by Ed Halliwell
People are creatures of habit, and relentless doing (or thinking about doing) seems to have become an ingrained human tendency. Evolutionary biologists tell us this habit stems from benign intent – to survive and prosper, our ancestors learned to look ahead, be alert and responsive to possible threats, and to think back and learn from mistakes.
But when it gets out of hand, or is applied to situations in which we have little control, this ‘doing’ mode, as it’s sometimes called, leads to anxiety and rumination. We can get so focused on solving problems that we miss the good we have right now. Dissatisfaction becomes our default condition.
Root causes of stress
Around 2,500 years ago, a great psychologist not only recognized this issue but saw its causes and worked out a remedy. By observing patterns of mind, body and behaviour, he realized that at the root of human distress is a tendency to cling, crave and resist. Each time we grasp at something, discomfort is inevitable. We also suffer when we reject our experience, wanting something other than what’s actually happening. When we try to prevent what’s already here, or hold on to what’s changing, we engage in a losing battle.
Fortunately, said the psychologist, we get caught in these tendencies only due to lack of awareness. We play out our patterns in a state of semi-sleep, propelled through life by habits that have built up over time. The good news is we can begin to free ourselves from these habits – by becoming willing and able to look at our predicament, learning gently to let go of unhelpful old ways, and starting to engage with the world in a more conscious, courageous, and compassionate manner.
Such a transformation can occur by practising mindfulness. This means learning a set of skills that brings us to our senses, enabling us to live more in tune with present-moment reality. Using his own experience as a guide, the psychologist reported that mindfulness was ‘all-helpful’,8 leading to real happiness.
The mindful path to wellbeing, he said, helps us arise from slumber. With this observation, the psychologist made his name. He became known as ‘Buddha’ – which means ‘one who is awake’.
Mindfulness as medicine
Buddhism can seem like a religion, but it may be more helpful to see the basic message as medicine. We can taste and test mindfulness for ourselves. If we’re able and willing to practise, we can find greater contentment. The path laid out is an applied training in the art of living well.
Over the centuries, many people have tried some or all of it, whether practising in the Buddhist tradition, through engaging with other contemplative paths, or by discovering similar insights and methods through their own ingenuity and investigation. They often report that, over time, the approach transforms their lives. It doesn’t require belief – intrigued by his radiance, the Buddha’s contemporaries reportedly asked him if he was a god: ‘No,’ he is said to have replied, ‘I am awake.’
In modern times, analyses of the human condition have been gloomy. When describing his new science of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud said its aim was to turn neurotic misery into common unhappiness, while Western medicine has tended to focus on fixing broken body parts, until no more repair is feasible. So-called mental health problems, not easily treated with these methods, have often been swept under the carpet, or left to fester. The possibility of turning discontent into joy is an idea that’s received scant attention.
But things are shifting. Scientific research and technology have become more sophisticated, and we now know the brain can change in ways once thought unlikely. Just as the body’s muscles can be strengthened by exercise, areas of the brain can be activated, connected, and grown with training in certain skills.
We have long known that physical exercise has health-promoting benefits. Science is now showing that mindfulness – traditionally cultivated through meditation practice – is also good for us. These practices, it seems, have powerful effects on the brain and body that lead towards peace.
In the field of wellbeing, results from mindfulness research may be among the most interesting discoveries since it was found that physical exercise has health-promoting benefits. Non-religious mindfulness trainings have become more available, and many health practitioners have embraced them with interest.
Contentment, it turns out, isn’t a lost cause. We know this intuitively: when asked, 86 per cent of people agreed that ‘people would be much happier and healthier if they knew how to slow down and live in the moment’.9
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Mindfulness: the science
Hundreds of mindfulness studies are published every year. The research has found that not only are mindful people more prone to wellbeing, but mindfulness training helps cultivate it. Below is a summary of what’s been learned.
Overall health
A 2012 review looked at 31 high-quality trials of an eight-week mindfulness course (mindfulness-based stress reduction), and found it effective for working with anxiety, depression, stress and distress, as well as aspects of personal development such as ability to empathize and cope with life’s challenges. Mindfulness was also found to be helpful for physical health.1
In 2013, a review with an even larger scope looked at 209 studies of mindfulness courses with a total of more than 12,000 participants, and concluded that mindfulness is ‘an effective treatment for a variety of psychological problems, and is especially effective for reducing anxiety, depression, and stress’.2
Stress
Studies indicate that people who practise mindfulness experience less stress, and also have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.3
Depression
Combined data from six high-quality trials of another eight-week mindfulness course (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) found it leads to an average 44 per cent reduction in relapse rates among people prone to depression. People who take the course also become kinder to themselves.4
Pain
After practising mindfulness meditation for 20 minutes a day over three days, people given a painful heat stimulus reported their pain as 40 per cent less intense and 57 per cent less unpleasant than before the training. They also showed less activity in the somatosensory cortex, an area of the brain associated with pain processing, and increased activity in areas of the brain involved in cognitive and emotional control.5 Other studies have also reported significant effects of mindfulness on pain intensity.6
The immune system
Participants in an eight-week mindfulness programme were compared with another group following an eight-week exercise regime, and a third set of people who neither exercised nor meditated. They were all monitored to see who fell ill over the next cold and flu season.
