TED talk: Mind wandering causes unhappiness.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_focus_a_wandering_mind
Mind wandering can be leveraged to improve focus through meditation.
In focused attention meditation one is instructed to keep focus on a single element, such as ones breath or heartbeat. Try.
Practicing in such a way make thoughts less intrusive, the waves don't stop rocking the boat but one learns to navigate them and gradually the boat can be steered to calmer waters.
During periods of mind-wandering, regions of the brain's default mode network were activated. Then when participants became aware of this mind-wandering, brain regions related to the detection of salient or relevant events came online. After that, areas of the executive brain network took over, re-directing and maintaining attention on the chosen object. All on the time scale of 10 seconds.
Meditation training trains attention while improving working memory and fluid intelligence.
Repeated mental exercise is like going to the gym, only you're building your brain instead of your muscles. And mind-wandering is like the weight you add to the barbell—you need some "resistance" to the capacity you're trying to build. Without mind-wandering to derail your attempts to remain focused, how could you train the skills of watching your mind and controlling your attention?
Mindfulness meditation has become an increasingly important treatment of mental health difficulties like depression , anxiety , post-traumatic stress disorder , and even sexual dysfunction.
Do not see mind wandering as failure during meditation, rather see them as a beneficial product of your meditation: during focused awareness one ascends to more clear states of consciousness resulting in thoughts and insights from clarity forming during descent.
Article form of the above TED talk.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/4
It is to be fully present in the now.
While mindfulness is innate, it can be cultivated through proven techniques, particularly seated, walking, standing, and moving meditation (it's also possible lying down but often leads to sleep); short pauses we insert into everyday life; and merging meditation practice with other activities, such as yoga or sports.
When we're mindful, we reduce stress, enhance performance, gain insight and awareness through observing our own mind. We also increase our attention to the well being of others.
Mindfulness meditation gives us a time in our lives when we can suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness—to ourselves and others.
Mindfulness and meditation is present in spiritual traditions from all over the world.
Three varieties: Mindful Breathing, Body Scan Meditation, and Loving Kindness Meditation.
To do mindful breathing focus your attention on your breath, then inhale and exhale.
It might help to start by taking an exaggerated breath: a deep inhale through your nostrils (3 seconds), hold your breath (2 seconds), and a long exhale through your mouth (4 seconds). Otherwise, simply observe each breath without trying to adjust it; it may help to focus on the rise and fall of your chest or the sensation through your nostrils. As you do so, you may find that your mind wanders, distracted by thoughts or bodily sensations. That's OK. Just notice that this is happening and gently bring your attention back to your breath.
A short guided meditation track.
http://marc.ucla.edu/mpeg/Body-Scan-Meditation.mp3
http://health.ucsd.edu/av/mindfulness/45MinBodyScan07mono.mp3
http://www.emmaseppala.com/gift-loving-kindness-meditation/
Research suggests an effective way to deal with these difficult feelings: the practice of "mindfulness," the ability to pay careful attention to what you're thinking, feeling, and sensing in the present moment without judging those thoughts and feelings as good or bad. Countless studies link mindfulness to better health, lower anxiety, and greater resilience to stress.
After setting aside time to practice mindful breathing, you should find it easier to focus attention on your breath in your daily life—an important skill to help you deal with stress, anxiety, and negative emotions; cool yourself down when your temper flares; and sharpen your skills of concentration.
Evidence suggests that mindfulness increases the more you practice it.
Mindful breathing in particular is helpful because it gives people an anchor--their breath--on which they can focus when they find themselves carried away by a stressful thought. Mindful breathing also helps people stay "present" in the moment.
Research suggests that people who practice the body scan for longer reap more benefits from this practice.
By noticing the pain we're experiencing, without trying to change it, we experience relief.
Our feelings of resistance and anger toward pain often only serve to increase that pain, and to increase the distress associated with it. The body scan is designed to counteract these negative feelings toward our bodies. This practice may also increase our general attunement to our physical needs and sensations, which can in turn help us take better care of our bodies and make healthier decisions about eating, sleep, and exercise.
Loving Kindness Meditation is a great way to cultivate and express kindness. It involves mentally sending goodwill, kindness, and warmth.
Loving kindness meditation increases happiness in part by making people feel more connected to others—to loved ones, acquaintances, and even strangers. Research suggests that when people practice loving kindness meditation regularly, they start automatically reacting more positively to others, making their social interactions and close relationships more satisfying. Loving kindness meditation can also reduce self-focus, which can in turn lower symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Mindfulness and happiness can be trained.
Mindfulness physically changes the brain.
Research shows that spending as little as 30 minutes per day training our minds to do something different can result in measurable changes that can be tracked in a brain scanner.
We can intentionally shape the direction of plasticity changes in our brain.
Short periods of practice done many times in a way that can actually be sprinkled throughout the day is a really powerful way to promote enduring change in the brain.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/a_little_meditation_goes_a_long_way
Meditating for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks can increase the density of gray matter in brain regions associated with memory, stress, and empathy.
