Tag: Psychology

Accepting our nature…

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Carl Jung had a few years when he suffered from some type of illness, which meant that he withdrew from teaching at university and found himself unable to read any serious scientific literature. He also was unable to write much during that time. However, this outward inactivity led him to a very important interior realization, which is close  to what we work at in mindfulness practice each day  – to accept the “conditions of existence” as we simply see them. It seems to be a strange psychological truth, affirmed by him and by Carl Rogers, that when we accept something in this gentle way, shifts begin to occur and change happens more easily. Being fully open to whatever is happening means that we can let go of fear and control and of our tendency to place demands on this moment, insisting that it be other than it is:

Something else, too, came to me from my illness. I might formulate that it was an affirmation of things as they are: an unconditional “yes” to that which is, without subjective protests – acceptance of the conditions of existence as I see them and understand them, acceptance of my nature, as I happen to be.

Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections

The search within us

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

There are different ways in which writers describe the inherent restlessness deep within us, with which we are often uneasy and consequently work to cover over by activity or the things we do to seek recognition and success. As I have written before, mindfulness practice encourages us to come to a working understanding that there will always be a deep restlessness at the heart of life, and that is just the way things are. It does not mean there is anything wrong with our life, or with us, despite what we may feel from time to time. Another way of looking at this restlessness is seen in this quotation from the influential Canadian philosopher Bernard Lonergan. He sees it as a positive drive to know, an impulse to keep going beyond immediate experience, the root of all searching, which may never be completely satisfied:

Deep within us all, emergent when the noise of other appetites is stilled, there is a drive to know, to understand, to see why, to discover the reason, to find the cause, to explain. Just what is wanted has many names. In what precisely it consists is a matter of dispute. But the fact of inquiry is beyond all doubt. It can absorb a man. It can keep him for hours, day after day, year after year, in the narrow prison of his study or his laboratory. It can send him on dangerous voyages of exploration. It can withdraw him from other interests, other pursuits, other pleasures, other achievements. It can fill his waking thoughts, hide from him the world of ordinary affairs, invade the very fabric of his dreams. It can demand endless sacrifices that are made without regret though there is only the hope, never a certain promise, of success.

Bernard Lonergan, sj, Insight

Meditation exercises the brain and strengthens development

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Meditation appears to be a powerful mental exercise with the potential to change the physical structure of the brain at large. Eileen Luders, UCLA

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence where  people say that meditation helps them feel more relaxed, peaceful, and focused. However, it is good to find clinical research which backs up some of this evidence with studies on physical changes to the brain. I posted recently on the ongoing work of Sara Lazar and her lab at Harvard who have documented changes in the brain’s gray matter after just the 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation in the MBSR Course. Now a new study has been published in UCLA which suggests that people who meditate  have stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy.

Two years ago, the research team, led by Eileen Luders,  visiting assistant professor at the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging,  found that specific regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger and had more gray matter than the brains of individuals in a control group. This suggested that meditation may indeed be good for all of us since brains shrink naturally with age.  Now,  in a follow-up study, published in the current edition of the journal NeuroImage, they have found that meditation strengthen brain connections , which influences the ability to rapidly relay electrical signals in the brain.  And significantly, these effects are evident throughout the entire brain, not just in specific areas.

Luders used a new type of brain imaging known as diffusion tensor imaging, ( DTI),  that allows insights into the structural connectivity of the brain. They found that the differences between meditators and controls are not confined to a particular core region of the brain but involve large-scale networks that include the frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes and the anterior corpus callosum, as well as limbic structures and the brain stem. They looked at 27 active meditation practitioners, men and women,  (average age 52), who were matched by age and sex with 27 non-meditators.   The meditators had been practicing  for a number of years, anywhere between 5 to 46.

The results led Luders to state: Our results suggest that long-term meditators have white-matter fibers that are either more numerous, more dense or more insulated throughout the brain.  We also found that the normal age-related decline of white-matter tissue is considerably reduced in active meditation practitioners. [Therefore]…. It is possible that actively meditating, especially over a long period of time, can induce changes on a micro-anatomical level.

It is, of course possible, that the brains of meditators were already different to begin with, even before they started practice. However, the fact that 100% of the trial group showed the same characteristics suggests that it is statistically unlikely that this condition was an antecedent fact. Indeed,  Luders work suggests that meditation acts as a type of mental fitness, causing alterations to the structure as well as the functioning of the brain, and slowing down the aging decay that occurs there.

Mindful eating and weight loss

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

A pilot study has looked at the effect of Mindful Eating on weight loss. The report of  the study was published in Complementary Therapies in Medicine in 2010  and involved ten people classified as “obese” (average age was 44) who followed a Mindful Eating program for six weeks, consisting of mindfulness meditation, group eating exercises, and group discussions.  Pairing daily meditation with eating was encouaged to enable people to identify and examine eating triggers, hunger and fullness  cues, the quality of craved foods, and emotions associated with eating. They were encouraged to engage in as much mindful eating as possible and to increase their physical activity by about 5 to 10% each week. The participants were assessed during the trial and again after three months for changes in eating behaviour, psychological functioning, and weight and inflammation markers.

It was found that all of the participants lost a significant amount of weight, almost nine pounds over 12 weeks, on average. A measure of inflammation in the body (C-reactive protein,), decreased significantly, as well. Measures of mindfulness—the ability to observe, be aware of, accept, and describe their eating patterns—saw moderate to large increases throughout the study and follow-up periods. The participants’ self control improved dramatically, and binge eating was significantly reduced. In addition, significant improvements were seen in depressive and physical symptoms (such as indigestion and headache), as well as negative affect (mood) and perceived stress. The cautious conclusions drawn by the researcher were that mindful eating programmes could result in significant changes in weight and eating behaviour.

