The Mainstreaming of Mindfulness Meditation
Stressed-out Americans, from war veterans to Google workers, are
embracing mindfulness meditation. Does it really work?
*Image extracted from Google and an article from Wired.Com which is a must read!
Mindfulness: Not just for yogis anymore. (Tim P. Whitby)
Why is mindfulness so popular?
It appeals to people seeking an antidote to life in work-obsessed,
tech-saturated, frantically busy Western culture. There is growing scientific
evidence that mindfulness meditation has genuine health benefits — and can even
alter the structure of the brain, so the technique is drawing some unlikely
devotees. Pentagon leaders are experimenting with mindfulness to make soldiers
more resilient, while General Mills has installed a meditation room in every
building of its Minneapolis campus. Even tech-obsessed Silicon Valley
entrepreneurs are using it as a way to unplug from their hyperconnected lives.
"Meditation always had bad branding for this culture," says Evan
Williams, co-founder of Twitter. "But to me, it's a way to think more
clearly and to not feel so swept up."
What is mindfulness, exactly?
It's a meditation practice central to the Buddha's teachings, which has now
been adapted by Western teachers into a secular self-help technique. One of the
pioneers in the field is Jon Kabat-Zinn, an MIT-educated molecular biologist
who began teaching mindfulness in the 1970s to people suffering from chronic
pain and disease. The core of mindfulness is quieting the mind's constant
chattering — thoughts, anxieties, and regrets. Practitioners are taught to keep
their attention focused on whatever they're doing at the present moment,
whether it's eating, exercising, or even working. The most basic mindfulness
practice is sitting meditation: You sit in a comfortable position, close your
eyes, and focus your awareness on your breath and other bodily sensations. When
thoughts come, you gently let them go without judgment and return to the focus
on the breath. Over time, this practice helps people connect with a deeper,
calmer part of themselves, and retrain their brains not to get stuck in
pointless, neurotic ruminations about the past and future that leave them
constantly stressed, anxious, or depressed.
Does it work?
Scientific research has shown that mindfulness appears to make people both
happier and healthier. Regular meditation can lower a person's blood pressure
and their levels of cortisol, a stress hormone produced by the adrenal gland
and closely associated with anxiety. Meditation can also increase the body's
immune response, improve a person's emotional stability and sleep quality, and
even enhance creativity. When combining mindfulness with traditional forms of
cognitive behavioral therapy, patients in one study saw a 10 to 20 percent
improvement in the mild symptoms of their depression — the same progress
produced by antidepressants. Other studies have found that up to 80 percent of
trauma survivors and veterans with PTSD see a significant reduction in
troubling symptoms. Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is also
teaching mindfulness as a form of treatment for patients with substance abuse
problems.
Why does it work?
MRI scans have shown that mindfulness can alter meditators' brain waves — and
even cause lasting changes to the physical structure of their brains (see
below). Meditation reduces electrical activity and blood flow in the
amygdala, a brain structure involved in strong, primal emotions such as fear
and anxiety, while boosting activity regions responsible for planning,
decision-making, and empathy. These findings have helped attract the more
skeptical-minded. "There is a swath of our culture who is not going to
listen to someone in monk's robes," says Richard J. Davidson, founder of
the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, "but they are paying attention
to scientific evidence."
Who are these converted skeptics?
Ironically enough, Silicon Valley's tech geeks are leading the way. "It
seems counterintuitive, since technology is perhaps the biggest driver of mindlessness
and distraction," says Ann Mack, a director at marketing communications
brand JWT Worldwide. Google now has an in-house mindfulness program called
"Search Inside Yourself," and the company has even installed a
labyrinth at its Mountain View complex so employees can practice walking
meditation. Tech leaders flock annually to the Wisdom 2.0 conference, and there
are now countless smartphone apps devoted to the subject. But these
developments have led to a growing concern that mindfulness is being co-opted
and corrupted.
Why is that?
Long-term adherents of mindfulness worry that what is fundamentally a spiritual
practice is being appropriated by new age entrepreneurs seeking to profit off
it. Others are concerned that Fortune 500 executives are pushing meditation so
that overworked employees can be even more productive without melting down. But
Westerners clearly need some sort of strategy to cope with a world now filled
with the inescapable distractions of technology. The average American now
consumes 63 gigabytes of content, or more than 150,000 words, over 13.6 hours
of media use every single day — and all indications are that those numbers will
keep climbing. For Janice Marturano, founder of the Institute for Mindful
Leadership, mindfulness is not just a way of coping with the deluge of input;
it's a way of confronting the modern world head-on. "There is no life-work
balance," says Marturano. "We have one life. What's most important is
that you be awake for it."
Rewiring the brain
Until recently, neurologists believed that a person's brain
stopped physically developing when they were 25 to 35 years old. From that
point onward, the hardware was set. But a growing body of research points to
the possibility of lifelong "neuroplasticity" — the ability of the
brain to adapt to new input — and a 2011 Massachusetts General Hospital study
found that those who meditate regularly for as little as eight weeks changed
the very structure of their brains. MRI scans showed that by meditating daily
for an average of 27 minutes, participants increased the density of the gray
matter (which holds most of our brain cells) in an area that is essential for
focus, memory, and compassion. Previous research had already shown that monks
who had spent more than 10,000 hours in meditation had extraordinary growth and
activity in this part of the brain. But it's now clear that even relative
beginners at mindfulness can quickly rewire their brains in a positive way.
Frances Weaver is a senior editor at The Week magazine.
Originally from the U.K., she has written for the Daily Telegraph, The Spectator and Standpoi
*On a Side Note
I have recently started meditating myself. I have been going for about 6 weeks and it works! It has helped me to find my center. When I'm hiking, walking or need a few minutes out of my crazy day to focus I simply use the techniques I have learned from the Dallas Shambhala Meditation Center
I'm sure I look quite ridiculous when I'm on the trails and I am holding my Center Place but it's an instant fix when I do this and helps me to focus on quieting my mind. We learn to focus on the out breathe and accept that when our mind wanders it's not a bad thing. It's the realization your mind is wandering and you need to come back and focus on the out breathe. This is the act of meditation. If you get a chance check out the Center and if you see me out on the trails and I've got my fists wrapped around each other just under my rib cage with my arms perpendicular to the ground I'm meditating.
Start Time: 6:00 PM End Time: TBD
