What is mindfulness
In recent years, what, using the English word, is called mindfulness has become widespread . But what is it about? The word ” mindfulness ” means “awareness”, “full attention”. It is a state of consciousness in which we are alert and present witnesses of our thoughts, emotions and perceptions, moment by moment. It is a state that is not easy to describe in words because it refers first of all to a direct experience.
Among the possible descriptions of mindfulness, that of Jon Kabat-Zinn has become “classic”, one of the pioneers of this approach, for whom ” Mindfulness means paying attention, but in a particular way: with intention, at the present moment, in a non judgmental “. A way to cultivate a fuller presence in the experience of the moment, in the here and now.
The origins of mindfulness: the Buddhist tradition
The mindfulness approach derives from mindfulness meditation and Buddhist doctrine and meditation practice constitute the tradition that most of all embodies and expresses this theme.
Buddha’s teachings, which go under the name of Dharma, indicate the mental factors that allow the individual to grasp the essence and nature of each experience: aspiration, trust, attention, discrimination and of course , awareness.
The mindfulness (awareness) is a mental state, a mode of being, not directed to a purpose; it is in fact focused on allowing us to stay in the present as it is and to allow us to simply be in this present. It is therefore a non-conceptual, non-verbal-discursive state.
Mindfulness, knowledge of what happens, is that faculty that in the Buddhist tradition must be cultivated as a way to achieve the reduction of human suffering, which is considered connected to an erroneous perception of a permanent individual ego. Overcoming this illusion would allow the achievement of lasting emotional balance and psychological well-being.
To achieve this goal, the Buddhist tradition does not recommend a change of external reality, but rather a change of the individual himself on a cognitive and emotional level, to correct the errors that the human mind frequently commits when it has not been trained and disciplined. The way is therefore first of all practical, based on an innate capacity, but cultivated with discipline.
The mindfulness opens to the richness of the present moment, and to experience the fullness of the insights that lead to a more profound and intuitive knowledge of reality and of the mode of functioning of the mind itself. But the fullness of the experience necessarily includes its “negative” side: the discomfort, the suffering, the pain. And here is one of the most interesting aspects of this approach which asks and teaches not to reject and not to deny this dimension but to accept it, welcome it and make it a reason for growth and even creativity.
The mindfulness is not a relaxation technique (even if the relaxation is a direct consequence). It is not a way to go into some form of trance, nor to clear the mind and reach “emptiness”. It is not a way to ensure easy psychophysical well-being. It is not a form of “doing good” that pushes us to accept everything, to accept uncritically what happens to us, to be passive in the name of “acceptance”.
If the negative side of life cannot be avoided, then the mindfulness perspective offers us a strange and counterintuitive possibility at first sight: to enter into a more direct relationship with discomfort and suffering, to learn to pay full attention, to make room even what we do not like, that we do not want or that makes us suffer. In this sense it is a “counter-current” work, because the automatic tendency we have is to do exactly the opposite.
But in this apparently incomprehensible “move” we find a possibility to make room, to let it be and therefore to be less conditioned, less oppressed even by the conditions that bring us discomfort. And, paradoxically, by doing this we put ourselves in the best possible conditions to find, when there are, the most effective ways and means to manage or resolve the causes of suffering. Sometimes even drawing on creative intuition.
The practice of mindfulness would therefore facilitate the transition from a state of imbalance and suffering to one of greater subjective perception of well-being, thanks to a deep knowledge and understanding of mental states and processes and through an active work with them.
The clinical applications of mindfulness
From here we understand how in recent decades mindfulness has been integrated into models and therapeutic programs consolidated in the Western world and how it has found a particularly fruitful integration with psychotherapies of a cognitive behavioral matrix . In this context, the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts, was pioneering, who has had a very large following in the clinical field but more recently the applications have extended to the educational and organizational sphere as a proposal for a real healthier lifestyle.
Kabat-Zinn’s work starts from his belief that mindfulness meditation practice had the power to permanently transform the individual experience of suffering and stress , offering an alternative to problem-solving strategies that are deeply rooted. in Western culture, shifting the perspective towards mind – body medicine.
