Receive the invitation to sit down. If accepted, maintain a posture that embodies a sense of dignity and presence. Calmly pay attention to your breathing, differentiate the details of inhalations and exhalations.
At some point, you will feel some itchiness, restlessness and will judge everything a big waste of time. Recognize these interferences, congratulate yourself on having identified them. Then return your attention to the breath, to your purpose.
Then come to another practice. This time, focus on the sensations, or lack thereof, in each part of your body. Discriminate tingling, pain, without ignoring the good impressions. Perceive the contact of the skin with the surroundings, discover the bodily signs.
If you want yet another new experience, pique your interest in everything you can hear. Don’t look for anything specific, don’t rate, or judge. Be open to the sounds that come. Note the changes, the rhythms, the sounds that make up the sound, and the silence between each noise. Gently shift your focus to your thoughts. Observe how they arise and how they pass, without attaching to any one.
These are extremely simplified examples of some possible mindfulness sessions, or mindfulness meditation – concentration on purpose and the present, without judgment. The adept is encouraged to bring these fundamentals into the routine. Therefore, to pay attention to gestures, words, reactions around and emotions.
Mindfulness training helps to recognize that thoughts, feelings, and sensations are temporary mental events and therefore not reflections of the self. It also cultivates curiosity, as well as encourages experiencing rather than avoiding.
So far everything may seem too good vibes, but don’t be fooled. Not avoiding is a difficult task. If you engage in the practice, at some point you will be asked to focus on an uncomfortable thought. Some configured in hurts, remorse, frustrations. Or perhaps remembrance of our disposition to violence and cruelty. When the practice of mindfulness calls us to face suffering, it is similar to other human activities, especially religions.
This proximity is not surprising. After all, meditative rituals are present in many religious cults, and mindfulness meditation derives from Buddhism. But despite these contacts, mindfulness remains apart from religions. In its foundations there is no sacredness, priests are unnecessary, divinities do not exist, there are no considerations about the soul and there are no metaphysical beliefs. There is no God anywhere, least of all above all. Mindfulness is a strictly secular activity.
Secular values ​​are all around us. Scientists deal with questions that were once the responsibility of religious people. When seeking the truth, we often consult science In such a materialistic age, perhaps a probable human spiritual need, once exclusively met by religions, can be alleviated by a form of meditation, which is secularized Buddhism.
If secular, the attributes of mindfulness must be examined by science. To start the scientific exploration, without a doubt the main question is: does meditation really exist? Or rather asking, is there a measurable biological phenomenon that represents the meditative state?
This question has already been answered: yes, there is this phenomenon. Meditation coincides with an increase in specific electrical brain waves, the gamma type, which govern attention and memory.
Another important question: is mindfulness good for anything, or is it just a new age fad? Yes, it works, mindfulness is a good tool for mental health. Accepting and not judging reduces the anguish resulting from certain thoughts and certain bodily sensations.
Understanding that a bad thought is part of the moment and that it will disappear, even with the exception that it will recur, is a psychic resource against depression. In addition, meditation can reduce the effect of chronic pain and even improve the lives of epileptics.
Mindfulness helps the brain take care of itself.
References
1. De-Mystifying Mindfulness [Internet]. Coursera. [cited 2022 Apr 13]. Available from: https://www.coursera.org/learn/mindfulness
2. Ivanovski B, Malhi GS. The psychological and neurophysiological concomitant of mindfulness forms of meditation. Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2007 Apr;19(2):76–91.
4. Michaelis R, Tang V, Nevitt SJ, Wagner JL, Modi AC, Jr WCL, et al. Psychological treatments for people with epilepsy. Cochrane Database System Rev [Internet]. 2020 [cited 2022 Apr 14];(8). Available from: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012081.pub3/full
5. Tang V, Poon WS, Kwan P. Mindfulness-based therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy: An assessor-blinded randomized trial. Neurology. 2015 Sep 29;85(13):1100–7.
6. Goldin PR, Thurston M, Allende S, Moodie C, Dixon ML, Heimberg RG, et al. Evaluation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy vs Mindfulness Meditation in Brain Changes During Reappraisal and Acceptance Among Patients With Social Anxiety Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 Oct 1;78(10):1134–42.