The mindfulness group had half as many sick days as those who exercised, were ill for less time, and reported less severe symptoms. The group who did nothing fared worst of all.7 Other studies have shown the benefits of mindfulness for speed of healing and the ability to cope with a wide variety of illnesses, including cancer, heart disease and diabetes.8
Cognitive skills
Mindfulness appears to have benefits for focus, concentration and memory.9 Some studies suggest that it may aid creative, flexible problem-solving,10 and people who practise meditation have been shown to make more rational decisions.11
Behaviour regulation
Mindfulness seems to help people manage addictive patterns with food, cigarettes and alcohol, as well as emotions and urges more generally.12 People who practise mindfulness also tend to sleep better,13 and engage in more pro-social and environmentally friendly actions.14
Relationships
Mindfulness helps us relate to others more skilfully. As well as cultivating empathy, which can lead to mutual understanding, mindful people feel more connected with others, are more likely to enjoy satisfying relationships, and are better able to cope with relationship conflicts.15, 16
Other studies
Taking a mindfulness course has been shown to reduce anger, rumination and medical symptoms, and improve people’s sense of internal cohesion. Those
who are more mindful tend to be more conscientious, independent, competent, resilient and optimistic, and less neurotic, absent-minded, reactive, and defensive.17
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How does mindfulness happen?
It is possible to move towards wellbeing, but it doesn’t occur in the way we might expect – through straining, searching and struggling for answers. Actually, the benefits seem to come from not doing much at all, at least to begin with, Rather, mindfulness means observing and feeling what’s really going on in the moment.
To return to the story of the rider on the horse, practising mindfulness means that, instead of unconsciously digging in the heels and spooking the horse to go faster, our rider friend might begin to notice the feet clenching in fear – gripping on for dear life. They might become aware of a pulling back on the reins that strains the horse’s neck.
Mindfulness means an open-hearted awareness of what’s happening, and learning from what we find. This comes first of all from paying attention to the senses. Rather than getting caught up in ideas, we tune in to our world with awareness of sight, sound, feeling, taste and smell.
As we experience more fully this amazing sensory palette, we notice how thoughts occur as well as sensation, and we notice how this additional layer of concept often drives us, even though it isn’t always an accurate reflection of events. We begin to realize that although we rarely question its validity, our thinking is often off-base, tricking us out of step with the truth.
We observe how our misinterpretations create stress – a tension between how things are and how we mistakenly perceive them to be, or would like them to be. This stress drives automatic thoughts which spin round and round, reigniting distressing sensations and leading to even more thoughts – a vicious cycle which keeps on pulling us into reaction and distraction.
Watching our own mind and body like our friend on their mount, we see how the horse bolts and feel how the rider panics. By noticing this, rather than getting caught up with it or struggling against it, we’re already loosening the ties that bind. With gentleness, we bring our attention back to direct experience in the moment. We sit steady and lighten our grip.
Over time, as we practise opening and re-opening to sensory awareness – coming back to attention as the mind wanders – a different way of being (a real wellbeing) can unfold within us. By repeatedly shifting how we attend to experience, we strengthen the muscle of mindfulness.
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Mindfulness and neuroplasticity
Neuroscience has shown that the brain changes with experience. For example, taxi drivers who have ferried passengers around London for years have larger hippocampi, a region of the brain important for spatial awareness and memory, compared to newer cab drivers. It appears the practice of taxi driving grows this part of the brain over time.1
Similarly, experienced musicians show higher grey matter volume in motor, auditory and visual-spatial regions,2 suggesting their brains have been altered through hours of daily practice. When the brain is damaged – such as during a stroke – it is possible to recover lost capacity through rehabilitation therapy. Other areas of the brain take over from those damaged by the stroke.3
The brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to experience is known as neuroplasticity. Just as how we exercise affects the body’s weight, health, flexibility and strength, the same is true of the brain. This process can happen quite quickly: learning to juggle or play the piano over just a few days alters brain density.4 Remarkably, even mentally rehearsing piano keystrokes results in similar brain changes, almost as if you were actually playing.
