Mental Training & Mastering the Art of Mindfulness By: Daryush Parvinbenam M.Ed, M.A., LPCCS, LICDC South Community, Inc. Feb 20, 2013 "This human being is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. Still, treat each guest honourably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight."

1. Mental Training &
Mastering the art of
Mindfulness
Daryush Parvinbenam M.Ed,
M.A., LPCCS, LICDC
South Community, Inc.
Feb 20, 2013

2. This human being is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
Still, treat each guest honourably He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an
unexpected visitor.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing, and invite
them in.
Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep
your house empty of its furniture.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
The Guest House
Rumi (13th century Persian poet and mystic)

3. Personal introduction to
mindfulness
Personal interest since adolescence.
Application of mindfulness practices to trauma treatment,
attachment disorder, and different forms of affect
regulation problems
May be secret of survival for many ancient cultures.
Impact of mindfulness practices on brain.
Neurobiological studies with Buddhist monks.
Therapeutic application of the mindfulness practices to
psychotherapy.

4. Definition of Mindfulness
Paying attention in a particular
way: on purpose, in the
present moment, and non-
judgementally to a
specific experience.

5. Let’s practice

6. Making ordinary non-ordinary
Many traditional meditative techniques are
considered a mindfulness practice.
Not every mindfulness practice is
considered a traditional technique.
Almost every ordinary daily routine can
become a mindfulness practice with the
right approach.

7. Mindfulness in modern times

8. Mindfulness in modern times
Becoming more main stream, and
acceptable as a way of personal
development, and growth.
Application to Business, health care,
medicine, mental health, pain
management, and personal wellbeing.

9. Myths about mindfulness
I can only meditate in the right conditions.
Have to do it for a long period of time to have benefit.
Will touch the supernatural which will make my life all-
happy.
I must conquer myself for this process to work.
The guy next to me prevents my meditation.
Benefits only come after years of practice.
Meditation is a process that one practices for a couple of
months until mastered.
Meditation is about a special state separate from this
world.

10. BENEFITS

11. Common healing factors of the
mindfulness practices
These practices create connections on all
levels of human experience:
– Neurobiological integration (Biological)
– Intrapersonal (Self)
– Interpersonal (Others) within a socially
meaningful context
– Transcendent (Universe, God, higher power,
Divine Essence, etc)

12. Positive effects of long-term
meditation
Monk under fMRI.
– Significant difference in left prefrontal cortex
activation compared to right prefrontal cortex.
– Difference as high as 3 standard deviations
above the “norm”. There is a strong relation
between activity of increased activity of left
prefrontal cortex and positive affects such as
joy and compassion.

16. What does the scan suggests?
The scan suggests the body and the mind can not be
separated so easily. When you do something with your
mind, the function of your body/brain changes.
Functional brain scanning has demonstrated that mental
events do not just affect what you think and how you
feel. They affect the functioning of your body, in
particular, the functioning of brain. In other words doing
something different with mind, affects more than
thoughts. It literally changes the function and
metabolism of brain.
So it doesn’t seem so surprising that events that affect
our inner world have any impact on our physical body.

17. Neuroplasticity:
Transformation of the Brain
Known that difference in animal experience
leads to differences in gene expression and
so to different brain structure. So too with
humans.
Sara Lazar et al. MRI showed increase in
cortical thickness in subjects due to
meditation. (Mass General/Harvard study,
NeuroReport, vol.16, pp.1893-1897, 2005)

18. Lazar cortical thickness study
Measured thickness of
the cerebral cortex in 20
Insight meditation
practitioners with average
of 9 years practice of
40min/day
Mean thickness
unchanged, but regions
show difference
Slower thinning w. age
Scatter plot of mean cortical thickness of
each participant in the subregion above
threshold within each circled region of (c)
insula and (d) BA 9/10, plotted versus
age. Meditation participants: blue circles;
control participants: red squares.

19. Neurotransmitters and meditation
Meditation has been linked with increase
production of:
– Serotonin that is related to modulation of
affect and behavior.
– Melatonin that is related to regulation of sleep,
and may have anti-carcinogen and immune
system enhancing effect.