For decades, people who've completed the MBSR training have reported feeling less stress and more positive emotions; participants suffering from chronic illnesses say they experience less pain afterward.
The MBSR participants, none of whom were experienced meditators, reported spending just under half an hour per day on their meditation "homework." Yet when their brains were scanned at the end of the program, their gray matter was significantly thicker in several regions than it was before.
Small steps matter. Many of us can bring about positive effects on our brains and overall well-being—without an Olympic effort.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/which_kind_of_mindfulness_meditation_is_right_for_you
Body scanning can be useful for discovering and resolving subconscious pain as well as cultivating increased tactile sensitivity.
Whether you've tried all three mindfulness practices or not, please take a moment to do one, two, or three of them now. You'll be glad you did!
Leaders in the fields of education, health care, criminal justice, and beyond have developed mindfulness-based programs for their fields, with encouraging results.
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/mindful_kids_peaceful_schools
Seven-year-old Emily sums up her experience of learning meditation: "I like the class because it makes me calm and soft inside. It makes me feel good."
"There was less conflict on the playground, less test anxiety—just the way the kids walked into the classroom was different. Our state test scores also went up that year, which I'd like to attribute to my teaching but I think had more to do with the breathing they did right before they took the test."
Many schools are adopting mindfulness trainings because the techniques are easy to learn and can help children become more responsive and less reactive, more focused and less distracted, more calm and less stressed. Mindfulness can produce internal benefits to kids and create a more positive learning environment, where kids are primed to pay attention.
In one classroom, the children went from having the most behavioral problems in the school—as measured by number of visits to the principal's office—to having zero behavioral problems, after only two to three weeks of instruction.
Susan Smalley has found that a modified version of MBSR can help teenagers with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by reducing their anxiety and increasing their ability to focus. She is continuing to work with ADHD teens, but her encouraging results have prompted her to wonder if MBSR might help other groups of children—particularly preschoolers, who must learn to regulate their emotions and behaviors to be successful throughout school.
Mindfulness gives kids a tool for understanding how their brain works, for having more self-control.
Ask yourself: What is the quality of my mind at work? What's happening in my mind as the hours at work go by day in and day out? Is my mind working at its utmost?
The mind contains untold resources and possibilities—for creativity, kindness, compassion, insight, and wisdom. It's a storehouse of tremendous energy and drive.
Through mindfulness, we can train our minds to work better.
By training us to pay attention moment by moment to where we are and what we're doing, mindfulness can help us choose how we will behave, nudging (or jolting) us out of autopilot mode. Here are a few suggestions for how to bring mindfulness into our workplace. This won't just give us some relief from stress; it can actually change, even transform, how we work.
When we're convinced things ought to be a certain way and they're not, we suffer. What we need to explore is whether our distress really derives from the workplace itself or instead from how we apply our default ways of perceiving to the challenges we face at work.
The mind will try to force any situation it meets into its favorite ways of perceiving, through mindfulness we instead let the experience guide our perception.
Whenever you detect yourself falling into an old, familiar pattern, stop and examine what is actually going on. Recognize the negative charge generated by your body, thoughts, and emotions. Accept that it has arisen, then make the decision to be in control of it instead of being controlled by it.
Becoming aware of the impact of a slight has had on you is the first step. Separate yourself from yourself just enough to allow you to examine, free from rote reactions, how your body, emotions, and thoughts are combining to gear up for a response.
By decoupling what's happening from your reaction to what's happening, odds are you will prevent yourself from simply being carried along by the experience and instead will prove yourself capable of getting ahead of it.
States of being, which can seem so permanent and monumental, are not in fact static. They shift moment to moment, and they can change in response to our awareness of them. It's amazing how easily a grimace can morph into a smile.
There's no need to assume that mindful self-examination means you have to allow your coworker to take credit where credit isn't due. Rather, its goal is to allow you to respond in a new way that frees you from old, ingrained, automatic patterns.
Be aware of routine actions such as the way you hoist the phone to your ear when it rings, bringing choice, attention, and awareness back into things that you've allowed to become automatic. By opening up to the tiniest habit, you make it possible to crack open the larger habits, which seem more resistant to change. You can look at every action and interaction freshly.
The more you understand your own mind, the more you can understand the minds of others. If you come to understand your own body language, you can read the body language of others better. Mindfulness doesn't give you a crystal ball, but it tends to increase your empathy, your ability to put yourself in someone's shoes with greater understanding. It enhances your connection with other people and supports you as you build relationships. No action, reaction, interaction, or relationship ever feels uninteresting or unworkable if a curious mind is brought to bear on it.
Mindfulness interrupts the conditioned responses that prevent us from exploring new avenues of thought, choking our creative potential. Each time we stand up against a habit—whether it's checking our smartphone during a conversation or reacting defensively to a coworker's passing remark— we weaken the grip of our conditioning. We lay down new tracks in the brain and fashion new synaptic connections.
Mindfulness can transform entire organizations.
Updated on 2020-07-22.