Mindfulness Invites Engagement & Connection

By Char Wilkins, MSW, LCSW

What fascinates me about this mindfulness work is the way in which the different qualities and characteristics of being mindful engage and connect us. Recently, I wrote about the rich possibilities inherent in cultivating the skill of listening mindfully and the presence of respect, wonder, gratitude, reverence and connection that naturally seem to co-arise.  It makes me think of the lyrics from an old song that goes “. . . you can’t have one without the other.”  I haven’t done any scientific research on this, but it seems that when making the intention to cultivate even one of these, the others appear.

Teaching MBCT or MBSR in a group setting or adapting the program for individual work provides multiple opportunities to nurture connections.  In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown has a lovely, yet practical, definition of what she feels it means to be connected. She writes “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

As we teach we become aware of many different connections and relationships that arise as the weeks pass.  Daniel Goleman, in his book Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships writes about how recent findings in neuroscience and biology confirm that we are hard-wired for connection and that our relationships shape our biology as well as our experiences.

There is the relationship a participant creates with the material being presented which may fluctuate from boredom to confusion to excitement.  There is the evolving relationship he or she establishes with the teacher.  In a group setting, each participant determines whether or not they will connect with others and to what extent they will interact with fellow participants.  And then there is the intra-personal work of connecting to oneself that each participant is invited to embark on.  For the teacher, there is the opportunity to model healthy boundaries while nurturing curiosity, potential, and the possibility of connection to self and others.  And there is the ongoing development of the teacher’s own relationship with the program material, the practice and the embodiment of the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness that Jon Kabat-Zinn articulated: patience, trust, beginner’s mind, non-judging, acceptance, non-striving and letting go. Maybe it is true that we teach what we most need to learn.

I’ve barely touched upon the value of and ways this work invites us to connect. Perhaps you have an example or are aware of other connections taking place as you teach a mindfulness-based intervention that you’d be willing to contribute to expanding this exploration.

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The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness Professional Training Institute has partnered with experienced clinicians and mindfulness teachers Susan Woods, MSW, LICSW and Char Wilkins, LCSW, to offer two 5-day MBSR teacher training retreat programs.

MBSR: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction 5-day Teacher Training, June 2-7, 2013 at Joshua Tree Retreat Center, in Joshua Tree, CA

Advanced Training for MBCT and MBSR Teachers: Embodying Mindful Presence and Investigating Mindful Inquiry, June 9-14, 2013 at the EarthRise Retreat Center in Petaluma, CA. and November 11-16, 2013 at the Chapin Mill Retreat Center, Rochester, NY

I Was Different: Reflecting on the Impact of February’s 2013 “Bridging” Youth Conference

 by Nancy Lee

Nancy Lee is a 4th grade teacher at Cerritos Elementary School.  She has been conducting a 12-week program of mindfulness training, ”Mindfulness Matters,” as part of a University of Southern California research study. The training is for grades 3-5.  Nancy attended, her first Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth conference this year, in San Diego. The following is an essay that she wrote after her first day back in the classroom.

 

The day began with the hustle and bustle of the morning chaos. The students filed into the classroom, chatting away, getting reacquainted with their classmates. But something was different. I was different. In the ruckus, I silently walked to the front of the room, sat in my teacher chair and chimed the bells: Once, the class looked at me and slowed into their seats; twice, they stopped shuffling through backpacks and mingling with friends; three times, they silenced themselves and focused on me. I began by inviting them to take a mindful posture and to check into the moment. I proceeded to guide them through the 3 minute breathing space. Two minutes into the breathing space, my chronic tardier walked into class. Before walking in, he hesitated at the door, then tiptoed to the front of the room and gently laid the tardy slip on my desk, silently walked to his seat and joined us in the breathing. Normally, he would prance into the room, wave the tardy slip at me as if he was proud of being late, then proceed to his seat only to begin talking to his seat partner. Something about the stillness of the room made him aware of the fact that he was tardy. I don’t pray for miracles, but I hope he is on time tomorrow.

I followed my class in after recess, walked slowly and deliberately to the front of the room, but before I could reach for the bells, the class silenced themselves, without anyone having to monitor anyone. Then I heard the voice of my tardier from the back of the room, “Ring the bells, Mrs. Lee.” I told them, “The chiming of the bells is a reminder to help us come into the present moment, but you did not need the bells. You did it all on your own.”

