20. Types of Mindfulness Practice
Formal Practice:
Observing what is (paying attention)
Nourishing Positive
Informal Practice
Showing up to your life
28. Thinking a problem?
> 60,000 thoughts per day.
2% body weight - 20% O2 consumption
Less in sleep, and in deep meditative states
Present moment thoughts??
29. A human mind is a wandering
mind
2250 adults (58.8% male, 73.9% residing in the United
States, mean age of 34 years)
3 Questions
Outcomes:
47% of our waking hours the mind has wandered away
from the task at hand.
People were less happy when their minds were
wondering than when not.
Source: Killingsworth & Gilbert, Science 12, Nov. 2010
33. Ruminative Thinking
How things are right now vs. how we want them to be /
think they should be
Works well in the impersonal, external world (e.g.
problem solving);
In the emotional / internal world they increase and maintain
the emotional state, while arriving at no solution (“spinning
your wheels”).
33
37. Neuroplasticity
The ability of the CNS to remodel itself
Neuroplasticity is how we adapt to
changing conditions, learn new facts, and
develop new skills.
Constantly occurring; brain is always
changing.
38. Neuroplasticity (cont’d)
Synaptic plasticity: changes in
strength of synapse
connections
Synaptogenesis: Creation
and removal of whole
synapses
Neuronal migration: Neurons
moving to different area’s of
the brain
Neurogenesis: Creation of
neurons
57. Questions?
I’m here to help you succeed!
info@infusehealth.ca
For more resources visit:
www.infusehealth.ca
Notas do Editor
Encourage to ask questions, but preferably at the end (take notes)
Give credits to Don and Christie
Explain this is the only lecture, other sessions will be very different in format. Added this lecture as we realized it helps very intelligent people embrace very simple looking practices.
About me:
I have been quite a seeker for most of my life – I started my 3rd career in my early 30’s in my search for meaning, fulfillment and an attempt to express my fullest potential. I found all of that in my current – and probably my last – career: naturopathic medicine. I practice out of Burlington @ infuse integrative medicine, and have a special interest in anything related to the mind and mood.
I started my professional career as a physio and found myself bored within 1 year of practice. So I decided to spice things up a bit by working oversees, in Southeast Africa
I’m sure most of you have heard the term ‘mindfulness’ these days (show of hands)
Spike in interest
Mindfulness is quite a hype… (show examples of fields in which its used, incl SIY and Google searches graph, graph on studies).
Evolved into the SIY Institute
Mindfulness in health care: hospitals using it to treat pain, anxiety, and more
The army / special forces: working under high pressure
Respected Universities around the world, incl Oxford, Dublin, Aberdeen, Geneva
Mindfulness teachers come in all shapes and sizes:
Dr. Jon Kabat Zin (PhD in molecular biology) – brought mindfulness to mainstream medicine; MBSR – started with chronic pain patients.
Dr. Zindel Segal, cognitive psychologist & professor at UoT, co-founded MBCT (based on Kabat Zinns work),
Chade Meng – Googles jolly good fellow: combined MBSR and emotional intelligence into SIY programs.
Mind & Life Institute – dialogue between the worlds great contemplative traditions and modern science.
Dalai Lama,
Dr. Richard Davidson – Dalai Lama asked him why don’t you do research on healthy brains/ brains of meditators? Results blew him away – EEG, fMRI
Dr. Daniel Goleman – psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence
Not a passing hype but here to stay. At par with physical exercise by 2050.
But: does everyone know what it truly is? Anyone able to give a definition?
Ask the audience for feedback
Present moment: includes your own thoughts, feelings, whats happening in your body and mind – how they are constantly reacting / responding to the external environment.
No judgement: objectively, non-reactively
Imagine watching your own thoughts float by as if it’s a movie. Exploring anger with curiosity
Introspection: The examination or observation of one's own mental and emotional processes.
What it is: training of the mind – to be more focused, more alert, less reactive, less lost in ruminative thinking (instead very clear thinking)_ and more creative.
Dispelling some myths: A spiritual practice (not any more than eating healthy and working out – maintaining a healthy body and mind). A secular practice that was first described in eastern contemplative practices, then confirmed by modern science.
Gamma activity indicates a constellation of neurons binding together for the first time in the brain to create a new neural network pathway. This is the creation of a new idea.
Gamma ranges enhanced by: buddhist meditation (mindfulness), sustained focused attention, introspective awareness
Lower frequencies: other forms of meditation/ visualization, TM, chanting and mantra induced meditation, relaxation, hypnosis
Thoughts as mental events, rather than facts. Objectively examine your own thoughts
But…. What’s the big deal? Why is this beneficial? Why is it so popular? What are people looking for?
