Calling On Ancient Wisdom In The Modern World: Mindfulness and Meditation for Presence, Awareness & Strengthening your Heart, Spirit and Mind
In deciding on what to blog about this month, I started thinking about where the word January originated from. From a quick Google search I learned that the name January is derived from the Roman God Janus, the God of doorways, gates and threshold—of beginnings, endings and transitions. Janus has two heads—one looking backward at where we have come from, and one looking into the future to where we want to go. I think that’s so apt for the new year given that for most of us, January is all about both reflecting back and thinking about what it is that we want to create in the new year.
Yet, the past has passed, and while it’s good to have goals and plans for the future, the only thing that we can truly count on is right now—being here, moment to moment, breath by breath.
It’s well known by psychologists, psychotherapists and others in the mental health field that dwelling on the past (rumination) can lead to/increase depression and too much focus on the future, especially if it’s catastrophic thinking, can lead to/increase anxiety.
Peace is most often found in the present, which is the foundation of what much ancient wisdom is based on and likely a major reason that we’ve seen such a dramatic uptick in people practicing mindfulness and meditation.
There is no doubt that mindfulness has become a buzzword in our modern world. And, everyone seems to be in a yoga or meditation class or course or going on a retreat. Words and phrases, such as “present moment,” “grounding,” and “taking space” have become an increasingly big part of how we talk today.
It’s wonderful that mindfulness, mindfulness meditation and other related concepts and practices are continuing to grow so much traction in Western culture; however, with mindfulness becoming common in today’s conversations, its meaning has grown increasingly muddled.
So, just what is mindfulness?
Essentially, mindfulness means to practice paying attention, on purpose, to what’s going on inside of us, outside of us and around us in an ongoing moment-to moment-to moment kind of way. You may have heard varying takes on this definition, but being present on purpose to what is happening in any and every given moment is the crux of what mindfulness is all about.
While the concept of mindfulness is straightforward and fairly simple, simple doesn’t always mean easy, especially as neuroscientists have learned that the average person’s capacity to give anything 100 percent of their attention is just four to five seconds! My guess is that in just reading the beginning of this blog, your attention—whether consciously or unconsciously—has already drifted off and returned again. Our brains do this constantly.
Think about it for a moment. When you’re driving, in a conversation, cooking dinner, etc, are you ever 100 percent fully engaged? Likely not, as it’s really not possible. And, that’s okay. What is possible through practicing mindfulness and meditation, however, is to strengthen your awareness of the always wandering mind and increase your capacity to mindfully return to the present moment—again and again and again. What has been long known by monks and meditators is that the more we practice turning our minds toward what is really happening right here, right now, the longer we are able to sustain being present.
What Cutting Edge Science Is Teaching Us About Mindfulness And Meditation
In recent decades, Western science has finally started catching up with what yogis and meditators have known for centuries. Scientists in the field of neuroscience have become fascinated by mindfulness and meditation and its impacts on the brain.
Over the last few decades, thousands of studies have been done on mindfulness and meditation and how these practices affect the brain and our overall wellbeing. There was one study on meditation and the brain, in particular, done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002 that blew the scientists conducting the research out of the water!
In September 2002, the Tibetan Buddhist monk Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, more commonly known as His Holiness, the 14th Dali Lama, traveled more than 7,000 miles from Nepal to the University of Wisconsin in Madison where one of the most renowned brain labs in the world exists to participate in a research study to measure his brain waves while in meditation.
The research was led by Dr. Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the university who has also been an active mediator for more than 40 years and had met and become friends with the Dali Lama. A decade earlier, His Holiness had encouraged and challenged Davidson, who was primarily studying mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, to also use his neuroscience tools to study the effects of kindness, compassion and meditation on the brain.
For purposes of this study, His Holiness was asked to meditate on compassion for one minute, followed by 30 seconds of rest, repeated four times in a row while Davidson and his team monitored Rinpoche’s brainwave activity.
The results were so shocking that the researchers actually thought that their equipment was malfunctioning when they first looked at the scans. Immediately upon beginning to meditate, there was a huge burst of electrical activity on the scans, which lasted throughout the entire meditation series. And, when the researchers studied the activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which creates 3D imaging of the brain, Mingyur’s brain circuitry for empathy was 700-800 times higher during the meditation periods compared to rest periods.
Twenty-one other monks also participated in the study, all showing similar results in brainwave activity. Each had significantly elevated gamma brain waves—the fastest brain waves and the ones that occur when different areas of the brain fire in harmony—both during meditation and also during baseline measurements of their everyday brain activity. For most people, gamma wave bursts last no more than a fraction of a second, but these bursts in the monks in the study lasted for up to a full minute when they were in meditation!
Gamma brain waves are associated with high levels of thought and focus, and people whose brains produce higher levels of gamma waves tend to be happier, more receptive and enjoy better concentration. These waves are also linked to exceptional intelligence, compassion, happiness and peak experiences, as well as benefits that include improved memory, increased sensory perception, increased brain processing speed and a better mood.
In short, the findings of this study and others that would follow it strongly suggest that meditative states can result in the permanent transformation of the brain and that mindfulness and meditation help people experience heightened states of awareness in their daily lives—not just during meditation—that appear to increase happiness, mental ability and compassion. Essentially, by regulating attention, emotions can be transformed.
Mindfulness And Meditation: What We Practice Grows Stronger
The Buddha often said that what we practice grows stronger, and that includes staying present with what is going on in any given moment. If you choose to practice increasing your attention, your focus, your ability to remain HERE, NOW, you may find that you’re present for longer—when you’re driving, when you’re in conversation with a loved one, while reading a book—wherever you are!
But, the practice of practicing mindfulness and meditation takes, well, practice! And, even seasoned meditators can struggle to stay present. That has certainly been my personal experience.
Just the other night when I was gathering my thoughts to create the content for the biweekly online meditation class I offer, I decided to add another meditation practice. To aid in this, I started listening to a guided meditation by Jack Kornfield, and I fell asleep! When I awoke, I rewound it, and fell asleep again! So, as you learn, lean into and deepen your practice, relax. Laugh, allow yourself to be you, to be real. Let yourself be, and know that in the aggregate of this experience, you may find that you’ve gained a level of awareness that you did not have before.
The invitation is to foster a daily practice as though cultivating present moment awareness through mindfulness and meditation are the GPS coordinates for your life. The intent is to become aware of what it is that you desire and/or want to focus your attention on—anchoring yourself in what your heartmindbody most wants, as that is part of what we are strengthening whenever we sit to meditate or practice mindfulness.
Cultivating the ability to remain clear-minded and remember what we are intending in our day-to-day lives and interactions is a fabulous way to begin this new year and each day—to begin again and again, whenever we find ourselves off course.
To begin the year, I created a new guided meditation practice called Receiving and Releasing. It is designed to help you sense what it feels like to be present, awake in this moment and to feel the power of your awareness—releasing and receiving, receiving and releasing. Whenever you feel like you have left home—your inner home, in this present moment—a focus on receiving and releasing each new breath can help bring you back.
Click here, open the Receiving and Releasing meditation, and let's begin.
Blessings to each of you as we embark on this new year,
Karen