After school, I began the Mindfulness Matters session with the 3 minute breathing space as I have done. But something was different. I was different. After the breathing space, one of the participants (one that most teachers would agree needs mindfulness) said to me, “Mrs. Lee, you said different things today.” I commended him for noticing. Then another student said, “You didn’t read from the binder today.” That was correct. I was able to set aside the script and guide the practice through my own experience and feelings, and the students noticed.

The same participant then said to me, “I have a new pencil and I was mindfully looking at it.” “What did you notice about your pencil?’ I inquired. He proceeded to describe the pencil in great detail to the class. How appropriate that was. Today’s lesson was about seeing things mindfully.

It took 11 sessions, but I have finally learned to take off my teacher hat.

Save the Date February 7-9, 2014  Bridging the Hearts & Minds of Youth: Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, Education and Research in a new location at the Paradise Point Hotel, San Diego, CA.

“Transforming Basic Quality of Life in Youth and Adults” More Than Sound

by Max Breiteneicher

More Than Sound produces and publishes media in the fields of mindfulness and conscious leadership-two areas they consider crucial to society’s continued development.

More Than Sound’s founder, Hanuman Goleman, was introduced to formal mindfulness meditation by Sayadaw U Pandita, Michele McDonald, and Steve Smith in 1989 at the first young adult retreat offered at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, MA. Now known as the Teen Retreat, it has been an introduction to mindfulness for hundreds of teenagers over the years. In 2007, Hanuman began volunteering as a discussion group facilitator at the Teen Retreat, and in the years since, he has been a part of introducing the transformative experience of mindfulness practice to young people. This work led Hanuman to take part in establishing a monthly young adult sitting group at Insight Pioneer Valley in Easthampton, MA.

“Because the brain, body and heart all share a state of rapid development in our teen years, the insights and kindness developed in these retreats becomes integrated into the foundation of their life experience,” Hanuman says. “From these retreats the teens have more tools to work with difficult negative emotions and relationships, to develop positive mind-states and a stronger sense of self-love.”

Seeing the benefits that the changes brought about by mindfulness have in transforming basic quality of life in youth and adults alike has been a main drive behind the development of More Than Sound. They record and publish CDs, videos, and books from thought-leaders in the emerging field of affective neuroscience, from renowned mindfulness teachers, and experts in emotionally intelligent leadership. More Than Sound is dedicated to aiding in the continued integration of mindfulness practice in the secular world, as they believe that this union has potentially enormous benefit for both the prosperity and humanity of our shared future.

The opportunity to partner with The Center for Mindfulness at UCSD in offering the videos of their Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth conference was a natural next step for More Than Sound. This conference brings together a special community of professionals united around a common goal of helping our young people reach their potential and be happy, healthy, well-adjusted human beings who practice compassion, patience, equanimity and presence. Our recordings of the conference are a perfect way to broaden our community and educate others interested in introducing mindfulness techniques to our future generation.

To this same end, More Than Sound also offers practical mindfulness instruction from distinguished teachers. Their most recent release in this area is the CD, Working with Mindfulness, with mindfulness teacher and organizational management expert Mirabai Bush. Bush is the founder of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, which has led mindfulness trainings for thousands of employees and executives of major corporations and non-profits, including Google, Monsanto, Hearst Publications, and the Fetzer Institute.

Bush was also a key contributor to Google’s now-famed Search Inside Yourself curriculum. Working with Mindfulness is a series of practices based on traditional mindfulness practice but crafted around a work environment. There is mindful e-mailing, for example, coping with change, and managing negative emotions. Participants in Bush’s programs through the years have consistently reported reduced stress, increased productivity, more creative problem solving, and improved relationships – all essential for a top-performing workplace, and for happier lives.

More Than Sound is proud to have a working partnership with the UCSD Center for Mindfulness and to be involved with the important work of Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth. Sharing the work of these educators, researchers and therapists is way to be of further benefit to the continued understanding and practice of mindfulness techniques in our lives.

