LAURA LEWIS MANTELL MD

Mindfulness

Everyone is talking about it: being mindful. So what is it and what does it do for you?

Have you ever started eating an ice cream cone, taken a lick or two, then noticed all you had left was a sticky napkin in your hand? Or have you been on your way somewhere and arrived at your destination only to realize you haven't noticed anything or anyone you encountered along the way? These are common examples of mindlessness or, operating on “automatic pilot."

We all fall into the habit of being inattentive. When we “multi-task” we cannot be fully “present” in each task; we have part of ourselves in several tasks. The consequence of inattention can be quite costly; we can miss crucial information about our lives, our relationships, and our health. Science is demonstrating that not only is it almost impossible to enjoy an activity that way, but that we are actually less efficient when we function “mindlessly” or when we “multi-task”.

Mindfulness is important when we deal with stress. Our reactions to stressful events can become so habituated that they occur without our awareness, until, because of physical, emotional or psychological symptom, we cannot ignore them. Some of these reactions include muscle tension, painful emotional states, panic and depression. We may engage in “self-talk”, characterized by an emphasis on self-criticism with a lot of “what ifs?” with negative conclusions at the end. These kinds of thoughts activate stress hormones because your body will respond to the thoughts just as if the stress were actually happening. Or, we might eat or smoke or drink mindlessly.

An effective antidote to our tendency to "tune-out," is mindfulness. Mindfulness means to pay careful attention to what you are experiencing in and around you, without trying to change anything. This includes a heightened awareness of your senses and your environment. Yes, it does require slowing down. To the extent that we are more present in our lives, our decisions become more informed and less driven by habit and reaction.

Give it a try

Pick a time of each day, morning or evening, to devote a little time, just five minutes, to “being mindful.” You can do this with your eyes open or closed. Let the sensation of breathing be the "anchor" of your awareness. Allow yourself to feel the breath as it goes in and out and the pause between. Simply let it come and go. Bring as much attention, as completely and continuously as you can, to the direct sensation of breathing, disregarding thoughts as they pop into your mind.

When you want to spend more time practicing being mindful, and are comfortable with paying full attention to your breathing, widen your focus to include all your senses while you breathe. Allow yourself to be aware of the muscle tensions in your body, where you are comfortable, where you are not, if you are hungry, what you hear, smell while you are breathing.

Mindfulness is an effective way to be present in your life. You can become more informed about what you are feeling. You can gain clarity in this way and be guided in your actions, even though you have not been “thinking things out”.

A Mindfulness exercise

Take an orange section – or imagine you have one. Feel the texture of the section of fruit – how soft or hard it is, if the white membrane is intact or broken.

Now smell the orange – breath in the tangy, sweet, smell with a deep breath through your nose.

Then bit into the orange section; feel the juice escape as you do. Taste the fruit – it is a really good orange, perfectly balanced between sweet and tart? Too tart?

Feel the texture of the orange section in your mouth for a moment before you chew.

Be aware of the flavor dissipating as you chew the orange and the taste in your mouth when the orange is gone.

Using this approach can change your relationship to food. For example, what if you never ate while watching television? We know that watching TV while eating is a set-up for over-eating. Or what if you always sat at a table whenever you ate or required of yourself that you looked at each bite before taking it? These mechanistic tools can help you become aware of what you are doing and that often leads to making different choices. The experience of eating can become more pleasurable and deliberate, which allows you to feel when you are getting full. When this strategy is combined with the right food choices, the results can be terrific.

Mindfulness can become a tool that you can turn to in order to relax, to slow down, to improve your sleep and to just feel better. Research reports that mindfulness:

• Disinclines people not to take on the negative emotions of others.

• Decreases stress and anxiety and depression.

• Enhances well-being.

• Activates areas of the brain associated with positive mood

• Can promote a better immune response to the flu vaccine

People who practice mindfulness often feel that there are more hours in the day. Maybe that is because they feel they have actually been lived through more of them.