Mindfulness, Sense of Self & Well-being PDF

Mindfulness, Sense of Self & Well-Being I. Mindfulness and the self A. Increased awareness of mind-body connection B. Letting go of the sense of self II. The self and self-esteem in psychological research A. Real vs. false self-esteem B. Branden’s psychotherapeutic technique for raising selfestee...

Mindfulness, Sense of Self & Well-Being I. Mindfulness and the self A. Increased awareness of mind-body connection B. Letting go of the sense of self II. The self and self-esteem in psychological research A. Real vs. false self-esteem B. Branden’s psychotherapeutic technique for raising selfesteem C. Self-esteem and social comparison D. Identifying and using strengths E. Neural basis of self-esteem F. Self-esteem and internal vs. external locus of control Mindfulness and the Self Mindfulness/meditation is associated with modulation of processing of information about the self • However, at first glance, there seem to be inconsistent findings in this area • For instance, a meta-analysis of 78 fMRI studies of meditation found dissociable patterns of activation and deactivation for four common styles of meditation, including: (Fox, Dixon, Nijeboer et al., 2016) • − Focused awareness (e.g., calm-abiding practice) − Open monitoring (e.g., mindfulness) − Lovingkindness meditation − Mantra practice (repetition of a word or phrase in such a way that it helps one transcend to a higher state) One main commonality though was changes in activity of the insula, which is important in body awareness − Interestingly, the activity of the insula was modulated in different ways: o Activation for focused calm-abiding practice, mindfulness, and lovingkindness meditation o Deactivation for mantra practice The finding that meditation practice either enhances or reduces body awareness is in line with subjective reports by meditators, as well as the instructions associated with the respective meditation practices • Mindfulness emphasizes integration of body-emotion-mind and development of greater awareness of the connections between thoughts, emotions, and their physical correlates − Neuroimaging correspondingly indicates that the practice is associated with increased volume, as well as activity, of the insula (Holzel, Ott, Gard et al., 2008) • Similarly, in mindfulness therapy, one is encouraged to pay mindful attention to physical, emotional, and cognitive components of one’s own experience − Research indicates that this promotes integration, activating many of the same circuits that are naturally stimulated in childhood by the attuned and caring attention of others (Siegel, D., 2001) • Lovingkindness meditation practice is correlated with increased neural synchrony – again suggesting increased self-integration (Lutz, Greischar, & Rawlings, 2004) • Instructions for mantra practice, on the other hand, includes letting go of the ordinary sense of self One possible reason that meditation practices seem to either promote enhanced body awareness and integration or alternatively, complete letting go of the sense of self is that ordinarily, attempts to process and suppress negative thoughts and emotions tie up our energetic resources • In support of this explanation is the finding (discussed earlier) that meditation is associated with decreased activity in areas of the brain important in self-referential processing and rumination, such as the medial prefrontal and DMN generally (Brewer, Worhunsky, Gray et al., 2011) • Additionally, though standard mindfulness instructions emphasize awareness of body-emotion-mind, they also include directions to relax the sense of self − This involves letting go of the sense of a separate self doing the meditation and just experiencing what is happening − Seeing is happening. There is sensation. Thoughts arise. A sense of self (Hanson, 2009) emerges. ★ In traditional mindfulness teachings, it is said that the letting go of the sense of “I” is the supreme happiness − There are a number of techniques that are used to help meditators to do that… ☛ Meditation Techniques for Letting Go of the Self ² Let go of the face: much of our “self” is carried in the contractions of our facial muscle - Much of what we think of as physical appearance is actually just habitual facial muscle movements that get “frozen” on the face Ø Study found that married couples look more and more similar over time, probably as a result of motor mimicry (Zajonc, Adelmann, Murphy, et al., 1987) ² Let go of contrived movements. Allow yourself to be the “instrument” of something larger… ² During meditation, if you find yourself trying to the grab for certain things or avoid other things, just say “No need,” and observe what happens. ² At a certain point, when you are in a deep state of meditation, ask yourself, “Who is meditating?” - You may have an experience in which you see that there is only witnessing, awareness itself with no one doing it, that the mind that is witnessing is insubstantial and omnipresent, without beginning or end, in both space and time In addition, most meditation retreats are held in natural settings in large because • When we are in Nature, we see the wonder in the world and live in a way that is open to the larger scope of things • That will “reduce” the self to reasonable size - Ex: In traditional Asian cultures from which mindfulness primarily derives, paintings depict giant mountains and bodies of water and these tiny men • In natural settings, it is easier to relax and not use the self − We are able to more easily let go of the references that usually bind us, the cognitive habits that create what we believe to be a self Examples of Experiences of “No Self” Elisabeth Haich’s experience: Asked to sit under a palm tree and meditate on it week after week • Three stages of concentration: intellectual, emotional, spiritual − First stage: you think about what this object actually is − Second stage: “with every nerve and every drop of your blood,” you feel the object of concentration and what it is like − Third stage: you become identical with the object of concentration … all of a sudden I have the odd feeling that I am no longer looking at the tree from the outside, but from the inside. To be sure I still perceive its outward form with my eyes, but I begin, to an ever-increasing extent, to see and experience the inner being, the animating creative principle of the palm … to see it, to experience it, TO BE IT! And finally there comes a moment when I am suddenly conscious of the fact that the palm is no longer outside myself – no! – it never was outside – it was only a false conception on my part – the palm tree is in me and I in it – I myself am the palm tree! 