Marianne Herzog, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
484-393-5886
What is
MINDFULNESS
We are practicing mindfulness when we are . . .
Intentionally paying attention/bringing our focus
to the present moment (and from moment-to-moment)
without judgment, with kindness, with an open and welcoming attitude
Mindfulness is a set of practices based on Buddhist principles that have the underlying idea that it is not what is happening inside our heads, feelings, and bodies and outside of us in the environment, including our experiences, behaviors of others, etc., that causes suffering, but it is our approach or relationship to experiences that is causing us to experience it as pain (physical or psychic, such as in anxiety, anger, depression) or increase its intensity and perpetuate its effect on our life.
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When we engage in FORMAL mindfulness practice, we are setting aside time to do nothing but meditate (bringing focus to the present with kindness), for example, engaging in a Body Scan or following the breath; formal practice can be done sitting, standing, walking, and lying down.
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When we bring mindfulness into our daily life, we are engaging in INFORMAL practice. This is when we apply focus with kindness fully to something we are already doing in regular life; we do this through focusing on the sensations that arise during the activity, within the situation—such as mindful eating focusing on sight, smell, taste, touch, sound, to anchor us in the moment; we might also become aware of emotions and thoughts arising in situations and allow them to simply "be there," without reacting. Listening mindfully is another example of an informal practice.
The instructions for both formal and informal mindfulness practice are the same:
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1. Become aware of the present-moment experience
2. Once we notice attention has wandered off, gently redirecting the attention to the new present moment
Mindfulness practice helps us learn to bring our awareness to the present moment with curiosity and kindness. Practicing mindfulness formally (sitting in mindful meditation, for example) trains our focusing ability and actually changes our brains to allow this to happen more easily. In other words, maintaining focus becomes more of a habit than the usual jumping from one thought to another that is our brain's tendency, which has been reinforced through living in our world of planning, ruminating, and multi-tasking. In learning to maintain our focus more often in formal, sitting practice, we can more easily bring this to our daily activities.
An outcome of practicing mindfulness regularly is the development of a gentle, kind, and non-judgmental relationship with our thoughts, feelings, and experiences, which allows us to see ourselves with more clarity and understanding…and with more compassion. It turns out that, taking care of ourselves in this way can lead to more ease in making decisions, more understanding in our interactions with others, and more equanimity in how we respond to personal struggles.
Maintaining awareness of the moment with focus on the breath also activates the part of our nervous system that brings about physically restorative, reparative, and soothing functions. The ensuing feeling of calm helps us feel that “all is well.” Also, by virtue of that part being “turned on,” it automatically insures that the other part of our nervous system is “turned off” at that particular time, the part that initiates the “fight/flight” or ‘’stress” response that, when activated for long periods of time without return to baseline, can actually cause damage to our physical systems and can result in worry, impulsive behavior, and irritability.
HOW CAN IT HELP ME IN MY LIFE
Do you find yourself feeling stressed as you are moving through the day, focused on your to-do list, feeling anxious about upcoming events, questioning past decisions, responding to others in anger, doing too much, and being self-critical/telling yourself you have to do better?
Through Mindfulness Practices, it is possible to learn to respond in more skillful ways to pain and suffering, stress, disappointments, frustration, decision-making, and difficult interpersonal interactions. Through learning to come into the moment and notice all the things you are experiencing internally as well as what is happening outside of you, you are actually learning to take a "pause." This will allow you to take more information into account in deciding what to do in the next moment--whether to talk and what to say; whether to eat and, if so, what to eat; what to do next in your day; how to respond to your crying toddler; when to provide an answer to a request for help with something; or how to bring patience and understanding to your reaction to an internal or external event with compassion toward yourself.
