part0016

E arlier in the book we talked about the two different routes to social anxiety; the reactive route, which is amygdala-based, and the thought route, which is cortex-based. The exercises in this chapter are beneficial for both routes and will prepare you for the mindfulness skills that will be introduced in Three Key Skills: Dealing with Anxious Thoughts and Feelings part of the book. They have also been designed to build on the foundational exercises included in the previous chapters. Firstly, by raising awareness of our thought patterns and therefore giving us a clearer understanding of who we are; and secondly, by calming the mind and providing additional help in managing energy levels.

I’m sure many of you will have heard of mindfulness before, in fact you may have even rolled your eyes when you first glanced at this subtitle, I certainly would have done so a number of years back. One of the most popular mindfulness practices — meditation — has become increasingly popular in the western world over the last ten years. Its benefits have been championed in many areas of life, from business and leadership settings, to education and mental health. The blanket coverage of meditation and its perceived links with spirituality, religion, and later business performance, put me off trying it for a long time. Further to this, nearly every time I heard a talk about meditation, or listened to a guided meditation, it was nearly always accompanied by the sound of panpipes in the background. I felt it wasn’t for me.

However, after years of researching mental health treatments and interventions for my university health psychology class, I was won over by the science and came to understand that meditation, along with a number of other mindfulness practices, is a very effective method of mental training.

While meditation is an excellent mindfulness practice, as Dan Siegel outlines in his book The Mindful Brain , other simple forms of mindfulness can be just as effective.49 Mindfulness is the simple process of actively noticing new things. When you notice something it puts you in the present, whether it's observing the thoughts in your head, the breath entering in and out of your nostrils, the softness of the jumper you’re wearing, the tone of someone else's voice, or the shapes of buildings in the distance. We will focus on meditation as it provides a structure and routine to mindfulness that many find useful.

We mentioned experience-dependent neuroplasticity earlier, explaining we now we see the brain as more like a muscle that can be changed with exercise, and what we do with our attention matters. Our brains are plastic, meaning neurons can change how they interact with experience, and neural pathways can be strengthened or weakened depending on how much they are used. So whenever we engage in a repeated behaviour it can lead to changes in our brain structure. For example, studies show if you practise juggling, you’ll increase the grey matter in the areas of your brain associated with visual motion.50

While we are just beginning to understand neuroplasticity, there is a gathering field of evidence showing mindfulness practices can change our brain function and structure in very beneficial ways. Let’s take a look at these changes a little more closely .

Neurobiological research on mindfulness practices has testified to various changes in brain functioning – how well the brain performs certain tasks. Some of the most prominent changes have been documented in three areas in particular: attention, age-related cognitive decline, and emotional control.

Control over where we direct our attention is key to being able to manage our emotions and behaviour. Research has demonstrated a number of improvements in brain function in various types of attention.51

These include improvements in alerting — becoming aware of a stimulus — like an alarm sounding.

Positive changes have also been discovered in sustained attention — our ability to follow a stimulus over time — such as focusing for a long period on a task that needs to be completed.

Improvements have also been found in conflict monitoring — remaining focused despite distractions trying to pull our attention away — such as continuing to concentrate on a conversation despite being tempted to check phone notifications.

The practices have also been shown to stave off and slow down normal age-related cognitive decline in the areas of:52

Short-term memory — our capacity for remembering information in an active, readily available state for a short period. Such as remembering the drinks of everyone in your group while making an order at the bar.

Perceptual speed — the ability to process information quickly and accurately, particularly under the pressure of time — it includes how quickly and accurately we can recognise and compare numbers, letters, objects, pictures, or patterns.

Executive functioning — a mix of many of our cognitive skills, including the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus, remember instructions, and multi-task successfully — we use executive functioning to filter distractions, prioritise tasks, set and achieve goals, and control impulses.

Finally, research has shown meditative practices can help us to take charge of our emotions by:

Dampening amygdala activation both in the short-term and long-term, making anxious responses less reactive.53

Reducing the fight, flight, or freeze response by activating the parasympathetic nervous system. This calms down anxious thinking and reduces the physiological anxiety response in the body.54

So the practice can have an immediate impact and a long-term cumulative effect on anxiety, and it also raises awareness of the chattering cortex, making it an excellent foundational exercise.

So when done consistently, mindfulness practices, including meditation, can help us to manage our emotions, alter brain structure and function, and positively change our behaviour. Despite these benefits, many people are still put off from starting meditation or find it difficult to continue with the practice after a few attempts. Let’s look at some of the difficulties or blocks that people encounter when attempting to start or continue with meditation.

Some people are deterred by the spiritual or religious connotations of meditation (and mindfulness in general), but need not be. While some religious or spiritual people meditate, meditation is not a religion; many atheists and agnostics also meditate. Meditation doesn’t have to be a religious practice, and the meditations included in this book are written as mental training exercises.

Many people think meditation takes up a lot of time , but this isn’t necessarily the case. True, you may have read stories of Tibetan monks meditating for up to 16 hours a day, but the research shows a daily practice from any time between two to twenty minutes can have a positive impact on mental wellbeing. You have to be patient and persistent to reap the benefits, but you will also find the practice brings a clear headedness and peace that can help you to spend the time you have more effectively.

People will often remark they cannot meditate because their mind is too busy , or they find it nearly impossible ‘not to think’. Meditation isn’t about ‘not thinking’ or emptying your head of thoughts. This is the misconception I hear most often. It’s about training your brain to focus its attention on one thing. People often say they can’t do that, they find it impossible, but it comes with practice. It was a revelation for me to learn that the act of bringing your attention back to the thing you’re focusing on (e.g. the breath) is the practice of meditation itself. Just like continually lifting a weight will build muscle in an arm, consistently bringing the attention back to the point of focus will build the ability to meditate. So when the mind wanders, the meditation isn't a failure. Our brain is like a wayward puppy, out of control. Catching it and putting it back to the object of focus is the mediation.