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 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 • The small sense of self with which we normally identify is an arbitrary construct based on sensory feedback mechanisms Ø Ramachandran demo The Self and Self-Esteem in Psychological Research ✧ Seemingly conflicting ideas about the self and self-esteem, and their relation to happiness or well-being is found in psychological research ✧ On the one hand, according to many meta-analytic studies, self-esteem is one of the top predictors of happiness (Compton & Hoffman, 2005) • In particular, negative self-esteem is one of the biggest predictors of negative affect ✧ Some studies have found contradictory/inconclusive results • However, problem probably stems in part from failure to distinguish between - True self-esteem that involves self-acceptance, authenticity, and self-efficacy and is associated with losing ourselves in relationships and to purposes larger than ourselves - A type of bogus ego inflation that is contingent on external evaluations and bears resemblance to narcissism ➜ Sensitive tests, like the Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT), can distinguish between these different types of selfesteem Implicit Attitudes Test (IAT) Assign each name to the category to which it belongs by tapping your finger in the appropriate column. Do it as quickly as you can. Male Female Or Or Career Family ________________Lisa________________ ________________John________________ ________________Laundry________________ ________________Entrepreneur________________ ________________Bob________________ ________________Holly________________ ________________Merchant________________ ________________Peggy________________ ________________Jason________________ ________________Kitchen________________ Now try this: Male Or Family Female Or Career ________________Babies________________ ________________Sarah________________ ________________Corporation________________ ________________Employment________________ ________________Bob________________ ________________Joan________________ ________________Domestic________________ ________________Office________________ ________________Peggy________________ ➜ Effects of the IAT are not subtle! ☞ On the surface, those with narcissistic personality disorder seem really confident, but if anything, normal controls are actually more likely to associate positive, as opposed to negative, adjectives with themselves on the IAT ☛ Sentence Completion Self-Esteem Exercise In psychotherapy, Nathaniel Branden’s Sentence Completion exercise is a commonly used psychotherapeutic method for raising self-esteem • Quickly generate at least six endings – or as many as you can think of – to the following sentence stems. There are no right or wrong answers, and some of your answers may contradict each other. Put aside your critical mind; think after, not during. Then afterwards, go over your responses and see whether you have learned anything important. − If I bring 5% more awareness to my life… − If I were willing to say yes when I want to say yes and no when I want to say no… − If I breathe deeply and allow myself to experience what happiness feels like… − If I refuse to live by other people’s values… − If I bring 5% more awareness to my emotions… − If I am more accepting of my body… − If I am more accepting of all the parts of me… − If I am more accepting of my feelings… − If I were willing to let people hear the music inside me… − If I were to express 5% more of who I am… − If I were 5% more purposeful about my deepest yearnings… − If my child self felt accepted by me… (Branden, 1995) v Complete set of sentence stems can be found at: http://www.nathanielbranden.com/sentence-completion-i Self-Esteem and Social Comparison Nathaniel Branden’s self-esteem exercise is largely about developing selfacceptance and connecting with one’s own integrity/authenticity – not about being “better than” others Cultivating self-esteem actually reduces the tendency to engage in social comparison • The latter is highly correlated with negative affect v “Mental health is getting to point where you don’t give a rip what anyone says or thinks or does” Ø Lyubomirsky conducted a study on social comparison and found that - Unhappy people are continually comparing themselves with others and can go on and on about that in interviews - Happy people use more internal standards to judge themselves ✧ One of the most detrimental effects of social media, according to research, is that use of social networking sites, like Facebook, promotes a type of social comparison that lowers self esteem and increases depressive symptoms (Primack, Shensa, Escobar-Viera et al., 2016; Nesi & Prinstein, 2015;Vogel et al., 2014) • Effect has been found to be particularly strong in adolescent females ✧ Another factor that has been found to promote unhealthy social comparison is being praised for one’s ability Ø Research by Carol Dweck in which fifth graders were given a nonverbal IQ test consisting of a series of fairly easy puzzles • Researchers told each student their score, then gave them a single line of praise - Half the children were praised for their intelligence: “You must be smart at this” - Half were praised for their effort: “You must have worked really hard” • The students were then offered a choice: - Learning a new puzzle strategy for a second test OR - Finding