1. Mindfulness in an Indian
experience…
“Happiness and suffering are in our minds”
Buddha.
Dr Caterina Vicens
June 4th 2013
2. Dharamsala
India:
•Capital: Delhi
•Population 1,160 million;
the second largest
population in the world.
•Government: Democracy
•28 states.
•Oficial language: Hindu,
English is largely spoken
especially in business.
With 23 oficial languages
also has a lot of dialects
(1,652)
•Religion: 80% Hinduism,
12% Muslim, 2% Christian,
1% Buddhism
8. Not the same healthy diet
recommendations as ours:
•Meat - monthly
•Sweets - weekly
•Fish - weekly
9. The process of manufacturing Tibetan pills……
No FDA controls!!!! We were given a sample!
10. Mindfulness
• Eric Fhrom wrote Zen budism and psychoanalysis introducing for the first
time buddhist concepts into the western world.
• In the Sixties, with the Hippy movement, some psychotherapists began to
practice Zen meditation ,and in 1977 the APA recommended the
evaluation of the efficacy of meditation.
• In 1979 Jon Kabat-Zinn created The Mindfulnes Center at the University
of Massachusetts Medical School.
• In 1990 Mark Williams, John Teasdale and Zindel Segal developed
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for the treatment of
depression
• Then Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is now recommended for
preventing the relapse of depression (NICE 2009)
11. What is Mindfulness?
• Paying atention or being aware in the present
moment without making judgements and without
thinking about the past or worrying about the future.
• Most of us are rarely in the present moment.
• We focus on past experiences and emotions.
• We are constantly thinking about what might happen
next and what the future may hold.
• We are often unaware of what we are doing, we are
on “auto-pilot”.
12. How can it help us?
• Mindfulness is of potential value to
everybody to help find peace in a frantic
world.
• It teaches us a way of BEING rather than
DOING.
• It allows us to step back from automatic
behaviour and habitual thoughts patterns and
see things more clearly.
13. Research studies demonstrate
• Neuroscientific studies find
– Changes in those areas of the brain associated with decision-making,
attention and empathy in people who regularly practice Mindfulness
meditation
– That meditation increases the area of the brain linked to regulating
emotion, and that it improves people’s attention, job performance,
productivity and satisfaction
– That meditation increases blood flow, reduces blood pressure, and
protects people at risk of developing hypertension. It also reduces the
risk and severity of cardiovascular disease, and the risk of dying from
it.
• People who have learned mindfulness…
– Experience long-lasting physical and psychological stress reduction
– Discover positive changes in well-being;
– Are less likely to get stuck in depression and exhaustion, and are
better able to control addictive behaviour.
14. Be aware
• It sounds simple, but it is remarkably hard to do.
• Especially in our modern task-focussed lives we don’t
know how to pay wise attention to what we are doing.
• So we easily get caught in over-thinking - damaging
our well-being and making us depressed and
exhausted.
• People who have learned mindfulness are less likely to
get depressed and they also experience positive
changes in well-being
15.
16. Thirdly, even though it is
nearly 10 years since NICE
first
recommended MBCT and
even though the 2009
NICE update
identified the therapy as a
key priority for
implementation, there
is a substantial gap
between the efficacy
research and
implementation in routine
practice settings. A recent
survey
suggests that only a small
number of mental health
services in
the UK have
systematically built MBCT
into their depression
care pathways.
19. • 3 minutes meditation with Mark Williams
• http://oxfordmindfulness.org/learn/resources/#au
20. How to practice Mindfulness
• Mindfulness is a simple form of meditation
• Consists of focusing your full attention on your breath as it flows in and
out of your body.
• Focusing on each breath in this way allows you to observe your thoughts
as they arise in your mind and, little by little, you stop struggling with
them.
• You come to realise that thoughts come and go; that you are not your
thoughts. You can watch as they appear and they disappear, like a soap
bubble.
• You come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings
(including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and
ultimately, you have a choice about whether to act on them or not.
• Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate
with yourself. When unhappiness or stress appear, you learn to observe
them with friendly curiosity. It begins the process of putting you back in
control of your life.
21. Mindfulness is not….
• Meditation is not a religion. Mindfulness is simply a method of mental training. Many people who practise
meditation are themselves religious, but then again, many atheists and agnostics are keen meditators too.
• You don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor but you can if you want to. Most people sit on chairs to
meditate, but you can also practise bringing mindful awareness to whatever you are doing, on buses,
trains or while walking to work. You can meditate more or less anywhere.
• Mindfulness practice does not take a lot of time, although some patience and persistence are required.
Many people soon find that meditation liberates them from the pressures of time, so they have more of it
to spend on other things.
• Meditation is not complicated. Nor is it about ‘success’ or ‘failure’. Even when meditation feels difficult,
you’ll have learned something valuable about the workings of the mind and thus have benefited
psychologically.
• Meditation is not about accepting the unacceptable. It is about seeing the world with greater clarity so
that you can take wiser and more considered action to change those things which need to be changed.
• Meditation helps cultivate a deep and compassionate awareness that allows you to assess your goals and
find the optimum path towards realising your deepest values.
22. Mindfulness can be also useful…
• Mindfulnes is now being used in a variety of
settings including: Hospitals, Business, Prisons,
Courtrooms, Colleges, Universities…
• It can be practised by anyone at anytime
• Is for people who want to be fully aware
• To improve their quality of life and “LIVE life to
the full”
