Gamma waves Type of very high-frequency brain wave Research has linked neural synchrony of high-frequency brain waves to enhanced attention, working memory, learning and conscious perception Size of the gamma wave is related to the number of neurons firing in sync Greater synchrony between various sections of the brain indicates greater integration of cognitive and affective functions and less dissociation Compartmentalization of brain functions is associated with aging and cognitive decline What the meditation practitioners themselves reported experiencing during this state: A change in the quality of moment-to-moment awareness, bringing with it a vast panorama of perceptual clarity Monks who had spent the most years meditating generated the highest levels of gamma waves Increased gamma activity and neural synchrony were evident in the long-term practitioners even when they were not meditating Gamma Wave & Cognitive Functioning MIT neuroscientists found that exposing mice to strobe lights and clicking sounds at frequencies that stimulate gamma waves reduced levels of beta-amyloid associated with Alzheimer’s and improved cognitive function Study 1: Mice performed better on memory tasks, including recognizing objects and navigating a water maze to find a hidden platform. Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 6  Mice were engineered to exhibit Alzheimer’s-like qualities Exposed to clicking sounds at 40 Hz for an hour a day for a week Results: Induced synchronized gamma-wave oscillations in the brain Gamma waves are involved in concentration, sleep, perception, and movement, and are disrupted in patients with Alzheimer’s Reduced levels of beta-amyloid and tau-proteins in the auditory cortex and nearby hippocampus Increased activation of microglia, which is important in clearing harmful debris, and improved functioning of blood vessels Study 2: Mice were exposed to a combination of light and sound stimulation Results: Expanded effects to prefrontal cortex Resulted in clustering of microglia around amyloid deposits and reduced amyloid pathology Effects were short-lived, however, diminishing a week after stimulation Longer-term follow-up study on mice with more advanced Alzheimer’s disease Mice given 6 weeks of gamma entrainment using strobe lights Results: Increased gamma brain waves in the visual cortex, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex Reduced neuronal and synaptic loss in these brain regions Reduced inflammation Improved performance on memory tasks ➜ Findings point to an overall neuroprotective effect, even in the later stages of neurodegeneration New clinical trials starting using human participants Meditation, Prefrontal Dominance & Optimism EEG studies by Richard Davidson found that meditation practice is associated with increased left prefrontal activity As mentioned earlier, left prefrontal cortex brain activity is known to be associated with positive outlook and feelings of happiness and well-being Early on, Davidson had noticed that an elderly Tibetan monk in one of his studies showed much greater predominance of activity in the left prefrontal than any of the other people previously tested Research on other long-term meditators provided further confirmatory evidence Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 7  For instance, one meditation adept, Matthieu Ricard, showed increased left pre-frontal cortical activity that was 4.5 standard deviations outside the standard bell curve An early study found that less extensive meditation practice (40 minutes a day for 8-10 weeks) was also associated with a significant shift in hemispheric dominance In addition, degree of shift in activity from right to left prefrontal was found to correlate with enhancement in immune system (resistance to flu virus) Neurological Effects of Mindfulness MRI study on Western lay practitioners who incorporated meditation practice into their daily lives Meditators averaged 6.2 hours of practice a week for 9.1 years ➜ Compared to control participants, showed thickening in parts of prefrontal cortex and the right anterior insula These regions of the brain are involved in attention, sensory processing, and empathy Cortical growth was not due to the growth of new neurons but resulted from: Wider blood vessels More supporting structures such as glia and astrocytes Increased branching and connections ☞ Between-group differences in prefrontal cortical thickness were most pronounced in older participants, suggesting that meditation might be particularly important in preserving cognitive functions as people age VBM study on long-term meditators found similar effects Lay practitioners who had practiced meditation for 10-90 min daily for an average of 24 years ➜ Meditation was associated with increased gray matter volume in areas important in emotion regulation and memory, including Orbitofrontal cortex and Hippocampus 💡 Meditation increases density of gray matter in frontal and temporal in much the same way that physical exercise increases the size of muscles Other Cognitive & Affective Benefits 💡 enhanced ability to identify microexpressions in meditators (Eakman) A series of faces displaying various expressions was shown in very quick succession. Participants were asked to identify that expression ➜ Two experienced Western meditators whom Ekman tested achieved results that were far better in the ability to recognize such fleeting facial expressions. The ability to recognize such fleeting facial expressions has been associated with a capacity for empathy and insight, as well as openness to new experiences, intellectual curiosity, and general reliability and efficiency Mindfulness and the Treatment of Psychological Disorders Research has indicated that mindfulness practices are useful in the treatment of a wide array of psychological disorders, including: Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 8  Anxiety and depression, Eating disorders, Stress, and Substance abuse Effects of meditation on these psychological, as well as physical, conditions are probably mediated at least in part by reduction in cortisol levels Research in the 1970s found that meditation is associated with“a wakeful, hypometabolic state of parasympathetic activity” Research on use of mindfulness in treating psychological disorders in children and adolescents: 14-18 year olds who took an MBSR class reported a decrease in anxiety, depression, and somatic complaints, as well as an increase in sleep quality and self-esteem, compared with controls Meta-analysis of 15 studies on children and adolescents found that mindfulness was effective in treating anxiety disorders, ADHD, substance abuse, sleep disorders, and conduct disorder More recent reviews have found that meditation enhances ability to regulate emotions and attention in children Is Mediation really working??? 