Some people are afraid that by meditating they will lose their edge ; their drive to succeed; they will be too calm, relaxed and brimming with peace to be effective in life. It’s not about that at all. It’s about understanding how your mind works — the thinking patterns you get caught up in — and then training your attention to be more focused when needed. This helps us to see situations more clearly and take wiser action.

Finally, having been bombarded by magazine photos and YouTube clips of an archetypical meditation pose, people believe to meditate, they need to be sitting cross-legged on a cushion, palms of their hands facing the sky, wearing yoga pants, with a small column of meditation stones by their side. It’s true, some people find it more comfortable to sit cross-legged on a cushion, and if that works for you, all well and good. However, many people meditate sitting on a chair, or standing up if need be. You can meditate on public transport and even when walking. There will be more advice on what do with your body when you meditate within the details of the specific exercises.

One of the most effective ways to start meditating is by focusing on something that is always with us — our breath. For this exercise just follow the instructions on the audio recording using the link further down the page.

I’d suggest you practise this meditation once a day, intending to do it most days. You can do it using a posture comfortable for you, but you should aim to be alert and not sleepy. Feel free to use a chair, or sit on a cushion, but aim to adopt an erect and dignified posture if your environment allows you to. When I first meditated I would often lie down on my bed or the floor, but I fell asleep more often than not. You can choose any time of the day to meditate, whichever suits you best. Many people find meditating first thing in the morning sets them up well for the rest of the day, but any time of the day will be beneficial.

You can find an audio recording of the guided meditation here: https://soundcloud.com/dr-matt-lewis

You can listen to it on your computer, phone, tablet, or MP3 player. Start with the 10 minute exercise and then try longer meditations when you feel ready. It’s best to start with the shorter meditations to help you become confident with the practice, also making it easier to commit to it and build a habit. However, stick with the ten minute meditation if you feel ten minutes is about right for you.

As time goes by and you get used to the format of the meditation, you might feel you don’t need to use the recording. You will soon realise that the process of meditation is simple and you will be able to fit it into your life more spontaneously — when you have the time and space to do so — even if you’re on public transport or sitting on a park bench. With a little experience you can design your own meditations to fit into any time frame, from as short as one minute upwards. The general structure of a mindfulness meditation is as follows:

Some people find it difficult to start with even ten minutes of meditation. We are so used to our attention being pulled in different directions that ten minutes can seem like a lifetime when attempting meditation for the first time.

So how do you make the practice of meditation as easy to start as possible and so compelling it is self-sustaining? If you find ten minutes an impossible starting point, I’d suggest that you plan to do less than you are sure you can comfortably manage . For example, if you can sit and meditate for five minutes, then don’t meditate for this long, just do two to three minutes. Aim to do this a few times a day, instead of one longer session. If you can only do two minutes, aim to only do one minute. If one minute is as much as you can manage, aim for 30 seconds.

You’re doing this to avoid meditation becoming burdensome. If it feels like a chore, you won’t be able to sustain it. So sit often, but for short periods. It’s likely that you’ll enjoy and look forward to those sessions and want to make those sessions longer as time goes by.

What if you can’t even do thirty seconds? If, when you’re honest with yourself, even half a minute of meditation feels like a burden, just commit to one mindful breath a day. This commitment should be easy to fulfil and give you momentum. When you are ready for more, it will be easy to expand it, even if it’s just two breaths a day. Also, just making this intention is a form of mindfulness in itself and will develop a valuable mental habit that will grow and expand over time.

If you enjoy walking, or as a part of your everyday routine you need to walk often, you may find it easier to do a walking meditation. It has the same focus and rigour as a sitting meditation, and can also help during anxious times, when the physiological reactions occurring in the body make it difficult to sit still. Don’t worry, a walking meditation doesn’t involve closing your eyes or any cushion carrying — it’s about where and how you focus your attention when you’re out and about.

Walking meditation is simple, it involves bringing moment-to-moment attention to the movements of your walking, and every time your attention wanders away, bringing it back to those movements. To help you start, there is a guided walking meditation you can download and listen to as you walk here: https://soundcloud.com/dr-matt-lewis/walking-meditation

If you find it difficult to carve out enough time for the formal sitting or walking meditation exercises, you can still incorporate mindfulness into other areas of your life, just as you’re going about your everyday routines. Even if you can find time for the formal practices, you can extend their benefits by practising mindfulness in this way too. You can train yourself to focus your attention on whatever you are doing, whether it be walking, running, drawing, making a hot drink, or sitting down.

So in times when you would normally reach for your smartphone to waste a few moments, such as when you’re waiting in queue; focus on your breath for a few moments instead. Of course, it wouldn’t be beneficial or practical for you to do everything mindfully, but you can inject some mindfulness into your day by focusing on whatever you are doing and bringing your attention consistently back to the activity whenever your mind wanders.

This exercise helps us to be awake for a few more moments each day, and not to be on autopilot when we are doing a routine every day activity. Choose one of the following activities, or one of your own choosing, and try to pay attention when you’re doing it. You can choose different activities on different days or stick to one activity if you find it particularly helpful.

When you choose an activity, go at your own pace; you don’t have to slow it down, or even enjoy it, but see if you can be fully alive and aware of your actions as you do it. When your attention wanders, as it will, just gently bring it back to the task: focusing on all the actions and physical sensations of the task.