It’s been used in Eastern traditions for over 2500 years, our
Psychologists rave about it, the business world is using it in aid of
better decision making, it’s widely used to promote mental wellbeing,
and even schools are adopting it’s principle in ...
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It’s been used in Eastern traditions for over 2500 years, our
Psychologists rave about it, the business world is using it in aid of
better decision making, it’s widely used to promote mental wellbeing,
and even schools are adopting it’s principle in aid of effective
learning, but why choose mindfulness? Neurologists have been researching
mindfulness for over 40 years to ascertain its benefits in aiding
neuroplasticity. The research and subsequent findings of neurologist and
scientist Dr Jeffrey M. Schwartz are astonishing. In order to clearly
understand the benefits, it’s important to define the problem we are
faced with. Deceptive brain messages are any false/inaccurate thought or
unhelpful or distracting impulse, urge, or desire that takes you away
from your true goals and intentions in life ie. Your true self. The
brain listens to all messages, including deceptive brain messages. From
here it creates bodily sensations, followed in this case by habitual and
often unhealthy responses Mindfulness is about assessing your own
receptivity to deceptive brain messages and consequent actions. If we
take a close look at the brain we will find the brain’s habit centre.
Our brains are powerful processing machines, much like computers. They
take in information, process it, and deliver an outcome. What you might
not know is that all repeated actions, thoughts, and feelings make their
way to the brain’s habit centre. Mindfulness provides an ‘observational’
frame to help us make appropriate decisions. So what is the difference
between the brain and the mind? The brain puts out the call and the mind
decides whether to listen. This process can be effective if we are in a
constant habit of using the powers of wise mind, the culmination of
equal parts logic and emotion. However it’s often the case that either
one or the other, more specifically emotion mind in relation to mental
illness, is more dominant, therefore producing more deceptive brain
messages and consequently more unhealthy thoughts, behaviours, and
feelings. You’ve possibly heard of the fact that cells that fire
together, wire together. This is the theory behind Hebb’s Law. We can
see this in one of two ways, either as a potential problem or a
potential solution. First we must ask, how do you get the right cells to
wire together? By combining wise mind with attention density. Attention
density simply put means how you focus your attention in a sustained
way. If you are familiar with mindfulness, you will know that the basic
principle behind it is to make a conscious choice to bring your
attention to something, usually the breath as it is ever present. They
say ‘you are what you eat’, and this philosophy stems from the idea that
your brain becomes what you focus on, otherwise known as the Quantum
Zeno Effect. This gives us much understanding into the effects that
positive affirmations have on us. If we focus our attention on positive
thoughts then they will undoubtedly end up making their way to the
brain’s habit centre. Those who are continually reminding us to “look on
the bright side” or “think positively” have reason to believe that the
mere impact of positive thinking alone would denote a much happier
existence. The reality is, we will come across difficult situations,
negative thoughts, and uncomfortable emotions. So if we only think
positively we are not preparing our brains to effectively deal with
unhappy circumstances. Balance is crucial if our brains become what we
focus on, once again underpinning the benefits of wise mind. Many would
also have us believe that we can will ourselves out of mental illness,
but this is can be as challenging as wishing it weren’t present in the
first place. If we go back to the function of the brain as a procession
machine, the brain sends out a signal, followed by a desire to act, and
subsequently a voluntary action takes place. Scientists have identified
that the desire is determined by the brain, but the action is not. In
fact it takes the brain .3 seconds to produce the desire, and then .2
seconds later we see the result of the voluntary action. This is the
underlying principle of Veto Power. So what we cannot stop is the
desire, but what we do have control over is the decision to act. Already
you’re probably thinking .2 seconds is not enough time to amend or
modify an action. This is another benefit of mindfulness. Continual
practice increases emotional distance which consequently increases the
time we have to make a decision about our will to act or not. The key is
over time you don’t want to always be acting based on desire, but
instead asking yourself, “How will I feel if I don’t act?” The answer to
this is simple, proud. Dr Schwartz has combined all of his research in
order to create 4 healthy steps to improving mental wellbeing and
function using mindfulness. So the next time you are practicing your
mindfulness techniques, ensure you are getting the maximum benefit of
the millennia old tradition, not just simply by breathing, but by making
the choice to refocus your attention through: Relabelling: Identifying
thoughts Reframing: “It’s not me, it’s just my brain” Refocusing:
Directing attention to an alternate, more healthier, thought, feeling,
or behaviour Revaluing: Not taking thoughts as fact. Instead focus on
constructive, healthy thoughts, feelings, or behaviours. These simple
steps will in turn lead to self-directed neuroplasticity, in simple
terms the creation of newer, healthier habits. AGrace
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