Save the Date February 7-9, 2014  Bridging the Hearts & Minds of Youth: Mindfulness in Clinical Practice, Education and Research in a new location at the Paradise Point Hotel, San Diego, CA. To be recorded by More Than Sound

Follow More than Sound’s social media sites;

Website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest

Calming the Rush of Panic: A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Guide to Freeing Yourself from Panic Attacks and Living a Vital Life

An exclusive excerpt from “calming the rush of panic” by Bob Stahl, PhD and Wendy Millstine, NC

Frank’s Story

Frank, an inventor, had come up with some new medical devices for use in lifesaving heart surgery. When he started a business to get these inventions in the hands of doctors, he had to deal with experiencing panic at times. When he was at the office—on his own turf and in control of his environment—he was fine and things went fairly well, but when he had to travel to sell and support the use of his devices it was another story.
Frank would have liked to have someone else in charge of sales for his business since he had so much panic, but he couldn’t afford to hire the right professional just yet, and those who might be interested in helping him didn’t have enough of a technological background. As a result, Frank needed to make sales presentations himself as well as thoroughly explain to the surgeons how to use his devices, which often meant accompanying them into surgery to consult with them on how best to implant and use them.
Just the thought of walking into the surgery was enough to make Frank’s hands sweaty and his breathing rapid and irregular. He knew that he desperately needed to learn to calm down his panic so that he could successfully market his devices and see them put to good use. The last thing he wanted was to have a full-blown panic attack in the operating room.
Frank became proactive and took a mindfulness class, where he learned various formal meditations and informal practices that helped him a lot. Mindful belly breathing was one of his favorites since it helped him regulate his breath and come back into balance. Frank also related with the notion from sitting meditation that you are not your thoughts, but most of all he connected with “Pause, Observe/Experience, and Allow.” This was incredibly helpful for him, in conjunction with mindful breathing that he could bring into everyday situations.
Whenever he thought about going out to see the surgeon or when he was about to go into the operating room, Frank would pause and take some mindful breaths in and out. This opened up a space for him to observe in a matter-of-fact way just what he was experiencing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Frank then began to allow and acknowledge what he was feeling and began to let things be. In time, those panicky feelings subsided and dissipated and Frank felt great relief, release, and happiness by learning how to face and transform his panic.

A helpful way to work mindfully with panic is called “Pause, Observe/Experience, and Allow.” This informal daily practice can help you work through panicky thoughts and events so that you don’t get so caught up in them.

So wherever you are—at the post office, at the bank, at the office, or at home, if you feel an activation of panic rushing within you — you can practice:

“Pause, Observe/Experience, and Allow.”

Here’s how it works:

1) When you notice the rush of panic emerging within, take a moment to breathe from your belly and pause to become present.
2) Observe and experience your body sensations, thoughts, and emotions.
3) Then allow them to be, giving space for them to go wherever they need to go.

See what happens when you bring the practice of “Pause, Observe/Experience, and Allow” into a panicky moment. Reflect upon the fact that life is indeed made of moments and although a moment of panic may seem like a thousand years, in actuality it’s not very long. Like all events in the body and mind, whatever arises, passes—for all things are certain to change.

By practicing “Pause, Observe/Experience, and Allow” you can begin to be with the storms of panic as they come and go and gradually feel less affected by them. You are learning to give space to the storm of panic by not reacting to it. You are learning to pause, observe/experience, and allow the panicky feelings to go wherever they need to go. When you give space to the storm of panic, eventually the storm dissipates. You will come to see these mind and body states of panic as impersonal formations that are always changing. When you become less reactive and regard these panicky events as transient, you will become not so enslaved by them. In time, you’ll experience deeper levels of freedom and peace.

Just as a mountain is steady and grounded in the midst of changing weather day in and day out, you can learn to sit in more balance with the weather systems of your own body and mind.

Bob Stahl, PhD., is the co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Living With Your Heart Wide Open, and Calming The Rush Of Panic.

Bob founded Awareness and Relaxation Training in 1991 as an educational organization based in Santa Cruz, CA. and has founded seven mindfulness-based stress reduction programs in the San Francisco Bay Area and currently directs MBSR programs at Dominican Hospital, El Camino Hospital, and O’Connor Hospital.

Dr. Stahl is a certified MBSR teacher who also serves as an Adjunct Senior Teacher for Oasis – the institute for mindfulness-based professional education and innovation of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Bob conducts numerous mindfulness meditation retreats and workshops for health care professionals, corporations, and educational institutions and has extensive experience working with individuals facing physical disabilities, chronic pain, life-threatening illnesses, and stress-related conditions.

