Mindfulness and meditation

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Rocky Mountain Dharma, Copyright 2014

Presented by Rev.Dr. Sean H.
Thompson

What is Mindfulness?
 Working definition of mindfulness in Neuroscience…
 A mental mode characterized by attention to

present moment experience without conceptual
elaboration or emotional reactivity.
 Buddhist definition: Samadhi: The mental state of
being firmly fixed on a single object, (Concentration)
 The “scientific” definition of mindfulness involves self
regulation and curiosity…
 The self regulation of our attention along with..
 An attitude of curiosity, openness or acceptance.

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Finding mindfulness
 Mindfulness is found in ALL the world‟s major

religious practices…
 St. Teresa of Avila emphasized mindfulness as a

way to experience God.
 “Recollection” is the term closest to mindfulness in
Christianity.
 Zikr is mindfulness in Islam
 Kavanah is mindfulness in Judaism
 Samadhi is mindfulness in Buddhism and Hindusim.

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Now for meditation…
 Meditation is defined as..
 „A family of mental training techniques that can

promote specific mental skills and qualities of the
practitioner‟ (Jha)

 The object of meditation and mindfulness is NOT to

become a robot, but to open ourselves to the whole
open universe and experience it…
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McMindfulness…
 Mindfulness is becoming a catch word for

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anything that helps with stress and anxiety.
 Meditation is about gaining insight and wisdom to
reduce suffering…(the three poisons; greed,
hatred, delusion)
 Meditation goes hand in hand with „Sila‟ (moral
actions)
 Meditation‟s goal is to „be here now‟ and have
that practice spread throughout our lives…
 Many „therapists‟ are using mindfulness as a way
to quiet the mind.
Rocky Mountain Dharma, Copyright 2014 only one part of meditation…
 Quieting the mind is

Changing your mind
 Meditation improves long term well being and






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peace.
Meditation can beat Morphine (lowering activity in
the Somato-sensory cortex) by 24%
Meditation improves wisdom, insight,
understanding. Practicing meditation makes your
brain tissue more pliable, and changeable.
Meditation increases gray matter, (ages slower)
Meditation increases Telomeres size (and
therefore longevity)


Brain facts…
 The brain weighs about 3 pounds
 Mostly fat tissue, (60%) which holds it all together
 Over 75% of its weight is water…
 The brain uses 20% of the oxygen in blood, even

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at rest.
 The brain structure changes with each memory.
 We have successfully mapped much of the brain
(yes, we use way more than 10%)
 The brain creates enough electricity to power a
light bulb…

Brain function.
 The smell of chocolate stimulates „Theta‟

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brainwaves which are relaxing…
 Estrogen promotes memory…
 Olfaction (smell) is the best memory retrieval
sense…
 When eyes are more open we are more in „Beta‟
waves.
 The brain is more „active‟ when you are asleep
and dreaming than when you are awake.
 Brainwaves are measured in Hertz or cycles per
second…

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Mind speed
 The mind can process 126 pieces of information

every second.
 Most of what our brain does is eliminate „static‟ or

what we feel is „useless‟ information.
 Eventually the brain LEARNS what is important and
what is not… (or what I it likes and what it doesn‟t)
 This is the basis of addiction (brain physiology)
 Chemistry is closely related to this…

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Studies on mindfulness and
meditation
 Overcome stress (University of Massachusetts Medical School,

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2003)
 Boost your creativity (ScienceDaily, 2010)
 Improve your sex life and increase your libido (The Journal of
Sexual Medicine, 2009)
 Cultivate healthy habits that lead to weight loss (Journal
Emotion, 2007)
 Improve digestion and lower blood pressure (Harvard Medical
School)
 Decrease your risk of heart attack (The Stroke Journal, 2009)
 Help overcome anxiety, depression, anger and confusion
(Psychosomatic Medicine, 2009)
 Decrease perception of pain and improve cognitive processing
(Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 2010)
 Increase your focus and attention (University of WisconsinMadison, 2007)
 Increase the size of your most important organ— your brain!
(Harvard University Gazette, 2006) -

Brain structure and function…
 The brain has four lobes
 Frontal for planning and higher thinking, behavioral

control, personality.
 Parietal (sides of the head)making sense of the
world, perceptions of things.
 Motor cortex for movement.
 Sensory cortex for tactile senses.

 Temporal for hearing, memory, and understanding

language.
 Occipital for vision.
 Cerebellum for balance and proprioception
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Your brain
I‟m scared

Who
Why
I‟m hungry
is
is
Pin 8646
…
that?
that?
Who am
!!!
Where am I?
12539 East Vine
I?
License 125348 Why
?? What
When will I…
Wher
I‟m bored …
is
is
?
e am that? When can
I‟m hungry
that?
Who I‟m scared
I? !!!
I?
What is I‟m fat
When can
is
??
going on?
I?
that?
254-99-65588
?
Pin 8646
Who
#@$#!*
#@$#!*
!!!
is
When can I? hungry
I‟m
… that?
!!!
254-99-65588
??
I‟m stupid ?
I‟m hungry

When can
I?
#@$#!*

???

