Mindfulness?

There is a great deal of information in all manner of areas, about mindfulness; especially in what one may refer to as the popular social media settings.

What exactly is mindfulness or mindful meditation? Is there any evidence based research that has defined and examined the concept and the practice of mindfulness and/or mindful mediation?

Defining mindfulness

Kabat-Zinn (2015, p. 1481) referring to Nyanaponika Thera, a Buddhist scholar and monk, mindfulness is considered to be a “master key for knowing the mind.” Mindfulness is “the starting point; the perfect tool for shaping the mind, and is thus the focal point; and the lofty manifestation of the achieved freedom of the mind, and is thus the culminating point.”

Wow! What does this actually mean? According to Kabat-Zinn (2015), all of these artful and esoteric words about mindfulness can be reduced to the following words and actions: mindfulness is about paying attention to what you are doing.

As a specific definition Kabat-Zinn (2015, p. 1481) presents the following: “[m]indfulness can be thought of as moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness, cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-reactively, as non-judgmentally, and as openheartedly as possible.”

In their examination of mindfulness Siegel, Germer and Olendzki (2008, p. 3), began by searching for the origin of this word, mindfulness. Their research led them to report that mindfulness “is an English translation of the Pali word, sati, which connotes awareness, attention, and remembering. (Pali is the language in which the teachings of the Buddha were originally recorded.” According to Siegel, et al. (2008, p. 3), citing Davids and Stede (1921/2001), “[t]he first dictionary translation of sati into “mindfulness” dates to 1921.”

According to Siegel, et al. (2008, pp. 4-5), mindfulness has now progressed from the ancient Buddhist sati of “awareness, attention and remembering,” to where the Western science based research method has now led to the situation where mindfulness now also includes the constructs of “non-judgment, acceptance, and compassion.”

Further to this exploration of mindfulness, Siegel, et al. (2008, p. 5), noted that a definition provided by Bishop et al. (2004, p. 232) provided a two-part definition of mindfulness. The second part of which, captured “an essential emotional or intentional attitude of mindfulness in clinical settings.” This two-part definition by Bishop was as follows: “Mindfulness is “self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience, thereby allowing for increased recognition of mental events in the present moment.” And, “adopting a particular orientation toward one’s experience that is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance”” (p. 232).

Where to from here?

One of the major points that we can glean from all of this is that what is required in mindfulness is that it does appear that to try to enter into and become mindful that one needs have intention, one needs to put in effort and one requires the intention and effort of focus. It does appear that you actually have to work hard to be mindful. Mindfulness is not some kind of esoteric and mystical ‘I’m off drifting away mindlessly in the clouds in a state of unconsciousness nirvana condition.’ To be mindful, this means you have to pay attention to what you are doing. This requires, effort, focus and intention.

Mindfulness practice

In terms of practice, the three most commonly used examples are breathing, walking and eating. You don’t do all of these at the same time? But then again, if you want to you can. Whatever you choose, the choice is yours to make. As a suggestion or more specifically a recommendation, I would I would avoid adding time. If you add time, this is an imposition that tends to counter the situation and condition of mindfulness and being in the present. Don’t worry about time. Choose your activity and then start when you want and stop when you want. You don’t need special clothes. You don’t any special body positions. You only need you and your commitment, effort, focus and intention on what you have chosen to do for however long you choose to do it, be it one second – or whatever! Time is not the issue, the issue is the effort, focus and intention of the task you have chosen.

Breathing

You can choose to do this standing, sitting or walking. If you are sitting or standing you can choose to do it with your eyes closed. You are not doing two things at once here. You are only going to focus on your breathing. The generally accepted method is to breathe in through the nose and breath out through the mouth. You can even make it more specific. As you are breathing in through the nose, focus only the breath as it enters your nose. Let everything else become irrelevant. When you choose the process, stick with this process for the time you are doing it. The time is irrelevant, what you are doing in terms of effort, focus and intention is what matters. When thoughts intrude, as they generally will, your effort, focus and intention is what you have chosen to do. Effort, focus and intention actually requires effort, focus and intention. How long you choose to do this is your choice. Do not judge.

Walking

Don’t worry about distance. Just walk. This means, focus on the walking. Your body will be telling you a great deal as you walk. The effort, the focus and the intention is on the walking. You can make this a segmented and as specific as you want. For example, only focus on the left heel as it hits the ground. Only focus on the left foot toes as they begin to bend. You can do the same only with the right. Focus on the left foot from heel to toe, and immediately focus the right foot from heal to toe. You choose what you want. This will require effort, focus and intention. Don’t worry about the time, do what you are doing for as long as you feel like doing it. Do not judge.