Wendy Millstine, NC, is a freelance writer and certified holistic nutrition consultant who specializes in diet and stress reduction. With Jeffrey Brantley, she is coauthor of the “Five Good Minutes®” series and “Daily Meditations for Calming Your Anxious Mind.” She lives in Sonoma County.

Mindful Presence: Embodying kindness and the listening heart

The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness has partnered with Susan Woods and Char Wilkins to offer a 5-day program entitled: Advanced Training for MBCT and MBSR Teachers: Embodying Mindful Presence and Investigating Mindful Inquiry, June 9-14, 2013 at the EarthRise Retreat Center in Petaluma, CA. The following is the second in a series of periodic posts by Susan and Char, sharing their vision and wisdom in formulating and offering this training, and exploring the territory of teaching mindfulness in general. We invite you to get to know them through this series and perhaps to reflect on your own relationship to mindfulness teaching.

By Susan Woods, MSW, LICSW

Suffering is not personal, but in so many ways we are inclined to feel it in that way.  Of course the feeling of pain and heartache is universal; it’s what connects us and also what can separate us.  Mindfulness meditation practice encourages and supports us in developing a profound understanding about how we relate to pain and gives us choices on how we can respond.  It took me some time and lots of practice to relax into appreciating this.  What I became aware of was the more I could allow myself to show up and pay a kind and steady attention, without denying or pushing anything away or alternatively chasing after something, the steady momentum of mindfully noticing became compelling as an act of generosity.

We don’t often talk too much about acts of generosity when facing suffering; a sense that it is permissible and might even be imperative to be kind when facing the overwhelming; that by cultivating a tender abiding, embodying an intentional and attentive mindful consciousness which supports a friendly and intimate awareness we come to experience our pain, our difficulties in a different way.  We also come to notice that being mindful is dynamic and creates just enough intuitive and emotional space to acknowledge pain and the story around it without needing to react to it so much.  Learning by this measure we come to see directly the simple and powerful presence of kindness and patience, acknowledging that nothing needs fixing, residing in the meaning of being present and in the power of deep noticing and listening.  And so paradoxically we are able to let go more and more sensing what lies behind the narratives of our ego driven world.

It is this awareness, this presence, that nurtures caring which is deeply compassionate; an attentive listening heart which is quiet, calm, loving and knows from experience the storms of suffering, the rages, the hatreds, criticisms, judgments, frustrations, sadness’s and anxieties.  And when these arise, the listening heart opens, quivers, creates space, embraces, bearing witness to all while residing with the movement of breathing.  Breathing in, inhabiting this moment, breathing out, softening and letting go.  This heart has learned the worth of gentleness, has learned the value of an attending presence – a presence that asks for nothing in return, only this moment now.

In our lives and in our teaching of mindfulness, embodying a mindful presence conveys the hope that we may all slowly walk this journey of kindness with a listening heart.

Mindful Matters: Nourishing Our Wellbeing in Clinical Practice

by Chris Gauthier

There are lots of people, many of them healthcare professionals, who are serving this world by caring for others. Something within some of them is so completely synchronous with the desire to heal others that there is nothing in this life they would rather do. The fact that there are people so committed to helping others become whole is awe-inspiring. However, too many times the basic premise of healing is forgotten: we must heal ourselves if we have intentions of healing others, so we can better serve all.

With the world of medicine constantly changing, areas of improvement in patient care are abound while its practitioners continue to meekly manage mindful self-care rather haphazardly. In America, this recent structural revolution in the medical industry, regardless of personal opinions and politics on the subject, is significant. The demand for physicians, psychologists, and other medical practitioners is exponentially growing. Medical professionals that do well in their care – because let’s face it, we have or know someone who has had a needlessly negative experience seeking quality care, can be likened to an oasis in this increasingly desert-esque landscape. How do we as practitioners, continue to offer the top care that we do, while combating increasing instances of burn-out, fatigue, and a general lack luster experience where on occasion we may dip our toes into the depths of existential darkness? With greater work loads and less time that we do not have, it is imperative for us to find ways to care for ourselves. These sharp changes in the field require equally acute transformations of focus.

