6/2/2023
Mindful Eating Class to be Offered Again this Fall Along with a Range of Other Courses The Mindful Eating Class is designed to help people alter their behavior and improve…
6/2/2023
Mindfulness Meditation and Self-Monitoring Can Reduce Maladaptive Daydreaming Symptoms Maladaptive daydreaming is a type of compulsive daydreaming that causes distress and can interfere with functioning. These investigators studied the impact…
6/2/2023
Thinking is obviously necessary to accomplish many tasks- around the house, at work, for hobbies and leisure activities. Yet our minds continue to generate thoughts at other times, thoughts that often distract us from our present moment experience, and often increase our stress as negative thoughts or worries arise. We live our lives in the present moment, and if we are caught up in thinking about the past or the future, we may miss what is unfolding right now. Humans have an innate negativity bias, so the thoughts that arise are often worries about what has happened in the past or what might happen in the future. When thoughts arise, recognizing whether they are about something over which we have some control or whether they are focused on something beyond our sphere of influence is important. If the thoughts are about something we have control over, we can focus on how to address the issue. For instance, if we are worried about money, we can look at our budget and see where we might spend less or earn more. If the thoughts are about something over which we have no control, perhaps an event in the past that had a negative outcome that is still bothering us, we can first recognize this.
5/12/2023
The Second Annual Nancy McDaniel Lectureship on Women in Leadership to Be Given by Dorrie Fontaine Ph.D., RN, FAAN on April 17 at 4 pm Dorothy “Dorrie” Fontaine is the…
5/12/2023
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Treating Hypertension These authors reviewed studies of the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on systolic and diastolic blood pressure among individuals with prehypertension or hypertension.…
Moving On From Difficult Interactions
5/12/2023
Last month’s Musing focused on having a conversation with someone with whom we’d had a difficult interaction. This month the topic is about how we might move on without having such a conversation. Difficult interactions with others can lead us to feel many different negative emotions, such as anger or resentment, and may result in us going over the event repeatedly, trying to understand what happened or imagining how things might have gone differently. Often this does not accomplish much except to make us feel worse. Getting caught up in the story of what happened in the past does not change the events although we still can learn from them so that similar situations might have a different outcome in the future. When we find ourselves in these situations it can be helpful to pause and assess what is happening. First, is it even possible to take any action regarding the others involved? If we can address it with the other person directly then we might choose to do so as was discussed last month. But what if we can’t do this, perhaps because it was a one-time interaction with someone we don’t know, or if we choose not to because it is too difficult or there is too much risk?
2/22/2023
Mindfulness Renewal Course to Be Offered Starting March 6 This four-week course is designed for those who want to renew their mindfulness practice and who have competed an eight-week mindfulness…
2/22/2023
Beneficial Effects of an Online Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Sleep Quality Many individuals experience inadequate quantity and quality of sleep which can negatively impact physical and mental health. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs)…
2/22/2023
“Inviting our thoughts and feelings into awareness allows us to learn from them rather than be driven by them.” -Daniel J. Siegel When we choose to try a sitting meditation, we are making a special time and place for non-doing in our lives. The regular practice of sitting meditation provides the opportunity to wake up to this moment, the only moment we truly have. Our lives move at such a hectic pace that it can become a blur of lived but un-noticed moments. It can be as if we are sleep walking through life, moving in a type of automaticity, not noticing how we really feel, what we really think, how we truly want to live. The days can become weeks, the weeks can become months, the months can become years and before we realize it, much time has passed, and we have missed most of our life. Mindfulness is waking up to the present moment on purpose without judgement. It is setting our intention to pay attention and then focusing our attention and observing the underlying attitudes that show up. It’s about letting go – letting go of expectations and letting the present moment be as it is. It’s about developing patience and openness towards ourselves with kindness and curiosity, being aware of the tendency to push to achieve an outcome or to resist those experiences that are unpleasant. It’s about the tendency to judge.
Unwinding Anxiety – Part Three
1/12/2023
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better." -Maya Angelou S-T-O-P Stop: Pause, notice what’s in the body in this moment Take a breath: feel the breath as it flows throughout Observe all that’s here: Stressed? Angry? Anxious? Bored? Proceed: after recognizing what shows up, knowing there’s freedom to choose. We’ve been talking about unknowingly feeding into our anxiety over the last two Musings. What “feeds” do we gravitate towards when feeling anxious? There was an invitation for us to take a mindful moment before surfing our social media by pausing to collect some data before automatically engaging with Instagram, grabbing that candy bar, checking our email or twitter account. Pausing to notice what sensations are here in the body, where they are felt, and what thoughts or emotions are provoked before proceeding. With this information we can ask ourselves, who’s in the driver seat, me, or my anxiety? Here’s a little science behind how this works. It’s called operant conditioning or reward-based learning. Our minds set up habit loops based on the results of our actions. These results are interpreted by the brain as “rewards”. These rewards shape our behavior. With positive reinforcement, we learn to do more behaviors that make good feelings continue.