Eating

You can break eating into meticulous detail. Meticulous mindfulness could be but not limited to the following: The action of chewing. Focusing only on how the food tastes. Focussing only on how the food feels like in the mouth. Or you could broaden this to the act of eating. The act of eating is far more demanding again as it requires you, in silence, to eat and focus on the entire eating process. This means looking at the food. Taking in its colours and textures. Being specific on the food that is being being placed on the utensil; the act of placing the food in your mouth, the commencement of the chewing process. How the food feels as it is being chewed? The taste of the food. Focussing on the swallowing; and making sure that you do not pick up the next morsel until the previous morsel has been swallowed. Your effort, focus and intention is on the eating.

Purpose? Outcome?

According to Raffone and Srinivasan (2017, p. 1) there are a number of studies in the disciplines of neuroscience and cognitive psychology where mindfulness and meditation training has shown to enhance cognitive functions as assessed “by a broad range of tasks implicating measures of response accuracy, response time, and associated electrophysiological and neuroimaging patterns (Cahn and Polich 2006; Chiesa et al. 2011; Gallant 2016; Lutz et al. 2008; Malinowski 2013; Tang et al. 2015).

This also included the cognitive functions referred to as attentional control, orienting, alertness and centrally attentional processes (Malinowski 2013). Other experiments have shown that mindfulness training brings benefits to “executive thinking functions, which control and direct cognitive processes for working memory, planning, decision making, self-regulation, and many other goal-directed behaviors” (Black et al. 2009; Gallant 2016; Teper et al. 2013)

In addition to this “[m]indfulness meditation training has also been linked to the enhancement of creative thinking, such as in insight problem solving … for divergent thinking, which can be associated with creativity … enhanced moral reasoning and ethical decision- making … and also an association between dispositional mindfulness and critical thinking” (Capurso et al., 2014; Colzato et al., 2017; Greenberg et al., 2012; Noone et al. 2016; Ostafin & Kassman 2012; Ruedy and Schweitzer 2011; Shapiro et al. 2012). A relationship has also been found between mindfulness training and improved long-term memory functioning, with a specific focus on what is referred to as retrieval processes (Heeren et al. 2009; Raffone and Srinivasan, 2017).

Being in the present?

The aim of all of this is to be in the present. I refer this to as being in the now of the now. Whatever thoughts come and go – and they will – let them flow, and when they do, you can choose to go with the flow of these thoughts, or you can choose to focus on what you are focussing on. However, with this you need to be non-judgemental and you need to be gentle with yourself at all times.

Whether any of this will take you to what the research in this field has determined, as described above. That is something that you will need to discover for yourself. One way of determining this is to keep a mindful diary. When you are writing you write what comes to mind after you have finished. Or, you can write what comes to mind before you start and then again when you finish. Or, you can choose not to have a diary at all. Most important of all always be gentle, caring and kind to yourself and others.

References

Black, D.S., Semple, R.J., Pokhrel, P., & Grenard, J.L. (2009). Component processes of executive function – mindfulness, self- control, and working memory –and their relationships with mental and behavioral health. Mindfulness, 2, 179-185.

Bishop, S., Lau, M., Shapiro, S., Carlson, L., Anderson, N., Carmody, J., et al. (2004). Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. Clinical Psychology: Science and practice, 11(3), 230-241.

Cahn, B.R., & Polich, J. (2006). Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 180–211.

Capurso, V., Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2014). Mindful creativity: the influence of mindfulness meditation on creative thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1020.

Chiesa, A., Calati, R., & Serretti, A. (2011). Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 449–464.

Colzato, L. S., Szapora, A., Lippelt, D., & Hommel, B. (2017). Prior meditation practice modulates performance and strategy use in convergent- and divergent-thinking problems. Mindfulness, 8. doi:10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9.

Davids, T. & Stede, W. (Eds.) (1921/2001). Pali-English Dictionary. New Delhi, India: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt, Ltd.

Gallant, S.N. (2016). Mindfulness meditation and executive functioning: breaking down the benefit. Consciousness and Cognition, 40, 116-130.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2015). Mindfulness. Mindfulness, 6, 1481-1483. doi 10.1007/s12671-015-0456-x

Greenberg, J., Reiner, K., & Meiran, N. (2012). BMind the trap: mindfulness practice reduces cognitive rigidity. PLoS ONE, 7, e36206.