There is another movement germinating in this field within the western context that proffers a way for us to take care of ourselves so that we can do what we love: take care of others. This movement is towards mindfulness. Mindfulness in clinical practice is essential to thriving long-term in the duty of serving our patients to the best of our abilities. Mick Krasner, MD FACP practices primary care internal medicine in Rochester NY and teaches that the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Going strong after 12 years of integrating Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction into the lives of his patients, medical students and various health professionals, Mick might be on to something. A plethora of research on this topic shows an improvement in quality of care of patients, and an increase in well being for the health professionals who practice it. An example of one of the aspects whereby we can incorporate mindfulness is within the context of communication education with our colleagues.

Howard B. Beckman et. al. published a fascinating study exploring mindfulness-based interventions with practitioners, finding that these kinds of mindful communications skills when learned and practiced, promote a sense of community and an increase in time devoted to personal growth. In the paper, “The Impact of a Program in Mindful Communication on Primary Care Physicians,” they conduct in-depth interviews with physicians who had completed a specific 52-hour mindful communication course, which had known effects of reducing distress and burnout as well as increasing empathetic capacities. Generally there were three main themes that surfaced through the randomized qualitative data: 1) sharing personally the experiences from medical practice with other colleagues in the class setting reduced professional isolation, 2) increased skill sets to listen attentively to patients, 3) developing a greater sense of self-awareness is a positive experience. It is clear here as is true in other studies, that learning how to engage in mindfulness practice (and practicing!) does tremendous good for the individual and by proxy, for the community as a whole.

This education in mindfulness has ineffable multi-facetted value, but we already don’t have enough time as it is! So what do we do? Well, one way is by looking for those CE’s that will offer us this kind of education that will teach us to nourish ourselves so we can continue to do the important work that we do. Being aware of the consequences, good and bad, of our decisions we make for ourselves and about ourselves is one of the pillars of this mindfulness journey to creating the life we want to live. We can seek out continuing education courses that we have to do anyway, that will also aid us in this journey towards taking care of ourselves therefore enabling us to sustainably care for others.

We are delighted Dr. Krasner is coming to San Diego on May 11, 2013 to present a daylong workshop on mindful practice entitled “Mindfulness in Clinical Practice: Our Patients, Ourselves.” This event will include an hour-long presentation on the Neuroscience of Mindfulness by Tom Chippendale, MD, Director of Neuroscience at Scripps Health and longtime MBSR teacher. The day-long training has been approved by the AMA PRA for Category 1 Credit.

Work Cited:

Beckman, Howard B., MD, Melissa Wendland, Christopher Mooney, MA, Michael S. Krasner, MD, Timothy E. Quill, MD, Anthony L. Suchman, and Ronald M. Epstein, MD. “The Impact of a Program in Mindful Communication on Primary Care Physicians.” Academic Medicine 87.6 (2012): 1-5. Print.

Krasner, M. S., R. M. Epstein, H. Beckman, A. L. Suchman, B. Chapman, C. J. Mooney, and T. E. Quill. “Association of an Educational Program in Mindful Communication With Burnout, Empathy, and Attitudes Among Primary Care Physicians.” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 302.12 (2009): 1284-293. Print.

About the Author:

Chris Gauthier is an alumnus of the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Cognitive Science and a focus in Neuroscience. He has many passions, most revolving around skills of wholeness, health, and self-discovery. Chris is affiliated with the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. He also travels and presents a variety of topics in a workshop style, mostly to college-level minds. Mr. Chris Gauthier can be reached at: chris.a.gauthier@gmail.com.

When listening is everything you ever wanted

The UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness has partnered with Susan Woods and Char Wilkins to offer a 5-day program entitled: Advanced Training for MBCT and MBSR Teachers: Embodying Mindful Presence and Investigating Mindful Inquiry, June 9-14, 2013 at the EarthRise Retreat Center in Petaluma, CA. The following is the second in a series of periodic posts by Susan and Char, sharing their vision and wisdom in formulating and offering this training, and exploring the territory of teaching mindfulness in general. We invite you to get to know them through this series and perhaps to reflect on your own relationship to mindfulness teaching.

By Char Wilkins, LCSW

On the opening page of Mark Nepos’s book Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, he quotes an epigraph by Abraham Heschel:

 [We] will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation . . . What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder . . . Reverence is one of [our] answers to the presence of mystery . . .