Kabat-Zinn wanted to adapt traditional meditation practices to be able to introduce them in contexts such as health and hospital, so that the practice itself was accessible to the psychological and physical possibilities of patients. The mindfulness meditation has thus left its spiritual and moral connotations, waiver to be part of a path for the illumination and is defined as focused attention, directed at the present moment and non-judgmental. In this way it has become part of various therapeutic programs through awareness practices that are both ancient and suitable for the Western world.
The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol was the first mindfulness training born from the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn starting from the seventies. Designed for patients suffering from chronic pain or terminal illnesses, it was subsequently successfully applied to other physical and psychological clinical conditions, such as in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of borderline personality disorder , in the treatment of dissociative disorders, in the most recent protocols for the treatment of anxiety disorders .
Eight mindfulness meditation group meetings are planned weekly, lasting about two and a half hours, to which is added an intensive day of practice, educational moments on the topic of stress. However, these moments do not constitute the foundation of the path: experiential learning is the distinctive element and, one could say, the heart of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and the programs it has borrowed.
Mindfulness and cognitive therapy: MBCT
Mindfulness and cognitivism evidently have in common the interest in the role that thoughts play on emotions and behaviors and so the success of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction has meant that a certain interest in cognitive psychotherapy has spread also in the field of cognitive psychotherapy. awareness as a clinical tool.
A broader horizon of interventions was thus opened that have as common characteristics the meditative practice, the group format, individual responsibility, the consistent amount of commitment required of the participants, the long-term perspective and orientation not aimed at the result. .
Among the interventions derived from Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (Segal, Teasdale and Williams, 2002) is the most widespread and scientifically tested protocol, designed for patients with experience of major depression . This protocol aims to work on thoughts, emotions and sensations that are reactivated automatically during periods of negative mood in people who have had depressive episodes, helping them to achieve a radical transformation in their relationship with thoughts, with emotions. and with the physical sensations that can contribute to depressive relapses.
In other words, the purpose of mindfulness meditation is to teach patients a new relationship with their mental and bodily experiences, which allows them to take a step back from automatic responses and thus protect them from those vicious circles that carry the risk of relapse. .
The mindfulness proposes to test the mode of being, which is not a special state in which each activity ceases, but a decentralized perspective that allows to be untied from the usual answer mode, automatic and involuntary, which attempt to remove the unpleasant and retain the pleasant (as happens in depressive rumination processes ).
In this perspective, Siegel believes that, if we are not careful, our brain chooses for us, for us. Depending on the perspective we take, we can call it autopilot, scheme, repetition compulsion, conditioned reflex, internal operating model, neural influences “from top to bottom”: the human being tends to react in a stereotypical way when we are faced with a new event.
The habit of thinking in categories, of attributing known forms to what is not yet formed, is inherent in the functioning of our nervous system and is related to the only partially conscious intention to increase the chances of adaptation to the environment. But adapting and surviving doesn’t necessarily mean living well. According to Siegel, well-being lies between two sides: rigidity on the one hand and chaos on the other and is supported by the ability to activate a process of integration of the unknown with the known.
Still according to Siegel, to promote well-being it is necessary to stop conditioning, the automatic pilot, the compulsion to repeat that limits the use of that nourishment which is indispensable for development, which are experiences. And he identifies in mindfulness meditation that mode of being totally in the present moment and of having experiences from the “bottom up” that frees from the classifying function of the brain to which attention must be paid, in the sense that it must be monitored.
Interrupting the automatic response mechanisms, ensuring that a person is able to avoid engaging in inappropriate behavioral reactions or unbalanced representations of reality is certainly a crucial clinical step for psychotherapeutic processes, not only for patients, but also for therapists themselves.
The physiological substrate behind mindful functioning appears to be neural integration, which influences and is influenced by mindfulness awareness . According to the author, moment-to-moment awareness of the experience we have can involve various regions of the brain in an integrated state, including important areas of the cortex and the subcortical areas of the limbic system and brainstem.
Neural integration, in part conducted by these frontal regions, can be essential to create a balance based on self-regulation. The latest research suggests that mindfulness promotes functional changes in the brain through neuro plasticity and these integration pathways may play a crucial role in well-being.