- To be a little happier, calmer, less stressed out or anxious, more connected to life / present moment. A better/ more pleasant person, To increase attention span, be more creative, more resilient to stress / working under pressure, curiousity
– anyone wants to share? Why did you sign up for this course / decide to give up your lunch hour for 10 Mondays in a row?
Thinking can cause stress response (give example: butterflies, heart rate, sweating, etc) – no actual but a perceived threat.
Definition of stress – doesn’t have be perceived as unpleasant
Acute (like Lucy) vs chronic
Cortisol crosses BBB (adrenaline doesn’t) and after 21 days of exposure to stress neurons start dying (starts at hippocampus – new learning = most sensitive)
Speaking of adrenaline … Fight or Flight: chronic vs acute
Negativity Bias: Didn’t evolve to be happy, but to be cautious – the not so cautious died – velcro (STICKY) and teflon: (SLIPPERY) negatives stick, positives bounce off – eg criticism vs compliment – which will you remember/ focus on when you go home that evening?
Good news: Being happy is a skill that can be learned
Who is happier?
People who are in the moment are happier. (source: a wondering mind is an unhappy one – Scientific American)
App: what were you doing, was the mind on the task and was it pleasant or unpleasant or neutral.
2,250 participants.
Present moment thoughts: only in emergency situations, dangerous sports, elite performance (eg musician). Thoughts are more often about something negative than positive (negativity bias: something is not right).
Real world sample via i Phone app
Database: www.trackyourhappiness.org
3 Questions
How are you feeling right now?
What are you doing right now?
Are you thinking about something other than what you’re currently doing?” (no; yes, something pleasant; yes, something neutral; or yes, something unpleasant).
Conclusion: The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement (that allows people to learn, reason, and plan) that comes at an emotional cost.
More Creativity when accessing the “Off-Line” hard drive.
Working memory: performing functions
Can have High efficient computer, but if you have poor RAM can’t utilize rest of resources (or it will be very slow). RAM is needed to run operating software.
Online RAM doesn’t save info – needs to be saved on offline hard drive
Meditation/ attention training increases RAM.
Working memory easily depleted after attention demanding task, fragile and susceptible to stress/ emotional state. Can be hijacked by 5 senses and DMN (mind)
We’ve come this far because of our brain, and have achieved miraculous things… but we have paid a price – lost our ability to simply be, bliss out, chill, be happy and content, connected to intuition – everything happens in our heads (through language)
Eg: Breakup of relationship
Whats the difference with other attention training techniques? – Not only does it enhance your focus…
Amazing organ – the only one that can completely regenerate itself in response to its environment. A process called neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment.
Synapse: a junction between two nerve cells, consisting of a minute gap across which impulses pass by diffusion of a neurotransmitter.
Heb’s law: Neurons that fire together wire together: if two neurons are active at the same time, the synapses between them are strenghtened. Reinforcing routines and habitual thought patterns.
A phenomenon known as long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic strength has been found to exist at synapses throughout many brain regions, and this form of long-lasting, activity-dependent plasticity typically follows Hebb’s rule, requiring precisely-timed co-activation of the pre- and post-synaptic elements
“Thinking is movement confined to the brain”.
Cardboard example – formation of a crease
Control group: just thinks of playing the piano without visualizing the keys
Mental practice: visualizes the keys without touching them
– Each circle represents a neural element. – they don’t all fire (eventhough brain has the capacity) – brain tries to be efficient, but you don’t see reality as it is. Becomes more and more difficult to see things any other way (rigidity).
Thick arrows (#2-4) show strengthened synaptic connections. The thin ones for the initial learning disappear.
Generalization: Here, because the synaptic connections involved in the original learning have become so strong, activation of even a subset of the original neurons causes a reinstatement of the whole pattern. Something slightly similar triggers the whole attracter network (eg PTSD)
Our minds fill in missing information to create familiar shapes and images.
Einstellung effect: when previous experience in solving similar problems triggers an initial idea on how to solve a current problem. This idea prevents the consideration of alternatives, even when they are more optimum.
Unable to see 2x “the”: efficient or rigid (can’t see reality as it is)?
Inattentional blindness
Let’s look at which structures are involved and prevent as from seeing clearly and creatively (stuck in a rod) and might need some re-wiring/ re-condiitoning
Neo Cortex (“evolved brain”)
Amygdala:
- Scans all environmental and bodily sensations for signs of potential threats and danger to the organism.. Receives info from hippocampus (memories) on which it bases its threat evaluation.
Triggers feeling of discomfort, frustration, anxiety, anger, fear, panic - fight & flight or freeze reaction to protect the organism from harm.
Triggers Hypothalamus: HPA-axis to release stress hormones.
Thalamus: central station: processes all senses, except smell.
Emotional responses from people which are immediate and overwhelming, and out of measure with the actual stimulus because it has triggered a much more significant emotional threat.
