Mindfulness in an Indian experience…

“Happiness and suffering are in our minds”Buddha.

Dr Caterina VicensJune 4th 2013

Dharamsala India:•Capital: Delhi•Population 1,160 million; the second largest population in the world.•Government: Democracy•28 states.•Oficial language: Hindu, English is largely spoken especially in business. With 23 oficial languages also has a lot of dialects (1,652)•Religion: 80% Hinduism, 12% Muslim, 2% Christian, 1% Buddhism

Beautiful temples

Old Delhi

Dharamsala, near the Himalaya mountains, a Tibetan refuge.

Inside the temples… always a photo of the Dalai Lama

The Tibetan library. Audience with the Director of the library.

Not the same healthy diet recommendations as ours:•Meat - monthly•Sweets - weekly•Fish - weekly

The process of manufacturing Tibetan pills……

No FDA controls!!!! We were given a sample!

Mindfulness• Eric Fhrom wrote Zen budism and psychoanalysis introducing for the first

time buddhist concepts into the western world.

• In the Sixties, with the Hippy movement, some psychotherapists began to practice Zen meditation ,and in 1977 the APA recommended the evaluation of the efficacy of meditation.

• In 1979 Jon Kabat-Zinn created The Mindfulnes Center at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

• In 1990 Mark Williams, John Teasdale and Zindel Segal developed Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for the treatment of depression

• Then Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is now recommended for preventing the relapse of depression (NICE 2009)

What is Mindfulness?• Paying atention or being aware in the present

moment without making judgements and without thinking about the past or worrying about the future.

• Most of us are rarely in the present moment.

• We focus on past experiences and emotions.

• We are constantly thinking about what might happen next and what the future may hold.

• We are often unaware of what we are doing, we are on “auto-pilot”.

How can it help us?

• Mindfulness is of potential value to everybody to help find peace in a frantic world.

• It teaches us a way of BEING rather than DOING.

• It allows us to step back from automatic behaviour and habitual thoughts patterns and see things more clearly.

Research studies demonstrate• Neuroscientific studies find

– Changes in those areas of the brain associated with decision-making, attention and empathy in people who regularly practice Mindfulness meditation

– That meditation increases the area of the brain linked to regulating emotion, and that it improves people’s attention, job performance, productivity and satisfaction

– That meditation increases blood flow, reduces blood pressure, and protects people at risk of developing hypertension. It also reduces the risk and severity of cardiovascular disease, and the risk of dying from it.

• People who have learned mindfulness…– Experience long-lasting physical and psychological stress reduction– Discover positive changes in well-being;– Are less likely to get stuck in depression and exhaustion, and are

better able to control addictive behaviour.

Be aware• It sounds simple, but it is remarkably hard to do.

• Especially in our modern task-focussed lives we don’t know how to pay wise attention to what we are doing.

• So we easily get caught in over-thinking - damaging our well-being and making us depressed and exhausted.

• People who have learned mindfulness are less likely to get depressed and they also experience positive changes in well-being

Thirdly, even though it is nearly 10 years since NICE firstrecommended MBCT and even though the 2009 NICE updateidentified the therapy as a key priority for implementation, thereis a substantial gap between the efficacy research andimplementation in routine practice settings. A recent surveysuggests that only a small number of mental health services inthe UK have systematically built MBCT into their depressioncare pathways.

Protocol studies of two systematic reviews comparing mindfulness vs. other therapies or treatment as usual.

Protocol studies of two systematic reviews comparing mindfulness vs other therapies or treatment as usual.

• 3 minutes meditation with Mark Williams

• http://oxfordmindfulness.org/learn/resources/#audio

How to practice Mindfulness• Mindfulness is a simple form of meditation• Consists of focusing your full attention on your breath as it flows in and

out of your body. • Focusing on each breath in this way allows you to observe your thoughts

as they arise in your mind and, little by little, you stop struggling with them.

• You come to realise that thoughts come and go; that you are not your thoughts. You can watch as they appear and they disappear, like a soap bubble.

• You come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings (including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and ultimately, you have a choice about whether to act on them or not.

• Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress appear, you learn to observe them with friendly curiosity. It begins the process of putting you back in control of your life.

Mindfulness is not….• Meditation is not a religion. Mindfulness is simply a method of mental training. Many people who practise

meditation are themselves religious, but then again, many atheists and agnostics are keen meditators too.

• You don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor but you can if you want to. Most people sit on chairs to meditate, but you can also practise bringing mindful awareness to whatever you are doing, on buses, trains or while walking to work. You can meditate more or less anywhere.

• Mindfulness practice does not take a lot of time, although some patience and persistence are required. Many people soon find that meditation liberates them from the pressures of time, so they have more of it to spend on other things.

• Meditation is not complicated. Nor is it about ‘success’ or ‘failure’. Even when meditation feels difficult, you’ll have learned something valuable about the workings of the mind and thus have benefited psychologically.

• Meditation is not about accepting the unacceptable. It is about seeing the world with greater clarity so that you can take wiser and more considered action to change those things which need to be changed.

• Meditation helps cultivate a deep and compassionate awareness that allows you to assess your goals and find the optimum path towards realising your deepest values.

Mindfulness can be also useful…• Mindfulnes is now being used in a variety of

settings including: Hospitals, Business, Prisons, Courtrooms, Colleges, Universities…

• It can be practised by anyone at anytime

• Is for people who want to be fully aware

• To improve their quality of life and “LIVE life to the full”

Thank you!!!

The endless knot… we are all conected in this world……