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| The 14th Dalai Lama relaxes |
An effective way of managing stress, psychology researchers are discovering, is by practicing such "mindfulness" techniques as meditation or yoga. Simply focusing on conscious breathing and being calmly aware of your surroundings can bring mental health benefits, experts say. Over the past decade, in fact, there's been a clinical trend toward applying the lessons of "positive psychology." This includes the study of what makes people happy.
"Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of happiness," says Harvard University psychologist Matthew A. Killingsworth [see http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/wandering-mind-not-a-happy-mind/]. The more focus a person has on the specific task at hand, be it washing dishes or making love, the happier they reported feeling. This Harvard study used an iPhone app specially designed for the subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 88.
One notable center of happiness research is located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) is part of the UW's brain-research institute, the Waisman Center. The CIHM was founded in 2008 by Dr. Richard Davidson, in response to a challenge from his friend the 14th Dalai Lama. Davidson has studied the brains of Tibetan Buddhist monks engaged in the calming practice of meditation.
Dedicated to learning how well-being can be nurtured through insights from neuroscience, the CIHM balances research with practical training in mindfulness. Davidson is also the director of the Brain Imaging Core at the UW's Waisman Center, which uses technology such as fMRI and PET to discover interventions for such common mental-health challenges as depression and anxiety.
I recently visited the facility and met Marianne Spoon, CIHM's Communications & Marketing Director, outside the meditation room. She offered a scientifically tested suggestion for improving your mental & emotional health: simply paying close attention.
"There are studies showing a relationship between attention and happiness," Spoon said. "One study found that on average, people weren't paying attention to the task at hand 47 percent of the time. This was associated with their happiness. We know that certain forms of meditation can improve attention, and we suspect, a person's well-being, based on this line of research."
Mindfulness can and should even be practiced in such frequently stressful places as schools and workplaces, Spoon told me.
"Our Center is just beginning to understand how mindfulness-based practices can work in schools and workplaces," she said. "We're conducting more research to learn about what's effective and, as with all our research, we plan to make it publicly available as we find out. There's plenty of research - not our Center's, necessarily - focusing on teacher burnout and other challenges in the classroom. We are focusing on our piece of the puzzle to learn what interventions may be helpful for teachers, students, families and people in the workplace."
The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is motivated by what it considers a moral mission to maximize human happiness. But can clinical psychologists really achieve meaningful, measurable results among mindfulness practitioners - despite the distracting temptations of such omnipresent digital devices as smartphones?
"We're very optimistic our Center can make a difference," Spoon asserted. "We regularly receive encouraging and collaborative messages, social media posts and comments regarding our work. We were thrilled to see a recent video [see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzd444JvjCs] on our research reach more than one million people on the UW-Madison Facebook page."
Spoon noted that her Center has many allies in its campaign to promote the personal and social advantages of adopting the habit of mindfulness.
"We're driven to make the world a kinder, more compassionate place and we owe our success as a research organization to people - scientists, staff, community members, schools, donors, as well as journalists - who also want to see this vision become a reality."
She spoke with the conviction of a true believer, backed by verifiable scientific data.
"CIHM focuses on cultivating well-being and relieving suffering through a scientific understanding of the mind across the lifespan, which fits into the Waisman Center's focus on human development throughout the lifespan," Spoon explained. "Both organizations are focused on discovering how the human mind and body work to help people of all ages thrive."
The Center for Investigating Healthy Minds offers an example of another growing trend: public-private partnerships, with a shared goal of promoting well-being. Much of CIHM's funding comes from private donors, with some federal grants as well as contributions from the University of Wisconsin (amounting to about three percent of its annual budget).
Perhaps the best part of a mindfulness practice is its low cost. Neither prescription drugs nor expensive medical interventions are required. Just a quiet mind and a focused attention to the present moment are all it takes. And, with a little training, anyone can do it. Tom B., a busy corporate executive and father in the Milwaukee area, learned Transcendental Meditation (TM) at age 14.
"My older brother had become a TM instructor and reported amazing results from meditating," Tom told me at Christmastime. And he learned the basics of TM practice in just three or four one-hour classes.
"These days I do qigong meditation," Tom said. "Most of it's done in my living room. I also practice yoga at home, and I try to get to the [yoga] studio once a week because it tends to be more challenging, more rewarding."
Tom reported that his combined yoga and qigong meditation practice has done wonders for his fitness and overall health.
"I'm 57 and have no chronic health issues. I just got the highest rating possible for life insurance. I catch a cold maybe once a year. I sleep seven hours a night and have good energy all day long. I can't party like I used to, but overall I'm doing pretty well." Tom smiled, then added a closing thought.
"A mindfulness practice that I've committed myself to this year is to give my full attention to anyone I may be talking to," he said. "This means no looking at the computer while talking on the phone, and fighting off the distractions of 'gee I'm getting hungry, restless or bored' while talking face-to-face. I try to make eye contact and be fully present. It's not easy, and I'm not one hundred percent yet. That's why they call it 'practice.' But the people I interact with really seem to appreciate it, and that for me is fulfilling."
"My older brother had become a TM instructor and reported amazing results from meditating," Tom told me at Christmastime. And he learned the basics of TM practice in just three or four one-hour classes.
"These days I do qigong meditation," Tom said. "Most of it's done in my living room. I also practice yoga at home, and I try to get to the [yoga] studio once a week because it tends to be more challenging, more rewarding."
Tom reported that his combined yoga and qigong meditation practice has done wonders for his fitness and overall health.
"I'm 57 and have no chronic health issues. I just got the highest rating possible for life insurance. I catch a cold maybe once a year. I sleep seven hours a night and have good energy all day long. I can't party like I used to, but overall I'm doing pretty well." Tom smiled, then added a closing thought.
"A mindfulness practice that I've committed myself to this year is to give my full attention to anyone I may be talking to," he said. "This means no looking at the computer while talking on the phone, and fighting off the distractions of 'gee I'm getting hungry, restless or bored' while talking face-to-face. I try to make eye contact and be fully present. It's not easy, and I'm not one hundred percent yet. That's why they call it 'practice.' But the people I interact with really seem to appreciate it, and that for me is fulfilling."
[© 2015 by J. C. Mrazek]
Links:
Center for Investigating Healthy Minds
https://www.facebook.com/investigatinghealthyminds/
http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/about.htm
