There are many meditative disciplines that can help individuals build mental control and balance. I have chosen to emphasize mindfulness meditation because it’s easily accessible, it’s compatible with many religious beliefs, and its effectiveness has been validated by extensive scientific research.
Mindfulness is as a useful and proven way to achieve a balanced positive mental attitude, one that will help you focus on changing all of your habits for the better, but mindfulness alone isn’t the answer to all problems, which is why it represents just one element of the Mental Wellbeing part of the Age Later program.
The Age Later program approaches mindfulness exercises as a useful and proven way to achieve a balanced positive mental attitude, one that will help you focus on changing all of your habits for the better.
The roots of mindfulness can be identified in many world religions, and the practice of mindfulness meditation draws from other forms of meditation such as guided meditation and transcendental meditation. Today, mindfulness is taught in both religious and secular contexts. The secularization of mindfulness, and its adoption as a mainstream form of therapy, has resulted in more scientific interest to objectively assess its value. As a result, there is now wide research that confirms that mindfulness meditation and mindfulness-based therapies bring many benefits.[1]
- Enhancements in self-insight
- Reduction in stressand anxiety
- Reduction in symptoms of depression
- Reduction in rumination (worrying over problems without getting closer to a resolution)
- More control over emotions and emotional responses
- Improvements in working memory
- Improvements in focusing
- Improved self-observation (which leads to improved control of responses to stressful or negative situations)
- Improved relationship satisfaction
- Improvements in immune systemfunctioning
- Improvements to cardiovascular health due to reduced stress.[2]
Just as I encourage people new to physical exercise to do something each day to get the ball rolling, I encourage people to take that first step with mindfulness. Almost everyone who starts to exercise regularly begins to see the benefits and actually enjoy the workouts. It’s the same with meditative mindfulness.
That said, if the mindfulness exercise starts to feel like a chore or an obligation, then your own mind isn’t in the right frame to appreciate and receive its benefits.[3] Whatever you do, don’t give up. Focus on something else for a short time, and then come back. Consider why you have a negative attitude to becoming healthier in body and mind. Then try again.
Trust me, the gain outweighs the pain. Mindfulness meditation will improve the way you handle day-to-day life—and add value to everything in the Age Later program.
[Being Edited]
Learning to Be Mindful
While most people do not need formal therapy programs to learn mindfulness, it’s worth mentioning again that its value is widely recognized by medical and psychological professionals. Mindfulness training is even used in psychological therapies for people experiencing significant mental or physical difficulties:
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MSBR)[4]is used as an adjunct to other physical and mental therapies, and is proven to be effective.[5]It’s an intensive program, focused on patients who suffer from chronic stress or chronic pain, that incorporates group sessions to deliver training in mindfulness techniques. The first MSBR program was initiated at the University of Massachusetts in 1979[6]and today MSBR group therapy is available in many locations.
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy uses mindfulness principles to teach people with a history of depression skills to help avoid relapse.[7]
Being mindful is not some kind of trick. Anyone can be mindful, and some people are naturally more so than others without the need for special training. Some of the important aspects of mindfulness include:
Awareness of your mind, what you are thinking, how your thoughts come and go.
Awareness of sensations, what you hear, see and feel, and how you receive and interact with those sensations. In other words, awareness of how your body and mind interact with the world.
Taking notice of your emotions, understanding where your emotions come from, how they affect your thoughts and behavior, how your emotions impact other people as a result of your behaviors.
Taking notice of your attitudes to people and situations, your preferences, your urges and cravings, your dislikes and fears—and replacing your unthinking responses to those things with mindful responses.
- Mindfulness provides the discipline to insert some space between your thought processes, emotions and urges, and your actions in the physical world.
Anyone can learn mindfulness techniques from a trained local teacher, or you can study the principles online and make a lot of progress independently. Mind-body practices such as yoga, tai-chi and qigong, and many forms of meditation, can help to build mindfulness.
However, we will focus here on the techniques of mindfulness meditation. Note that these are not exclusive choices: You can learn any or all of these disciplines and benefit.
For most of us, the best path into mindfulness meditation probably is with a teacher. Start with an internet search. Talk to some friends; maybe someone knows an instructor. There likely are people in your community who advertise their services. The most important thing is to feel comfortable. Meet with your potential teacher. Find out how long he or she has been practicing meditation; the longer the better. It takes several years of meditation practice before someone is ready as an instructor. If your teacher just learned to meditate a couple of months ago, look elsewhere.
Another option is to join a yoga class. Yoga is beneficial in its own right, and when you make some friends in the group, you are likely to find people who are informed about mindfulness and meditation.
If you can’t find a teacher, or if you would prefer to start on your own, there are many sources of information. Some simple exercises to get started are outlined in this chapter as part of the “Mindfulness Exercises” section. Visit your bookshop to find an array of how-to material for beginners and advanced practitioners.[8]You’ll also find helpful sources online[9]—in fact, you can take meditation courses online.[10]This may help as an introduction to the discipline, but some people will miss the personal attention that can be important to building this habit.
Whether you acquire mindfulness skills through training or go it alone, consider using a mindfulness smartphone app.[11]Apps may be no more than simple timers for your meditation sessions, or they can provide a broad selection of guided meditation sessions. At http://agelaterbook.com, you can find information about some of these apps.
Mindfulness also is connected to activities that lead us into a zone of complete focus on the moment—and awareness of self in that moment: creating or appreciating music, art or literature; solving a math or science problem; visualizing and executing a golf shot. The learned ability to focus in these areas builds mindfulness skills. In turn, mindfulness skills improve your ability to focus and be “in the zone.” Mindfulness training and engaging in activities that demand concentration turn out to be mutually reinforcing.
At this point, I suggest that you give mindfulness meditation a try. It’s been around for more than 2,000 years in one form or another, yet Western medicine has only recently become serious about understanding what it is and how it works. That’s no reason to be skeptical. Mindfulness is an important component of the Age Laterprogram; as you learn how to apply it to your daily life, the investment will begin paying handsome dividends.
Mindfulness Exercises
Mindfulness Helper Apps
Yes, just about everything has an app these days…
No one should claim that a mobile app can replace a teacher, many people find these apps useful to keep them motivated and disciplined. There are many to choose from … I list just a few on the Mindfulness Apps page.
Online Sources of Information about Mindfulness
[1]. Benefits of mindfulness: http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/ce-corner.aspx; Mindfulness Interventions: http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~creswell/papers/
[2]. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/meditation-offers-significant-heart-benefits
[3]. Mindfulness a chore? https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/think-act-be/201612/5-attitudes-behind-the-mindfulness-backlash
[4]. MBSR: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction-mbsr/
[5]. MBSR reduction 0https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15256293
[6]. https://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mindfulness-based-programs/mbsr-courses/about-mbsr/
[7].http://mbct.com/
[8]. Reviews of mindfulness books: https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/mindfulness-books/
[9]. Online sources for getting started in mindfulness: https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/;https://www.mindful.org/meditation/mindfulness-getting-started/
[10]. Examples of online Mindfulness courses: https://www.bemindfulonline.com/the-course/; https://www.harvardpilgrim.org/portal/page?_pageid=1434,360741&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL;http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1762/
[11]. Mindfulness Apps: https://www.mindful.org/free-mindfulness-apps-worthy-of-your-attention/; https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/top-meditation-iphone-android-apps#intro1
Dr. Marc Ronert - Age Later 