Jon Kabat-Zinn the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction was the first to introduce this approach to the medical community. He defines it as, “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the unfolding experience moment by moment” (1, 2).
Dr. Shauna Shapiro further identified 3 aspects to mindfulness:
- The individual chooses to practice this awareness.
- There is a focus on an object such as breath and a return to this object when the mind wanders
- Having an attitude of non-judgment towards thoughts, emotions or bodily sensations that arise. Some attitudes include compassion, patience, acceptance or curiousity (1)
If I had to describe mindfulness practice in my own words, I would say this; It is a time that I choose to set aside, where I put my body in a comfortable position and begin with a few slow deep breaths. I allow myself to sink into my body, taking note of my emotions and/or bodily sensations. I then begin to practice focusing on my breath, where I feel the movement of my breath within my body. Yes my mind wanders, frequently. Mindfulness practice is to acknowledge that my mind has wandered without trying to change my thoughts. Just allowing the thought to come and go, and bringing my attention back to my breath.
What does mindfulness practice do?
There are many benefits to mindfulness that have been studied in a variety of populations. These benefits include:
- Decreased anxiety/depression
- Decreased mood disturbance
- Decreased symptoms of stress in the body
- Decreased pain
- Improved quality of life
- Improved health quality of life
- Improved sleep
- Improved immune function (3, 4)
- Improved ability to deal with change
- Improved attention
- Improved inner body awareness, i.e gut feelings
- Improved emotional intelligence (5)
Young or old, incorporating mindfulness practices has positive effects on activities of daily living, pain and anxiety (1, 6). It is a safe method and a good alternative if medications are not appropriate due to other health concerns or personal choice.
Let us use pain as an example and see how mindfulness can help.
I was shown this equation,
Pain X Resistance = Suffering
Have you heard the saying, “what we resist, persists.” Some ways people commonly resist is, wishing pain would go away, ignoring pain, self-punitive talk, for example; I never should have let myself do______.
A less common saying is, “Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional”. There is a genetic condition whereby an individual cannot feel pain called congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA). We are not going to talk about it, I just wanted to highlight that such a condition exists and life-expectancy is low. Why? Because pain is a warning system, an alarm meant to protect us. It is how we react to pain that can create more suffering beyond physical pain.
Mindfulness practice allows us to accept our current situation, with less reaction, which results in less suffering. Here is an example to illustrate.
Imagine you have been shot by an arrow (Cupid shot the wrong arrow, metaphorically of course). That arrow is painful. After you have removed the arrow and bandaged your wound. The next thing you do is get angry or sorrowful or grieve or think this is the worst possible thing that could have happened. This causes you to get shot by a second arrow of pain (emotional).
What mindfulness does, is allows you to be present with the pain, noting all the qualities and sensations of the pain in the present moment, which allows you to be more aware of bodily changes. Mindfulness also lets you see the variety of thoughts that go through your mind, without letting you get carried away. When you can see that pain is not constant and don’t let yourself get wrapped up in negative thoughts, you are less likely to react. When you react less, you suffer less.
They did a study of individuals who were meditators and non meditators to see if their response to pain was different. They applied a cold compress to each individual to see how their brain’s reacted on functional MRI and what their subjective response was to the pain. What they found was that meditators felt the pain more vivdly than non-meditators but were less reactive and therefore reported less suffering (5). Dr. Elisha Goldstein, said that mindfulness allows you to accept what you feel without the onslaught of negative thoughts, which decreases stress and when stress is down people tend to feel less pain and suffering (6).
The really great thing is that mindfulness doesn’t cost you anything and there are no negative side effects, such as those experienced with medication. There are so many meditations available on youtube and from apps. Some apps do cost money, it all depends on what you are looking for, but generally speaking you can get started with no cost. A great mindfulness meditation to start with if you have pain is called, “The Body Scan.”
Written By Madelaine Golec PT, Pelvic Health Physiotherapist, “The Pelvic Health Lady”.
- Morone et al. 2009. A Mind-Body program for older adults with chronic
low back pain: results of a pilot study. Pain Med 10(8): 1395-1407.
- Kabat-Zinn J. 2003. Mindfulness-Based interventions in context: Past,
present and future. Clin Psychology SCi Pract 10:144-156.
- Schure et al. 2008. Mind-Body Medicine and the art of self-care:
Teaching mindfulness to counseling students through yoga. Journal of counseling and development. V. 86: 47-56.
- Littrell, Jill. 2008. The Mind-Body Connection: Not Just a Theory
Anymore. Social Work in Health Care. V. 46(4): 17-38.
- Siegel, Ron. Psy.D. Neuroscience Training Summit 2017 Presentation
- Dr. Elisha Goldstein, Neuroscience Training Summit 2017 Presentation