2014 meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine called into question the effectiveness of mindfulness training programs in improving mental health and reducing stress-related behavior Studies were primarily 8-week-long mindfulness training programs that used psychological and behavioral assessments, rather than neuroimaging Along with mindfulness, meta-analysis included meditations that emphasized use of a mantra Mantra: repetition of a word or phrase in such a way that it helps one transcend to an effortless state where focused attention is absent Results: Meditation programs resulted in− Only moderate reductions in anxiety, depression, pain, and stress/distress These small effects were comparable with what would be expected from the use of antidepressants but without the associated toxicities Problems identified in review: Use of outcome measures that can be easily biased by participants’ beliefs in the benefits of meditation Control participants that received less time and attention from the teacher or the group than those in meditation program Very few mantra meditation programs met inclusion criteria ✧ Reviewers pointed out that effectiveness of programs may depend in part on Type of meditation practice, Amount of training, Use and qualifications of instructor, Degree of emphasis on religion or spirituality Whether program integrated dietary regimens and/or movement exercises (e.g., yoga) ☞ Most forms present meditation as a skill that requires expert instruction and time dedicated to practice Research Issues 💡 The modest psychological effects found in studies of short-term mindfulness contrasts with the much larger effects of neuroimaging and reaction time studies on long-term meditation practitioners This difference suggests that the benefits of mindfulness meditation may accumulate and become more pronounced with consistent, long-term practice. It also highlights the importance of considering different types of measurements (psychological self-reports vs. neurological or behavioral measures) and the duration of practice when evaluating the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions. Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 9  Physiological Effects of Meditation: Mortality Rates Experimental study in which patients with mild hypertension were trained in meditation and followed for 19 years ➜Meditation group showed a 23% decrease in overall mortality, a 30% decrease in rate of cardiovascular mortality and a 49% decrease in the rate of mortality due to cancer compared with controls 73 residents of homes for elderly were assigned either to daily mindfulness, meditation (transcendental meditation or mindfulness), a relaxation group, or a no-treatment group ➜After three years, survival rate was 100% for TM, 87% for mindfulness, 65% for relaxation, and 77% for no-treatment group Only differences between meditation and non-meditation groups were significant In general, there are more similarities than differences between psychological effects of different types of meditation Mindfulness and Physical Pain A large component of “physical pain” is actually mental The mind reacts to pain with fear, rejection, despondency, or a feeling of powerlessness, dramatically compounding the pain These are mental elaborations. Pain is actually just sensations – it’s the aversion response that causes most of the suffering Sort of like little kid screaming about getting shots, when the punches they get roughhousing on the playground are actually many times more painful Research on neurophysiological response to pain in meditators vs. non-meditators Used hot laser to create pain in the foot/arm Results: In comparison with the non-meditators, the Zen practitioners Showed significantly greater activity in the somatosensory cortex, as well as in the insula, the part of the brain involved in proprioception (noticing body sensations) Reported that the pain sensations were very, very vivid Showed significantly less activity in parts of the prefrontal which are involved in evaluating the pain Rated the pain very low, as a 1, 2, or 3, as opposed to the non-meditators who rated their pain as a 8, 9, or 10 💡 Meditators with the most experience showed the largest reductions in prefrontal and amygdala activation In addition, the lower pain sensitivity in meditators was strongly predicted by reductions in functional connectivity between executive (prefrontal) and pain-related cortices ☞ Results suggest a functional decoupling of cognitive-evaluative and sensory- discriminative dimensions of pain, allowing practitioners to view painful stimuli more neutrally Consciousness, Mindfulness & the Mind-Body Connection In our culture, we normally think that: Our mind is identical with our body OR our mind is in our body (duality) However, the meditation traditions from which mindfulness arises hold that Our body is actually in our mind... and that we are a lot more than we think Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 10  The small sense of self with which we normally identify is an arbitrary construct based on sensory feedback mechanisms Lecture 7 : Mindfulness 11