There is a longing for connection that we all experience and repeatedly hear as participants in our MBCT and MBSR programs speak of disappointment, fear and hope.  And we notice that as we cultivate the ability to listen to each one of them, we begin to hear the themes of need and desire that weave us together in our collective humanness. We begin to hear that indeed, no one is alone in the tangle we call life.

Nepo believes that if we limit our existence to only what we know, we blind ourselves to the “mystery.” Mystery is about open-eyed wonder, appreciation and gratitude. So when we engage in mindful listening, in which our conditioned mind and heart open in sincere and kindly curiosity, we create a pathway not only to the mystery of what is present in each moment, but to the possibility of a peaceful connection to self and others.

We ask our clients and participants to listen not because it’s a Mindful Rule, but because listening is a threshold between our inner and outer worlds. It’s an entryway to pause in, a vantage point from where we can see our own limiting beliefs and also the possibility of choice. From this doorway we can begin to hear harmonies that strike a chord within, where perhaps before we only heard the dissonance that isolated and left us feel disconnected from ourselves and others.

In our teaching, we become aware that it isn’t the dissemination of information that connects people intra and interpersonally, but rather being listened to- their story heard and appreciated. We may call it group dynamics or breaking the isolation or normalizing, but in the end I believe it is simply the reverence of listening. This is what MBCT and MBSR offer teacher and participants: the possibility of discovery through wonder and freedom through listening.

Petaluma: Training in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

text & photos by Dzung Vo

Gratitude

Hope

Connectedness

these three words
express my experience with
the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Teacher Training
which is a very skillful application
of mindfulness for preventing relapse of chronic depression in adults

the five-day training was an interesting hybrid
of a meditation retreat
and professional training workshop
i was fascinated to watch my mind going back and forth
between “just being”
enjoying the breathtaking natural environment
walking, eating, and sitting mindfully
being fully in each breath
and “doing”
watching my analyzing, planning, comparing and judging mind at work

breathing in, i am aware of my thinking
breathing out, i smile …

how lucky i am
to be able to consider this experience
part of my “work”
more and more, as my work comes from the heart
the line between my profession and my bodhisattva path
begins to dissolve…

the faculty
(zindel segal, sarah bowen, and steve hickman)
brought tremendous warmth, gentleness
and clarity of vision
in teaching and embodying the training
the students brought a depth and diversity
of practice and experience
and a bright curiosity

it gives me great hope
to see these practices
skillfully adapted and offered to the world

it gives me great humility
to be a part of this growing “professional sangha”

MBCT Teacher Training, Petaluma, Class of 2013

i bow deeply to all of you

I have long had a dream to teach mindfulness practice to adolescents suffering from chronic illness and chronic stress. With my position at the British Columbia Children’s Hospital–and the luxury of having a more functional health care system with sufficient time to spend with my patients and explore issues deeply–I have finally had a chance to start making this a reality.

(see more photos on my flickr set)

Cultivating Ease and Freedom When Consuming: The Case for Mindful Eating and Conscious Living

Jan Chozen Bays, M.D.

By Jan Chozen Bays, MD

You’ve been working hard on a project on the computer, and it’s time for a treat. You’ve been holding off, waiting for the delicious taste of __________ (please fill in the blank). Coffee ice cream? a piece of dark chocolate? a donut? an onion bagel? some fresh strawberries?  For me, it would be a creamy, sweet‑sour lemon tart.

You take the first bite. Very yummy! You take the second bite. Still yummy, maybe a little less yummy than the first bite, but never mind. You glance at the computer and something catches your eye. A Hollywood scandal, a political gaff, a weird and wacky video. You click on it, watch, and continue eating.

Disappearing food!

Suddenly you look down. Where did that treat go? Your fingers are sticky and there’s still a trace of flavor on your tongue, so it must have disappeared down the hatch while you weren’t looking . . . or smelling, or tasting, or enjoying. Disappointment and dissatisfaction set in. “That one just vanished! I’d better have another one.” Next the internal critic voice pipes up “What are you thinking? One treat is enough. You know you’re trying to lose weight/eat better/stop grazing/etc.”