20. Mindfulness practices promote
neural integration among
different regions of the brain.

22. ADHD and Mindfulness: UCLA
Results indicate that mindfulness meditation training may
be a beneficial complementary treatment approach for
adolescents and adults with ADHD. Positive findings
include:
1) the absence of any reported adverse events;
2) highly favorable ratings of the treatment by participants;
3) reductions in self-reported ADHD symptoms reported by over
three quarters of participants, even though the majority were
already being treated with medication;
4) significant improvement on several of the neuropsychological
measures; and,
5) reductions in depressive and anxiety symptoms for the adults.
Zylowka, et al. (2008).

23. What can Mindfulness-based
therapies Address
Coping with Stress
Anxiety
Psychological Trauma
Depression (particularly relapse
prevention)
Eating disorders
Panic disorder
Chronic pain
Personality disorder
OCD
Borderline Personality Disorder
Substance abuse
Anger management
Disorders of impulse control
Neural plasticity
Immune modulation
Anti-inflammatory
Enhancing immune function
Behavior / lifestyle change
Improvements in sleep
Rumination
General wellbeing
Ivanovski B, Malhi G.

24. Method and technique

25. Dance as a mindfulness practice

26. Basics of mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice of concentrated
focus upon a sound, object, visualization,
the breath, movement, or attention itself in
order to increase awareness of the
present moment, to reduce stress,
promote relaxation, and personal health
and emotional/spiritual growth.

27. Observation
In Observation –
We simply practice noticing what’s going on
within and around us, starting with our
breathing,
Then gradually expanding our practice to
consciously noticing our emotions, our
thoughts, our beliefs, our choices, our
behaviors, the consequences of our choices
and behaviors.

28. Observation
How all of it together feels in our own
lives each moment. As we sit, or stand
or walk, we simply notice: “sitting”
“standing”, “walking”.

29. Some modes of approaching of
mindfulness
Non-striving
Patience
Beginners mind
Trust
Letting go
Acceptance
Openness
Curiosity
Kabat-Zinn (1990)

30. Attitudes of mindfulness
Non-striving
Getting to you goals will happen naturally
and more successfully if you allow this
process to unfold.
Patience
To be patient is completely open to each
moment. Accepting is in its fullness, as
things can only unfold in their own time.

31. Attitudes of mindfulness
Beginner’s mind
Take a stance of not-knowing, to see if your perceptions
are affected by your own beliefs and values.
Trust
Trust your own insight and wisdom, knowing that what
are perceived as mistakes may happen, but this is okay.
Trusting yourself will allow you to have more trust in
others and see their goodness.

32. Attitudes of mindfulness
Letting go
Sometimes our minds seem determined in
holding onto certain beliefs, thoughts.
However, instead of judging these we can
simply let them be and stop from trying to
repress, deny, or focus on them.

33. Attitudes of mindfulness
Acceptance
Staying in the present. Spending time
regretting the past and focusing on the
future “what ifs?” will only lead to more
tension and little energy.

34. Attitudes of mindfulness
Non-judging
Judgment can dominate our minds,
causing tension and chaos in our beings.
Effectively handling stress will require our
awareness of our automatic judgments, so
to see through our own prejudices and
fears.
Assume the stance of an impartial witness.

35. What are you seeing?
What else is possible?
Right now in this life, what is the
figure and what is the ground?

36. Breath
Whenever your mind becomes scattered,
use your breath as the means to take hold
of your mind again.......Breath is a tool.
Breath itself is mindfulness.

37. Mindfulness and breath
Using the breath we learn to ground ourselves in the
present moment.
Accepting what is happening in us and around us,
whatever it is, we learn to open to experience, without
judgement.
Teaches us ways to connect with our emotional
experience without becoming overwhelmed.
Learning to watch our thought patterns come and go, we
see about how our mind works.

38. Mindfulness and breath
• Breathing is universal.
• Breathing provides a ready focus for the
mind.
• The breath is the doorway to the “here and
now”.

39. Refrences and suggested
Bibliography
Ivanovski B, Malhi G. The psychological and neurophysiological
concomitants of mindfulness forms of meditation. Acta Neuropsychiatrica
2007;19:76-91.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your
Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Delta.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994) Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness
meditation in everyday life. New
York: Hyperion.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to our senses: Healing ourselves and the
world through mindfulness.
Langer, E. J. (1993). A mindful education. Educational Psychologist, 28(1),
43-50.
Langer, E. J. (1997). The power of mindful learning Addison-
Wesley/Addison Wesley Longman.
Langer, E. J. (2000). Mindful learning. Current Directions in Psychological
Science, 9(6), 220-223
Zylowka, et al. (2008). Mindfulness meditation training in adults and
adolescents with ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 11, 737-746.