(editor's note: On Tuesday, April 24, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be speaking at the Mayo Clinic on the subject of resilience through mindfulness.
Mindfulness is simply focusing on the Now without judgment. Often used with meditation and focused breathing, it silences the "busy brain" as it struggles to distract you with emotions from the past or towards the future. Mindfulness will help you deal with life's challenges more calmly and effectively.
Resilience is the measure of how a person moves through a stressful situation. A more resilient person takes the event in stride, judging it as neither "good" nor "bad" remaining centered and balanced. A less resilient person becomes emotionally involved in the chaos or trauma of the situation. They experience the release of stress hormones which depletes the immune system making them more suseptible to stress-related illness and injury.
Be well! All my Love, Boo)
Psychologist Elisha Goldstein offers these tips for incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine:
* Waking up - while you're still lying in bed, before you do anything else, notice your breathing.
* Showering - open yourself to your senses during your shower. Feeling warm or cool? Notice the scent of your soap, the feel of sudsy shampoo in your hair.
* Breakfast - pay attention to the food you're eating, noting all that went into its creation. A piece of fruit, for example, required sunshine, fresh air and rich earth; workers to pick it and transport it. Then look closely at the food, put it into your mouth and taste it.
* Walking - slow down. Pay attention to the movement and skill of walking.
* Driving - stopped at a red light, notice your body. Loosen your hold on the steering wheel. Relax your shoulders.
* Arriving at work - spend three minutes doing a practice of being aware of your breath, collecting your breath, expanding your awareness to your body -before you start working.
* Lunch - eat alone in a quiet place once a week, paying mindful attention to your food.
* End of work - reflect on your day. What was good about it? What could you have done differently? Imagine how you would like to be tomorrow.
Another exercise is to consciously shift your attention between two places.
Sit quietly and simply bring your attention to the point of contact between your feet and the floor. When your mind wanders, bring your attention back to that point of contact.
Once your attention has stabilized, shift your attention to a new bodily sensation or sound. It could be a focus on breathing or sounds in the environment. Again, if attention is moved away, bring it back to the breath or the sounds. After that has stabilized, bring your attention back to the original point of focus.
The shifting back and forth trains the mind to be able to place attention where you want. And when distractions occur, to bring it back to where you want it to be.
According to Linda Graham, MFT -"Mindfulness, used to dis-embed ourselves from the afflictive ego states without beating ourselves up for getting caught in them, is the cornerstone of a new alphabet of therapies: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral therapy (MBCBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). All of these modalities are gaining credence in mainstream psychology because of numerous empirical studies validating the efficacy of mindfulness in the generation of positive clinical outcomes, especially in addressing anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, OCD, and Borderline Personality Disorder. Clients resolve their own issues when they recover a sense emotional equilibrium and begin to reflect on their experience, and the causes of their responses, with clarity and self-compassion."
What exercises in mindfulness have worked for you?
How has mindfulness helped your life?
I'd love to hear from you!
All my Love, Boo
