MindfulnessMeditation

What is Mindful Meditation?• One pointedness• Being in the here-and-now

“Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine.”

Shunryu Suzuki

“Knowing what you are doing while you are doing it is the essence of mindfulness training”

Jon Kabat-Zinn

What is Mindful Meditation?• One pointedness

• Being in the here-and-now

“In this training of the mind, we learn to let go of the thoughts and feelings that pull us out of the present moment, and to steady our awareness on our immediate experience.”

Tara Bennett Goleman

• A psychological need• The gift of the present• Mental hygiene

Lama Oser Paul Ekman

Lama Oser• Left-to-right ratio in prefrontal cortex

Lama Oser• Left-to-right ratio in prefrontal cortex• Recognizing emotions in others• The startle response

Lama Oser• Left-to-right ratio in prefrontal cortex• Recognizing emotions in others• The startle response

“Given that the larger someone’s startle, the more intensely that person tends to experience upsetting emotions, Oser’s performance had tantalizing implications, suggesting a remarkable level of emotional equanimity.”

Daniel Goleman

Lama Oser• Left-to-right ratio in prefrontal cortex• Recognizing emotions in others• Control over the startle response• Social contagion

“I couldn’t be confrontational. I was always met with reason and smiles; it’s overwhelming. I felt something—like a shadow or an aura—and I couldn’t be aggressive.”

Growing Tip Statistic“The process itself has some extraordinary qualities, but not necessarily the subject. The important idea is that this process is within the reach of anyone who applies himself or herself with enough determination.”

Lama Oser

“From the perspective of neuroscience, the point of all this research has nothing to do with demonstrating that Oser or any other extraordinary person may be remarkable in him-or herself, but rather to stretch the field’s assumptions about human possibility. Some of these key assumptions have already begun to expand, in part due to a revolution in neuroscience’s supposition about the malleability of the brain itself.”

Daniel Goleman

Meditation for the Masses (Kabat-Zinn)• Decrease in anxiety• Mood change• Pre-frontal cortex activation• Immune response

(Sepah, 2004)

Self-Esteem

Self-Esteem

Meditation in the Work Place

Intelligence• Creativity• Cognitive flexibility• Memory• Reaction time• IQ

Being Mindful: Let Me Count the Ways

• Breathing

“If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly.”

Andrew Weil

Being Mindful: Let Me Count the Ways• Breathing• Mantra• Music and dance

“It happens that music and rhythm and dancing are excellent ways of moving toward the discovering of identity. We are built in such a fashion that this kind of trigger, this kind of stimulation, tends to do all kinds of things to our autonomic nervous systems, endocrine glands, to our feelings, and to our emotions. It just does.”

Abraham Maslow

Being Mindful: Let Me Count the Ways• Breathing• Mantra• Music and dance• Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)• The five senses• Flow • Yoga

• Reduces stress and depression (Taylor, 2002; Berger & Owen, 1992)• Increases self-acceptance and self-esteem (Valente & Marrota, 2005; Harrison et al., 2004)• Helps overcome ADHD and asthma (Jensen & Kenny, 2004; Jain and Valecha, 1991)• Reinforces attitudes through persistent behavior (“Body feedback hypothesis”)• A caveat

Benefits of Yoga

“The riches banquet, the most exotic travel, the most interesting, attractive lover, the finest home—all of these experiences can seem somehow unrewarding and empty if we don’t really attend to them fully—if our minds are elsewhere, preoccupied with disturbing thoughts. By the same token, the simplest of life’s pleasures—eating a piece of fresh-baked bread, seeing a work of art, spending moments with a loved one—can be amply rich if we bring a full attention to them. The remedy to dissatisfaction is inside us, in our minds, not in groping for new and different outer sources of satisfaction.”

Tara Bennett Goleman

Bibliography and Recommendations• Bennett-Goleman, T. (2002). Emotional Alchemy. Three Rivers Press.• Benson, H. The Relaxation Response. HarperTorch.• Carrington, P. et al. (1980). The Use of Meditation: Relaxation Techniques for the Management of Stress in a Working Population. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 22, 221-231.• Derezotes, D. (2000). Evaluation of Yoga and Meditation Trainings With Adolescent Sex Offenders. Human Science Press, 17, 97-113.• Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Delta.• Hall, S. S. (2003). Is Buddhism Good for Your Health? New York Times Magazine, September 14.• Shapiro, S. L. et al. (2002). Meditation and Positive Psychology. In C. R. Snyder and S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology, 632-645. Oxford University Press.