This is empowering news because it suggests that we aren’t stuck with our old brains and our old habits. We can plough new furrows, cultivating freedom to shape the future, based on what we do in the present, or how we train the mind.
Researchers have explored the neuroplastic changes that occur with mindfulness training, and are finding that practitioners’ brains seem to reflect their expertise. Activity, structure and volume are different in parts of the pre-frontal cortex,5 the most recently evolved area of the brain, which is associated strongly with reasoning and decision-making. Experienced meditators also show high levels of gamma wave activity, which is thought to be related to increased awareness.6
Changes start to be seen in the brains of new meditators after a few days or weeks of training. As they practise mindfulness, regions of the brain related to learning, memory, mind-body awareness, cognitive control, emotional reactivity, sense of self and other markers of wellbeing are all affected.7
It doesn’t take much, it appears, for patterns of activity and connectivity in the brain to shift. As new grooves are formed in our ways of seeing, relating and behaving, so these are reflected and perhaps reinforced by neural shifts.
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Gentleness and commitment
Like any other skill, mindfulness takes a kind of effort. We’re learning a new way of being with our minds, bodies and environment, and this may bring up feelings of awkwardness, discomfort, disappointment or irritation. We may fall off the horse sometimes, and think we’ll never get back on. We might sometimes believe that mindfulness isn’t for us, or that we’re a hopeless case.
Some descriptions of mindfulness training suggest it’s more like riding an elephant than a horse, which perhaps gives an indication of the challenge (and fun) that may lie ahead. But with guidance and a gentle commitment, we can work with the impulsive reactions that govern us, perhaps even finding that, like a tamed wild animal, they might eventually become our friends and helpers.
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Practice: Coming to your senses
Mindfulness begins when we move from a mode of doing and thinking, and into a way of being, where sensing takes centre stage. Because most of us aren’t used to working with our senses in this way, it helps to practise. For this five senses practice, the only equipment you need is yourself, a chair, and a glass of water.
Allow about three minutes for each stage (15 minutes in total). Once you’ve read the guidance, put the book down while you practise, one sense at a time. For a guided audio version of this practice, and all the other practices in this book, please visit www.edhalliwell.com.
Feeling
If possible, sit upright (although not stiffly so) on the chair, with your back self-supporting and feet on the ground. Let your hands come to rest on the thighs, and, if you like, close your eyes.
What sensations do you notice? How are your feet feeling: perhaps there’s contact between the soles of the feet and the socks, shoes or the floor? Can you feel the weight of your sit bones on the seat? How about in your back – what sensations are here? Do you feel air on your face? What temperature is it just now – warmer or cooler?
And what about internal sensations? Are you noticing any aching, itching, or buzzing? Or maybe there’s not much sensation at the moment – a numbness, perhaps? Be aware of the location of any feeling (or lack of feeling), and whether it’s changing in intensity. You don’t have to try to hold on to or get rid of sensations, or even to name them. See if you can just allow them to be experienced.
Hearing
Now, as you let body sensations fade into the background, allow sounds to be noticed. What are you hearing? You don’t have to go searching for sounds: wait for them to come to you, as if your ears were microphones, receiving and registering vibrations. Louder, softer, closer, further away, short or long sounds?
Or sudden, repeating and continuous sounds? Are they high or low pitch? Perhaps there’s silence, or gaps in-between sounds – are you noticing these too? Open your microphone ears and let hearing come in, whether the sounds seem pleasant or unpleasant. Whatever symphony is playing right now, can you let it be heard?
Seeing
Now open the eyes to seeing. Rather than fixing on what you can see as ‘things’ (e.g. table, chair, book, carpet, etc.), see if you can let the visual field be colours, shapes, shades, or lines. Allow the eyes to linger rather tha
n darting about. Be interested in depth and height and shade.
If you find yourself thinking about what you’re seeing – drawn into a memory or a concern, or automatically giving things a name as they come into view – that’s fine, just acknowledge that the mind has wandered into thought, and gently come back to seeing.
Smelling
Perhaps closing the eyes again, allow yourself to smell. Whether what you’re smelling seems nice or not so nice, let there be a connection with the odours. Is there more than one fragrance, and if so, how are they mixed together? If there are no smells, what’s the smell of ‘no smell’? The in-breaths don’t need to be deep – see if you can let breath happen naturally and offer curiosity to the coming and going of smell sensation. Isn’t it amazing to have a nose?
Tasting
Pick up the glass of water, and take a sip. Notice the arising of sensation on the tongue as the liquid makes contact. How does it taste? Clear, cool, refreshing? Let the describing words fade into the distance, allowing the sensation of taste itself be known.