Thus begins the struggle over the simple, biologically natural, pleasurable act of eating. When I tell people that I’ve written a book on Mindful Eating*, and describe what it is, almost everyone will relate some difficulty they have with food, from an embarrassed confession of an addiction to chocolate to the palpable misery of binging and purging.

How is it that food and eating have become such a common source of unhappiness? And why has it occurred in a country with an abundance of food? The fundamental reason for our imbalance with food and eating is that we=ve forgotten how to be present as we eat. We eat mindlessly.

Food, fat cells and the stomach are not the problem

We decided that the problem was in the food, so we’ve used chemical technology to take the calories out, the fat out, and to substitute chemical sweeteners and artificial fats. Food is food. It is neither good nor bad. Then we decided the problem was our fat cells, so we liposuctioned them out. Fat cells are just trying to do their job, which is to store energy for lean times ahead or for famine. For most of our evolutionary history, starvation was one snowstorm or drought away. Our fat cells are there to help us survive! When I lived in Africa I discovered that skinny women there have trouble finding a spouse. They aren’t considered good marriage material —- they’ll get sick and die on you!

Then we decided that the digestive system was the problem, so we staple the stomach or surgically bypass the small intestine. The digestive system is just trying to do its job,  breaking down food, absorbing nutrients and excreting what’s not needed. (There’s no question that bariatric surgery can be an emergency life-saving measure for some people. It works by forcing people to eat mindfully, causing pain and vomiting if they don’t. It is very expensive, has lots of side effects,  and is not a long-term solution for the majority of people or for children with out-of-balance eating.)

The problem is not in the food, the fat cells or the stomach and intestines. The problem lies in the mind.  It lies in our lack of awareness of the messages coming in from our body, from our very cells and from our heart. Mindful eating helps us learn to hear what our body is telling us about hunger and satisfaction. It helps us become aware of who in the body/heart/mind complex is hungry, and how and what is best to nourish it. Mindful eating is natural, interesting, fun, and cheap.

What is Mindfulness?

Let’s start with what Mindfulness is. It is deliberately paying attention, being fully aware of what is happening both inside and outside yourself — in your body, heart and mind — and outside yourself, in your environment. Mindfulness is awareness without criticism or judgement.

The last sentence is very important. In mindful eating we are not comparing ourselves to anyone else. We are not judging ourselves or others. We are simply witnessing the many sensations and thoughts that come up as we eat. The recipe for mindful eating calls for the warming effect of kindness and the spice of curiosity.

What is Mindful Eating?

Mindful eating involves paying full attention to the experience of eating and drinking, both inside and outside the body. We pay attention to the colors, smells, textures, flavors, temperatures, and even the sounds (crunch!) of our food. We pay attention to the experience of the body. Where in the body do we feel hunger? Where do we feel satisfaction? What does half-full feel like, or three quarters full?

We also pay attention to the mind. While avoiding judgment or criticism, we watch when the mind gets distracted, pulling away from full attention to what we are eating or drinking. We watch the impulses that arise after we=ve taken a few sips or bites: to grab a book, to turn on the TV, to call someone on our cell phone, or to do web search on some interesting subject. We notice the impulse and return to just eating.

We notice how eating affects our mood and how our emotions like anxiety influence our eating.  Gradually we regain the sense of ease and freedom with eating that we had in childhood. It is  our natural birthright.

The old habits of eating and not paying attention are not easy to change. Don=t try to make drastic changes. Lasting change takes time, and is built on many small changes. We start simply.

NOTE: Jan and her colleague Char Wilkins, MSW, LCSW continue to offer a 5-day Professional Training through the UCSD Center for Mindfulness entitled  ”Mindful Eating, Conscious Living” based upon their work in this field and Jan’s book. Upcoming training dates and locations include March 10-15, 2013 in Joshua Tree, California and September 15-20, 2013 in Batavia, New York.

Further Reading and Listening:

* Mindful Eating: a Guide to Rediscovering a Healthy and Joyful Relationship with Food, by Jan Chozen Bays, with an introduction by Jon Kabat-Zinn, released February 3, 2009 by Shambhala Publishing. (Includes a CD of 14 mindful eating exercises and meditations.)

** Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, by Brian Wansink, published 2006 by Bantam Books. (A very funny look at very interesting research about how we all eat mindlessly.)