“In contrast to a focus on cutting calories, mindfulness helps people reduce weight and improve health by restoring the individual’s ability to detect and respond to natural cues,” stated Jeanne Dalen, lead author of the study who works at the Center for Family and Adolescent Research in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jeanne Dalen, Bruce W Smith, Brian M Shelley, Anita Lee Sloan, Lisa Leahigh, Debbie Begay, “Pilot study: Mindful Eating and Living : weight, eating behavior, and psychological outcomes associated with a mindfulness-based intervention for people with obesity”, Complementary Therapies In Medicine (2010), Volume: 18, Issue: 6.

Making time for our better health: Sorry, I’m too busy

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

I’m Late, I’m Late for a very important date,
No time to say hello, goodbye.
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late, and when I wave,
I lose the time I save.

White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland

In a famous study, conducted in 1973  by J. M . Darley  and C. D. Batson, researchers at Princeton University,  it was shown that our perception of busyness influences the way we  behave in certain situations.  It was conducted with theology students  who, after completing some initial questionnaires,  were told to go to another building on campus to give a speech. The irony in this study was that the speech was on the New Testament parable of the Good Samaritan, where the main character helps a person in distress whom he meets unexpectedly on the road. Some of the students were told that they were late for the speech; others were told that they had a few minutes to spare. On the way, they came across a man slumped in an alleyway who appeared to need help. Out of those students who were told they were late and thus felt that they were in a hurry,  10% stopped to help. Of the group who knew they had a few minutes to spare, 63% stopped.

The crucial variable in the study was not the values of the person or their basic kindness, it was whether or not they believed themselves to be in a hurry. When questioned afterwards, those who had failed to stop said they would have done so, if they had “had more time“. It seems that when we speed up and feel that we are in a hurry, we experience something similar to what Tolman called in 1948 the “narrowing of the cognitive map”. We miss details. We do not make the best or wisest choices. We are not present in the moment to notice what is really important.  Too much focus on the future – one of the driving features of today’s age – means that we ignore what is in front of us in the present. The words “Hurry, you’re late”  had the effect of turning someone who would normally notice,  into someone who was indifferent to suffering — of making someone, in that moment, into a different person.

Recommended Summer reading 1.

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Summer often allows an opportunity for catching up on reading so I will give some suggestions for books in the next week or two.

Over the past few years we have seen mindfulness practice  being applied to specific areas where people  may have difficulties, such as anxiety or depression, or indeed when people struggle with issues such as shyness in public or procrastination.  It is nice to see that  we are also  beginning to find reflections on the even more fundamental issue of the sense of self, or our basic sense of unworthiness, themes which I have covered frequently in some of the posts in this blog.

One book which covers these themes, and which I can recommend wholeheartedly,  is entitled Living with your Heart Wide Open, written by two of the most experienced mindfulness teachers in the U.S.,  Steve Flowers and Bob Stahl. A nice title, but,  in fact,  the subtitle reveals more about the material covered,  in a very accessible fashion,  in the chapters: “How Mindfulness and Compassion can free you from unworthiness, inadequacy and shame“.

As this subtitle suggests,  the book is concerned with the basic underlying narrative tone which pervades our life, dealing with different aspects in each chapter and applying mindfulness exercises to the themes covered. In other words, it helps us become more aware of the manner in which we talk to ourselves. It looks at the origins of this self-talk in the way our life history has shaped us, but focuses mainly on how it hinders us in our daily lives and leads to ongoing suffering. Although many of the exercises in the book are familiar, using them in a systematic way linked to themes  means that this book  leads readers –  with great kindness –  to reflect on the ingrained thought patterns that keep them trapped in self-judgement,  or criticism,  to potential greater freedom:

This book offers a mindful path to breaking free from these habitual thought patterns. Through meditation and inquiry, you can discover where this negative self-talk came from and why you are so judgmental towards yourself. Addressing this lack of self-compassion is essential. In a sense our very existence is threatened by an endemic of self-loathing. War essentially begins inside the individual, stemming from a sense of alienation and separation from the interconnectedness of life. Making peace within is one of the noblest endeavors you can pursue – for yourself, for others and for the world (p.5).

One advantage of this book is that it presents recent psychological research on the Narrative Self, Attachment, Shame and Self-Esteem in a very straightforward manner, which will be of great benefit to readers coming to this material for the first time. It does not go into too much depth as it always keeps in mind that the purpose of the book is to help the reader in a practical manner in areas that are potentially life-changing.  I particularly liked chapter five which deals with Self-Compassion, the subject of a number of studies and books at the moment. The authors show how cultivating self-compassion is necessary in this modern age, with its excessive emphasis on continual self-improvement,  and then lead into two practices to allow the reader develop it better in their daily lives. These reflections and meditations are rich enough to keep returning to them again and again, allowing a gentle healing of some of the deeper parts of our psyche.

As you continue to practice self-compassion, you may notice more and more things about the self you’ve created with all of your old stories. Perhaps you tried to be especially good to counterbalance the problems in your family. Perhaps you learned to be generous of yourself as a way of earning the value you felt you lacked. Self-compassion lets you be with all the hurt, loneliness and fear that the narrative-based self has concealed. In the open heart of self-compassion, the wounded child within you will begin to heal (p. 105).

To sum up, a book that could be a very lovely companion on our journey this Summer and after, as we move towards greater acceptance of our our selves and our history, allowing us to see through our stories and live in the present more richly.