Research suggests that looking towards pain and discomfort can make you experience less. Additionally, Ed Halliwell offers guided meditation to be mindful when things get tough.
Mindfulness research shows the benefits of being present and shows that it is gently heading towards difficulties. Mindfulness-based Recurrence Prevention (MBRP) trains people with addictive habits to keep their cravings in mind and manage their cravings by staying in the sense of cravings rather than trying to distract, avoid and defeat them.
The science that exists
In a large MBRP trial, patients with mindfulness training took significantly fewer drugs than patients treated with a cognitive behavioral approach and control groups who participated in the 12-stage and psychoed education group. The authors of this study concluded that mindfulness is the most successful approach, especially in the long run. This is because patients are now able to “monitor and manage discomfort associated with craving or negative effects.” A similar study with smokers found that mindfulness training is more than five times more effective than standard smoking cessation programs, as measured by tobacco abstinence four months later (31% compared to 6%). Another study suggests that mindful people can tolerate their own pain, rather than responding in a harmful way.
There are benefits to maintaining not only emotional discomfort, but also physical and emotional discomfort. Fadel Zeidan and colleagues suggest that meditation practices are associated with changes in pain experiences and relationships, and are associated with brain changes that reflect them. Meditators have shown reduced activity in the primary somatosensory cortex (a region of the brain involved in pain registration) and increased activity in three areas involved in pain regulation. It is the anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex. If you gently turn towards pain, people report it is less and resistance usually decreases. They may not be so caught up in negative narratives or avoidant reactions that tend to be painful but do nothing to stop them (and in fact may raise emotional awareness of it). This may be why people with chronic illnesses reported reduced pain after mindfulness training, despite still suffering from the illness.
If you gently turn towards pain, people report it is less and resistance usually decreases.
Until 1971, Robert Wallace and Herbert Benson discovered that meditation reduces empathic nervous system activity and controls the “fight or flight” response. Recently, participation in mindfulness courses has been shown to reduce amygdala activity and gray matter amounts. This is an important indicator of how strongly this response is triggered. Mindfulness training also thickens part of the prefrontal cortex, the area just behind the forehead. This may be related to strengthening the body’s ability to regulate stress. The relationship between the amygdala and other parts of the brain becomes weaker after mindfulness training.
A part of the prefrontal cortex associated with stress regulation is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Decreased ACC function tends to correlate with impulsive behavior and mental flexibility. This is common among people who are both under stress. Experienced meditators will show more activity in the ACC and show better stress regulation. The ability to self-manage in difficult situations can be trainable at very young ages. One study tracking a group of preschool children who participated in the mindfulness program for six months found to be more impulsive (more regulation possible) than a group of untrained children.
The advantages of leaning towards discomfort
The act of explaining an unpleasant experience in a mind can have a positive effect on stress levels. In one study, people who fear spiders were asked to walk and try to touch a living tarantra. Some were invited to reassure themselves when they approached the spider, while others were encouraged to divert themselves from what they were trying to do. The third group was encouraged to look towards their fears, saying, “I’m scared of big ugh spiders.” Members of this third group – those who remained openly present in their fears, were the closest to the tarantula, the least unsettling of the experience, and held sweaty palms.
Staying difficult seems to have a major impact on happiness. In Matt Killingworth’s study of wandering minds, he found that people are not so happy when their minds are distracted, even when they are engaged in activities that we normally describe as uncomfortable. So, for example, most people are not enthusiastic about commuting, but when their minds are directed towards the travel experience rather than leaving the journey, they tend to be happy. Other studies suggest that setting the goal of avoiding stress increases the long-term risk of depression. In contrast, when we see stress as a normal useful indicator (where we can handle and learn from it), we are more likely to experience health and emotional well-being than as something we exclude.
Try this 15 Minute Guided Mindfulness Meditation
When you have established a stable foundation with breathing and body mindfulness, you can experiment towards difficulties.
Sometimes our experiences are painful and difficult. And there may be little or nothing we can do about the occurrence of pain and difficulties. In these cases, we may be able to deal with what is going on cleverly by investigating the relationship with it. Most of us have habitual patterns that try to separate ourselves from the problem or remove unpleasant events. Unfortunately, this often appears to increase our sense of stress. Because if the pain already exists, you cannot remove it by trying to escape. Mindfulness practice gently tests to reverse this habit by gently turning it over the difficult experiences that appear in our meditation.
This exercise is usually best done in small amounts at first. It is more likely to cooperate with difficulties that are not overwhelming. It is important to remember that you are in charge of how you take on this experiment. You can always be an anchor and return to breathing mindfulness, or let this practice go for a while if necessary.
Note that this practice involves a longer pause of complete silence for reflection and presence. Feel free to pause the recording if you need more time.
Start by calming down in a dignified sitting position. Stands upright, stable, grounded. I felt my feet on the floor and the bottom of the chair, the upright shoulders of my spine fell. You can feel the open feeling in your chest, the muscles are not tight, and you can feel the breath of your abdomen in the center. Pay attention to the feeling of breath as breathing comes and goes. He is breathing. I’m inside my body. And now, the whole body is expanding its awareness of experience. You are in the present moment with your body. I’ll notice what you find and allow what you’re here to be here. In particular, you will notice more uncomfortable physical sensations that are difficult to be with. Maybe there’s pain, throbbing, stirring, or tightness somewhere. The senses may have a physical or more emotional tone. If you find it helpful to label this yourself, you can mentally say words that describe the experience, such as anger, pain, or restlessness. Perhaps you’re also aware where in your body you’re feeling these tones of sensations and emotions. Now, invite you to try and pay gentle attention towards the more intense field of sensation. It faces towards strength. Be interested in the quality of sensations and changes in moments. What is the increase or decrease in intensity? What is the shift in location and texture? As much as possible, stay in the direct experience of the sensation and kindly recognize what is happening, and the thoughts of the impulses and impulses that respond to them in the background. You need to get all kinds of results here or because you need to change it. Gently address what is going on. You realize what happens without an agenda. In an instant, ride the wave of experience. If you like it, provide a sense of breathing and feel it together with the rise and fall of breathing. Breathe with sensation and exhale with sensation. Notice: Are there any impulses to resist or separate? Perhaps you think your attention is drawn into your thoughts. Anti-mination probably distracts. Perhaps you will find your own idea of trying to understand the difficulties or problems that solve it, or you will determine the success or failure of your practice by whether it decreases or changes in intensity. Whenever possible, make sure you can include these reactions in your awareness, and make sure you have enough space to experience along with the sensation itself. If you’re feeling too much to do this, it’s always okay to continue breathing and physical mindfulness, or stop practicing for a while. Kindness is the most important thing here, and when you try this, you’re not right or wrong. Focus your attention on difficult areas, move towards them, observe and recognize experiences without the need to do anything else. And experiment if you feel this is okay for you by breathing in the area of intensity. It opens the sensations in the abdomen even further, breathing and letting go. This is not about trying to try and change what’s going on, but rather providing a skilled relationship to it. So it flows. Provide space for it and allow it. Breathe into the sensations in the abdomen, breathe, soften, allow, allow. Keep it strong as long as you feel it’s easy to manage for you right now. If you like it, you can gently move your attention away, then you can redirect your attention and then go back towards intensity, realizing what happens every time you work. Scientists invite them to conduct laboratory experiments. Rather than seeking specific results, I’m interested in what happens. When you go back to breathing and body mindfulness and feel that is right for you. This post was adopted from the heart of mindfulness by Ed Halliwell, published by Piatoks). Download 14 guided audio meditation practices from the Ed book.