From: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mindful-eating/200902/mindful-eating

Mending and Deepening the Encounter Between Doctor and Patient Through Mindfulness

We are updating this blogpost to call attention to an amazing event that has come together primarily as a result of the original posting back in September. After sharing this article with our colleagues around the world, and across the Southern California region, we received an outpouring of interest. We have since invited Dr. Krasner to come to San Diego on May 11, 2013 to present a daylong workshop on mindful practice entitled “Mindfulness in Clinical Practice: Our Patients, Ourselves.” This event will include an hour-long presentation on the Neuroscience of Mindfulness by Tom Chippendale, MD, Director of Neuroscience at Scripps Health and longtime MBSR teacher.

As the skirmishes and battles on healthcare rage loudly on in the political and financial arenas of our society, there is a darker, more troubling process unfolding “on the ground” in the day-to-day practice of medicine and healing in general. Within the crucible of the doctor-patient encounter, where human suffering is intended to meet compassionate and effective healing, something isn’t working. Patients aren’t satisfied with the quality of care they receive and doctors are experiencing declining job satisfaction, burnout, “compassion fatigue” and are feeling increasingly alienated from the profession that once inspired passion and dedication. Physician and physician-in-training suicide is a rising and troubling outgrowth of this underlying malaise in the system.

Dr. Mick Krasner, Associate Professor Clinical Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry, and his colleagues, have done groundbreaking research on the potential to address this growing phenomenon. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, they shared the results of a 2012 study of the impact of an extensive course in mindfulness, communication and self-awareness on 70 community physicians. The results are striking in demonstrating the positive effect of this program on physician well-being and satisfaction, including improvements in scores on measures of burnout, mood disturbance, emotional stability and depersonalization.

Mick Krasner, MD

Krasner and his colleagues have now taken their results to the examining room, so to speak, and drawn on them to develop a powerful training program in what they call Mindful Practice. More than just a gathering of health professionals interested in exploring what it would mean to bring mindfulness into their lives both personally and professionally, Krasner notes that “What has become clear is the imperative for what Saki Santorelli calls a ‘Collegial Sangha’ and that is what has been the outcome of our trainings. …this need for community and its absence in many of our health professionals’ work lives is a real force in the loss of meaning in our profession, reduced adaptive capacity and resilience to withstand the changing nature of our work, and the growing trend toward burnout.”

“…isn’t a boundary also a place of meeting and coming together?”

This effort to powerfully change the nature of the healing encounter through the mindful practice of the clinician arises out of exploring what has traditionally been referred to as the “boundary” between patient and doctor. Saki Santorelli, the Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, writes eloquently in his book Heal Thy Self of the pitfalls and opportunities of boundary-making. He says, “The usual meaning of boundary is “dividing line” – a separation between two things. But isn’t a boundary also a place of meeting and coming together?” He goes on to write “These intertwining movements are similar for us as patients and practitioners. Yet all too often the hard, impenetrable borders of this relationship are carved out of a process of identification that divides self and not-self into mutually exclusive entities. Unconsciously, this process winds up shaping the entire interaction. I am not suggesting that these roles are the same. They are not. But they are just that – roles. And behind these roles lies a much larger field, our shared humanness.”

Ron Epstein, MD

Two 4-day retreat-style courses have been developed by Krasner and Ron Epstein, Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Oncology and Nursing at the University of Rochester, and are offered through University of Rochester Medical Center’s Center for Experiential Learning. The first was entitled Promoting Mindful Practice in Medical Education and Practice and was offered on October 31-November 3, 2012. The second course is Mindful Practice: Focus on Serious and Life-Limiting Illness on May 1-4, 2013. Both programs are offered at the beautiful Chapin Mill Retreat Center in Batavia, New York.

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Krasner M. S., Epstein R. M., Beckman H., Suchman A. L., Chapman B., Mooney C. J., Quill T. E. (2009). Association of an educational program in mindful communication with burnout, empathy, and attitudes among primary care physicians. JAMA 302, 1284–1293. doi: 10.1001/jama.2009.1384.

Beckman HB, Wendland M, Mooney C, Krasner MS, Quill TE, Suchman AL, Epstein RM.. The impact of a program on mindful communication on primary care physicians Academic Medicine 2012; 87(6): 815-819