Emotional brain takes over cognitive/ rational brain and acts first. Mindfulness helps prolong the time between stimulus and response (and respond rather than react).
The amygdala is the trigger point for the fight, flight, or freeze response. When these circuits perceive a threat, they flood the body with stress hormones that do several things to prepare us for an emergency. Blood shunts away from the organs to the limbs; that’s the fight or flee. But the response is also cognitive—and, in modern life this is what matters most, it makes some shifts in how the mind functions. Attention tends to fixate on the thing that is bothering us, that’s stressing us, that we’re worried about, that’s upsetting, frustrating, or angering us. That means that we don’t have as much attentional capacity left for whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing or want to be doing. In addition, our memory reshuffles its hierarchy so that what’s most relevant to the perceived threat is what comes to mind most easily—and what’s deemed irrelevant is harder to bring to mind. That, again, makes it more difficult to get things done than we might want. Plus, we tend to fall back on over-learned responses, which are responses learned early in life—which can lead us to do or say things that we regret later. It is important to understand that the impulses that come to us when we’re under stress—particularly if we get hijacked by it—are likely to lead us astray.
We’re spending a great deal of time and energy processing and responding to our senses – even in our sleep (eg swopping a mosquito)
Mindfulness turns inward, away from external sensual input.
Prefrontal: Higher brain functions – self consciousness: it is I who am perceiving
Executive Network (externally oriented attention): demanding, focused mental activity (eg solving a math problem) - crucial to working memory and cognitive control of thought, emotion and behaviour.
Default Mode Network (internally oriented attention): Self-consciousness – thoughts about you/ your story, running commentary / constant mind chatter = the conditioned mind. Evaluates things from a highly self-centred perspective of whether they’re likely to be good, bad, or indifferent. Connected to hippocampus (memories) - The medial prefrontal cortex could then evaluate those memories from an introspective viewpoint.
Salience Network: “The operator”
Detection of internal and external stimuli to direct behaviour with the goal of maintaining homeostasis (balance within the organsim).
Important interface between emotion and cognition, and in the conversion of feelings into intentions and actions. Important for advanced functions, such as controlling one’s own emotions, concentrating on solving problems, recognizing one’s own mistakes, and making adaptive responses to changing conditions.
Anterior insula: mediates switching between engagement of the central executive network and disengagement of the default mode network.
When unbalanced: cognitive dysfunction (in the case of the central executive network), altered arousal and interoception (in the case of the salience network) and altered self-referential processing (in the case of the default mode network).
Overall O2 consumption remains the same when DMN is active vs when focusing on specific task (blue areas). Confirmed a human mind is a wandering mind.
“The brain is a very expensive organ, but nobody had asked deeply what this cost is all about.”
Raichle (neuroscientist) and a handful of others are finally tackling this fundamental question – what exactly is the idling brain up to, anyway?
The DMN provides the brain with an “inner rehearsal” for considering future actions and choices. Day dreaming: the ultimate tool for incorporating lessons learned in the past into our plans for the future. Running through future scenarios helps us achieve outcomes we want – and avoid ones we do not, perhaps as a direct result of learning from memories of past mistakes. So important is this exercise, it seems, that the brain engages in it whenever possible, breaking off only when it has to divert its limited supply of blood, oxygen and glucose to a more urgent task.
In support of this idea, Raichle points out that the default network constantly chatters with the hippocampus. It also devours huge amounts of glucose, way out of proportion to the amount of oxygen it uses. Raichle believes that rather than burning this extra glucose for energy it uses it as a raw material for making the amino acids and neurotransmitters it needs to build and maintain synapses, the very stuff of memory. “It’s in those connections where most of the cost of running the brain is,” says Raichle.
https://autoimmunethyroid.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/the-default-brain-network/
The exact same area of the brain in all participants would turn off when focusing on a particular task – first thought of as random noise, but the patterns were too consistent. Would turn on when doing “nothing”
https://autoimmunethyroid.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/the-default-brain-network/
Time traveling
Lack of focus
Reactivity
Overwhelm
Mindful: ability to switch, respond skillfully
DMN
Salience network
+ 4) Central Executive network
More synchronized – seeing things more clearly, as they are. Still capable of all skills developed as an adult.
Thinking outside of habitual thought patterns.
DMN/ exective mode can dampen “innate intelligence” – EUREKA moments didn’t come by thinking, just hit. – often after a period of rest.
“Gamma activity indicates a constellation of neurons binding together for the first time in the brain to create a new neural network pathway. This is the creation of a new idea. Immediately following that gamma spike, the new idea pops into our consciousness, which we identify as the Aha! moment.”
The gamma burst was preceded by an Alpha lull in activity. It appears there might be some basis for purposely quieting the mind and slowing the brain waves in order to consciously generate Gamma waves.