COVID Meditations: Mindfulness

Mindfulness, Well-Being, and Health

Mindfulness training may be an effective way to positively regulate brain, endocrine, and immune function, influencing physiological and psychological variables important to well-being. Mindfulness promotes self-monitoring, which in turn allows for the early recognition of our cognitive biases and emotional reactions, and this facilitates self-correction and healthier relationships. Mindfulness practice holds promise as a potential way to help prevent and treat a variety of diseases, especially chronic illnesses. Mindfulness-based treatment strategies improve the ability to cope with physical and emotional pain. Mindfulness practice may improve our capacity for compassion and prevent burnout. 

Burnout may be related to a lack of a sense of control and loss of meaning. The capacity to “be present” may influence happiness more than efforts to “fix” daily problems. This quality of being present includes an understanding that we are remarkable, unique human beings with unique strengths and ways of being.

Research to date has shown that daily mindfulness practice can reduce depression and anxiety, improve immune system function, and greatly enhance a general sense of wellness. Mindfulness-based treatment strategies (e.g., mindfulness-based cognitive behavior therapy [M-CBT], mindfulness-based stress reduction [MBSR]) have been evaluated and found useful to treat chronic pain, stress and coping, depression, psoriasis, type 2 diabetes, sleep disturbances, ADHD, and obesity. Mindfulness promotes the capacity to be present. Mindfulness training to improve attentiveness, curiosity, and presence involves cultivating habits of mind such as experiencing information as novel, thinking of “facts” as conditional, seeing situations from multiple perspectives, suspending categorization and judgment, and engaging in self-questioning. 

Mindfulness training reduces “neural noise” and so enhances signal-to-noise ratios in certain types of tasks. Where brain-computer interfaces are being developed that are based on electrical recordings of brain function, training in mindfulness may facilitate more rapid learning. In long-term (5-46 years) meditation practitioners, research has found more gray matter (increased brain volume / thicker cortical regions) in several regions (right hippocampus, left inferior temporal cortex, right thalamus, right orbitofrontal cortex) related to attention, memory, and sensory processing. These findings suggest that mindfulness practices may even offset cortical thinning brought on by aging and Alzheimer’s disease.

With our current global tragedies assaulting our health and well-being on a daily basis, living mindfully is now as important as oxygen and love. 

Namaste

Source: Book by my wife and I titled “One Day Mindfulness Millionaire.” https://store.bookbaby.com/book/one-day-mindfulness-millionaire