Where am I?
Why is
that?


Wh
ere
am
I?

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Effects on the brain itself.
Parietal Lobe

Frontal
Lobe:

Occipital Lobe

Cerebellum
Brain stem, Midbrain, Pons,
Medulla Oblongata…

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Limbic System…

Parietal Lobe

Frontal
Lobe:

Occipital Lobe

Cerebellum
Brain stem, Midbrain, Pons,
Medulla Oblongata…

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Motor functions,
sensory

Planning, higher
thinking…

Sight

Breathing,
heart rate,
temperature

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Balance and proprioception

Decreased
activity during
meditation

Increased
activity
during
meditation

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Attention
association
area

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Attention
association
area
(blue)

Prefrontal cortex…
(green)

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Attention
association
area
(blue)

(green)

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Orientation and
visual association
areas

Attention
association
area
(blue)

Orientation and
visual association
areas

(green)

Hippocampus… (memory
organizing and sharing)
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Attention
association
area
(blue)

Orientation and
visual association
areas

(green)

Amygdala (regulates fight
or flight, emotional
reactions)

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Attention
association
area
(blue)

(green)

Amygdala (regulates fight or flight,
decreases sympathetic influence)
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Orientation and
visual association
areas

Hypothalamus
(regulates sensory
info.)


Orientation and
visual association
areas

Attention
association
area
(blue)

Hypothalamus
(green)

Hippocampus…

Amygdala
Mid brain, Regulates heart rate, pressure etc..
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Spinal/Vagus nerve…
The Vagus nerve is called the „wanderer‟ or „vagabond‟ from
the hypothalamus, it sends info to organs and receives info as
to how they are working…

Sense of guilt, butterflies, doom all
are related to the Vagus nerve

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Meditation
tunes this nerve
and helps us
understand its
messages…

The rest of the nervous system…
 Autonomic Nervous System
 Parasympathetic: Rest and digest, feed and

breed…
 Sympathetic: Fight or Flight

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Mindfulness gone bad…
 The more our minds wander aimlessly, the more

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unhappy it can become. Studies show that the
mind wanders 47% of the time. This is called
„Perceptual decoupling‟. (not having your mind
on your task)
 We are the main character of this wandering… “I
am bored”
 In mindfulness meditation we break that down to
„boredom‟, where the „I‟ and „am‟ are no longer
present. Only then we can see the „nowness‟ of
the statement „Boredom‟ as opposed to a
permanence of „I am bored‟…

Mindfulness, all gone…
 “in a contemplative relationship with our mind we may

become friends with it…” (William James 1890)
 The process of mindfulness should be interesting and
fun.
 Constructive day dreams…
 Free running of mind… (a constructive internal

reflection)

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 practice…
 5 minutes of following the breath
 5 minutes of free running of the mind, just be aware
of it…
 5 minutes of taking focus off the thoughts…

Technique time!
 Breath counting (helps with concentration)
 Awareness of movement…
 Awareness of stillness…
 Awareness of an object

 Awareness of a process (eating, standing, sitting

etc.)
 Openness of the heart and eyes…
 Gazing
 Free running day dream…
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Mindfulness
 The first step in mindfulness is

“Catch AP-

ASAP”
 Catch your auto pilot as soon as possible…
 Most planes that are flying to a destination are off

course most of the time, the purpose of a pilot is to
re-correct the plane‟s direction. This is the same as
mindfulness.
 The idea of watching (awareness) is essential in

determining what the mind is doing.
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 Executive control allows us to get back on track…

Attention!

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Attention!

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Attention!
‘arising’
thought…

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Attention!
‘existing’ thought…

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Attention!
‘Dissolving’ thought…

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Attention!
‘Dissolving’ thought…

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Attention!

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Practices.
 Sitting meditation
 Movement
 Single hand.
 Double hand.
 Sitting from standing.

 Pranayama
 Alternate nostril

breathing
 Body Scan

 Tense and relax
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 Eating mindfully
 Sitting up
 Free flow day dream
 Awareness of

awareness
 Focusing on light.
 Object to observe
 Stone etc…
 Gentle waves
 Body movement

Basics of mindfulness
meditation…
Focus

Reengage

realize

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Drift

disengage

Rocks
 Put rocks on floor and have participants choose

one.
 Hold rock in hand, „be‟ with this rock…
 Many times old memories arise…
 How was it that the mind did or did not stay on

target with rock?
 How did you relate to the rock?
 How you relate with „the world‟ or „other‟…

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