Heeren, A., Van Broeck, N., & Philippot, P. (2009). The effects of mindfulness on executive processes and autobiographical memory specificity. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47, 403–409.

Lutz, A., Slagter, H.A., Dunne, J.D., & Davidson, R.J. (2008). Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 163–169.

Malinowski, P. (2013). Neural mechanisms of attentional control in mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7, 8.

Noone, C., Bunting, B., & Hogan, M. J. (2016). A protocol for a randomised active-controlled trial to evaluate the effects of an online mindfulness intervention on executive control, critical thinking and key thinking dispositions in a university student sample. BMC Psychology, 4, 1–12.

Ostafin, B. D., & Kassman, K. T. (2012). Stepping out of history: mindfulness improves insight problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 1031–1036.

Raffone, A. & Srinivasan, N. (2017). Mindfulness and cognitive functions: Toward a unifying neurocognitive framework. Mindfulness, 8, 1-9. doi 10.1007/s12671-016-0654-1

Ruedy, N. E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2011). In the moment: the effect of mindfulness on ethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 95, 73–87.

Shapiro, S. L., Jazaieri, H., & Goldin, P. R. (2012). Mindfulness-based stress reduction effects on moral reasoning and decision making. Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, 504–515.

Siegel, R.D., Germer, C.K., & Olendzki, A. (2008). Mindfulness: What Is It? Where Does It Come From? From Didonna, F. (Ed.). Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness. New York: Springer. Distributed with permission by: The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioural Medicine. nicabm www.nicabm.com

Tang, Y.Y., H?lzel, B.K., & Posner, M.I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16, 213–225.

Teper, R., Segal, Z., & Inzlicht, M. (2013). Inside the mindful mind: how mindfulness enhances emotion regulation through improvements in executive control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 449–454.

About the Author

Dr. Ragnar Purje PhD Is the author of Responsibility Theory?. The initiator of NeuroNumeracy?, an intensive self-motivating neuroscience brain based program for children, the purpose of which is to enhance their skills, knowledge and understanding of the four operations in mathematics. Ragnar holds the position of Adjunct Lecturer and Research Higher Degree Student Supervisor, CQUniversity Australia.

Ragnar completed his PhD thesis in cognitive neuroscience, under the supervision of Professor Ken Purnell at CQUniversity. Ragnar’s thesis focussed on researching the success of his new and pioneering form of brain and complex movement therapy. This is where he first applied his new therapy, in 1993, to an individual who received an acquired brain injury, as a result of being hit by a car; resulting in an incapacitated condition. This incapacitation remained in place for 28 months.

When Ragnar introduced his new therapy, despite having been incapacitated for nearly two-and-a-half years, the patient began to walk 10-12 weeks later; four weeks after that the patient ran 10 metres into the arms of his fiancée (and later wife). The basis of Ragnar’s doctoral research was to try to discover what had taken place to create this cognitive, physical and behavioural change from incapacitated to ongoing ambulatory recovery, which continues to this day.

Ragnar’s thesis led to his therapy being classified as Complex Brain Based Multi-Movement Therapy (CBBMMT).

In addition to this Ragnar’s thesis added two new descriptors into the lexicon of human biology; these are neurofluidity and hólos. Neurofluidity are the neurological processes that lead to the condition of brain plasticity. The hólos is a term which, for the first time in history (to the best of Ragnar’s research and understanding), provides a descriptor which unifies the brain and the body, with one word. Prior to this the brain and the body had always been referred to as two separate entities, i.e. the brain and the body. Hólos derives from the Greek: ?λο? ? ? ólos. The English word holistic is derived from hólos. Holistic and hólos offer the same classification. Holistic and hólos incorporate the concept of holism.

Dr Ragnar Purje bases all of his achievements, which also includes the authorship and publication of his book Responsibility Theory? as a result of him undertaking and passionately persevering with the traditional martial art of Goju Karate that began in January of 1970. Ragnar continues his practice of Goju Karate on a daily basis. “Every day one kata.”

Responsibility Theory? is available from the CQUniversity Book Store. Website: bookshop.cqu.edu.au Phone: + 61 7 4930 9421. Dr Purje's thesis is available from the CQUniversity Library.