out how they did compared with other students on the first test ➜ Students praised for their intelligence chose to find out their class rank, rather than use the time to prepare for the second test Perhaps the seemingly conflicting ideas about the self and self-esteem can be resolved if we posit that • It is ironically only by developing a reasonably high sense of self-esteem that − One is able to let go of social comparison − One is able to let go of the self • In any case, as mentioned, research has found that − Self-esteem is one of the main factors correlated with happiness and well-being − There are many evidence-based psychotherapeutic techniques for enhancing self-esteem by developing awareness of and using one’s strengths ☛Identifying and Using Strengths ² Take Martin Seligman’s inventory of character strengths online, using the link below to identify your top five strengths • VIA Survey of Character Strengths: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/user/login?destinati on=node/434 • Or if you don’t have much time, try the Brief Strengths Test: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/user/login?destinati on=node/504 ² Then use one of these top strengths in a new and different way every day for one week ☛ Alternatively, you can try this abbreviated exercise for identifying strengths: • Recall times in the past when you’ve been successful at something, when you have overcome/survived challenges that you faced - What strengths and resources did you demonstrate? Recognize that those are strengths that you have and will continue to develop. - Who are the people that you can rely upon? Who makes you feel understood, supported, or encouraged? • Complete the following: - Things I am good at… - I’ve helped others by… - What I value most… - Things that make me unique… - Times I've made others happy… Research indicates that: • Using signature strengths of character in a new way for just one week made people happier (and less depressed) up to six months later (Martin Seligman) • Patients with major depression who were encouraged to focus on their strengths experienced significantly greater relief from the depression than matched controls, even those taking antidepressant medications • Successful businesspeople focus more on using strengths than on overcoming weakness – with regard to themselves, as well as their employees (Tal Ben-Shahar) ☞ The confidence, the passion, the sense of fulfillment that one gains from one area of life spill over to other areas, including the areas of “weakness” Neural Basis of Self-Esteem Researchers have identified a number of different neural circuits that seem to play important roles in self-esteem • In general, areas related to self-referential processing and the DMN seem to be implicated, including: − Medial prefrontal and orbitofrontal, and cingulate cortex (Yang, Xu, Chen et al., 2016) − Precuneus (Kawamichi, Sugawara, Hamano et al., 2018) − Ventromedial prefrontal, insula and connections between the prefrontal and insula (Will, Rutledge, Moutoussis et al. 2017) Ø In one study, participants engaged in a social evaluation task while in an fMRI (Will, Rutledge, Moutoussis et al. 2017) • After uploading a profile to an online database, they received feedback, ostensibly given by 184 strangers (actually an algorithm), in the form of a thumbs-up (like) or thumbs-down (dislike) • The “strangers” were in different groups so that participants learned to expect positive feedback from some groups of raters, and negative feedback from other groups • After every 2-3 trials, participants reported on their self-esteem at that moment • Participants expected to be liked by “strangers” in the groups that mostly gave positive feedback, so when they received a thumbs-down from a person in that group, their selfesteem took a hit Results: • People who had greater fluctuations in self-esteem during the task also − Had lower self-esteem generally − Self-reported more symptoms of depression and anxiety − Showed greater insula-vmPFC connectivity ☞ If we become totally dependent on validation and approval from the outside world, we lose touch with our own internal compass and inner voice − This will also have a negative impact on our self-esteem and mental health − Unfortunately, social media is training us (through activation of the dopamine reward system) to focus more on what other people think of us and less on what we value Self-esteem is thus linked to another key factor in happiness and well-being: locus of control • If we give the remote control to our state of mind to other people, our self-esteem will suffer • On the other hand, research has indicated that internal locus of control is negatively correlated with depression, and that self-esteem serves as a mediating factor (Yu & Fan, 2014) Locus of control • Internal locus of control: the perception that one controls one’s own fate • External locus of control: the perception that chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate Locus of Control Ø Researchers have found that those with an internal (as opposed to external) locus of control (Ng, Sorensen & Eby, 2006) • Achieve more in school and work, act more independently, enjoy better health, feel less depressed • Are perceived more positively by others when they take responsibility for mistakes − Saying “A pedestrian hit me and went under my car” will not win you others’ respect Ø Neurologically, VBM analyses reveal that internal locus of control is positively correlated with (Hashimoto, Takeuchi,Yasuyuki et al., 2015) • Gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate cortex, striatum, and anterior insula • White matter volume in the striatum ➜ Suggests that cognitive, socioemotional, self-regulatory, and reward systems might be associated with internal locus of control orientation Video Reference Video excerpted from: • My Stroke of Insight: Jill Bolte Taylor https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_my_stroke_of_ insight • Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyu7v7nWzfo