The Mind-Body Connection
Unleash the healing power of a calm mind
CASE 1: A 50-year-old male who was 100 pounds overweight, a photographer and videographer, came to our office. He had a history of knee pain, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Due to his knee pain and fatigue, he led a mostly sedentary life. Two years ago, he started a weekly Bikram yoga class in order to spend more time with his girlfriend. Bikram yoga is a type of yoga where poses are done under high heat and humidity to trigger a significant sweat response. He had difficulty staying in the class for the first few sessions due to the excessive heat. But in each class he did a little more. He stayed with the classes and noticed they gave him more energy and cleared his mind. He realized that he wanted to make better food choices, and as his muscle strength grew, he was able to increase activity outside the class. He then added cycling to his regimen.
Over the next two years, he lost 100 pounds and came off most of his pain medications, and his metabolic issues diminished. He continues to lead an active lifestyle. At present, he continues his yoga, along with the other cardiovascular exercises. Yoga makes him feel peaceful, he says, and improves his creativity. His arthritis is gone. His diabetes and high cholesterol have resolved.
CASE 2: A 50-year-old male executive came in for a physical exam. His travel and meeting schedule did not allow him to fast properly for blood work or show up for his appointment. He had to reschedule his visit three times in three months due to urgent conflicts. During the entire appointment, his phone vibrated with new texts and calls. It turned out his cardiovascular testing and fitness were normal, but his stress parameters on a questionnaire and adaptability to stress were very abnormal. Upon further questioning, he reported that he was feeling intense stress all of the time. His business was extremely successful, and he had an active, supportive family; however, he constantly worried about the next steps for his business. His health was stable at the time of his visit, but we wondered how he would do after five to ten years of this constant stress. We wondered what tools we could provide him to calm himself.
Does this sound like you or someone else you know, who multitasks all day? How many of us have been in a situation where we have had to add much more to our plates for several weeks or months? You look back and say to yourself, “How did I ever manage that?” Well, it was your acute stress response and adaptation. During such times, it’s important to eat nutrient-rich foods with high levels of antioxidants and rest well to be able to sustain yourself. After it is over, you need a period to recharge yourself (activation of the parasympathetic nervous system). After using all the gas, we have to go to the refilling station. If we don’t refill, recharge, and refresh, we break down just like our cars.
Our bodies break down too. But how do we reduce our stress? How do we learn to calm down? Sometimes this is easier said than done. Sometimes it is hard to shut off the stimuli and slow down, no question. But what if you had a tool to improve your sense of peace, reduce the dread and anxiety of the stress, lower the inflammation and oxidative stress, and improve restorative sleep before, during, and after the stress was over?
When we were in medical school, we were told treatments for certain illnesses were lifestyle changes. Those changes were usually summed up as eating a good diet, exercising, and reducing stress. Ask most physicians, and they can’t explain what “lifestyle changes” truly means because, the truth is, we aren’t taught how to make those lifestyle changes in medical school. We know that sleep is important but weren’t taught how to aid sleep. We know that exercise is important but weren’t taught what exercises to give our patients. And we certainly were not taught techniques for reducing stress in medical school. We have learned these tools from personal experience, and then we started going back to the data. We now teach our patients how to decrease stress. These tools are often called mind/body techniques, and they encompass yoga, exercise postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. Studies show how such techniques help suppress sympathetic overdrive and increase the rest and recovery function of the parasympathetic nervous system.1 These techniques help us refill our tanks.
What is Yoga?
While many people think of yoga as just a series of postures, it is actually a combination of breathing exercises (pranayama), postures (asanas), and meditation together. (See figure 1 on the previous page.) The poses typically utilize isometrics, building muscles by holding a pose to cause muscle contraction while not bending at the joint as you would with free weights. The movement from one pose to another can provide a terrific cardiovascular workout.
Pranayama breathing utilizes diaphragmatic (big belly) breathing while varying the speed and duration of respiration and the lengths of inhalations and exhalations. The breath, especially while exhaling, is a very powerful tool for activating the parasympathetic nervous system. It can slow down both the heart and respiration rate. (See Consider 1). Yogic meditation retrains the mind to achieve a state of calm using focused attention, mindfulness, and compassion meditation. Focused attention allows for a concentration on breathing cycles, sound, or chants; its goal is to train the mind not to wander and focus on something singular, such as the breath. Mindfulness observes the current moment’s experience, such as the breath, the sounds around us, and our thoughts, but noticing them without emotion. Guided meditation, when someone provides verbal instructions or suggestions, is also a form of mindfulness. Many people have found this form of practice to be a good way to begin. Guided meditation trains our minds to be more in the moment. Compassion meditation cultivates feelings of benevolence toward other people.2 It often employs a repetitive phrase to foster feelings of universal good and is intended to decrease anxiety and burnout—especially useful for caregivers. (See Case 3.)
CONSIDER 1
You always have one tool with you all of the time to calm down your stress response: your breathing rate and the timing of inhalation and exhalation. Try inhaling through your nose for a count of four and exhaling by mouth for a count of eight. Do this five times. Do you feel calmer?
CASE 3: Dr R: I used to see 25 people per day. Halfway through the day, I was completely wiped out, trying to give my patients full attention and empathy. I would have to force myself to take 20 minutes and meditate. I would come back feeling recharged and ready for the rest of the day. It has always amazed me how relaxing the mind can recharge the whole body.
History of Yoga
Yoga originated in the East. Yoga postures can be seen on artifacts dating back 5,000 years, and yoga is commented on in some of the earliest religious texts. In these references, yoga was seen as a tool to create harmony. Initially, it was meant for community wellness before it became an individual regimen. Highly spiritual leaders would guide people in ritual and ceremony to overcome the limitations of the mind. In these early texts, it was noted that yogic practice also included meditation. People would focus on the lotus pose that Buddha used in order to achieve enlightenment.
Over the centuries, the practice of yoga has transformed from being ceremonial and meditative to having an increased emphasis on fixed postures. In the nineteenth century, yoga was introduced in the West by Swami Vivekananda at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. His speech on Eastern tradition and yoga was received with a standing ovation. At the time, the focus of yoga was on health and vegetarianism. After this, more and more Eastern influence made its way to America. In 1920, Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi (which is a classic in spiritual literature), spoke at a religious conference in Boston.3 This event triggered a fascination with the Eastern practice of using yogic postures as a health tool. By the 1960s, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi popularized Transcendental Meditation.
The Benefits of Yoga
In clinical practice, yoga is prescribed to help with sleep problems; stress, balance, or gait problems; and to assist with weight loss. Yoga can build muscle, improve memory, and reduce pain.4,5 Done routinely, yoga arguably, comes closer than any other practice to a true antiaging routine. The term “antiaging,” however, really is a misnomer. Goals of anti-aging are not to stop the aging process but rather to age gracefully, which includes being disease free and preserving vision, cognitive health, and body structure. (See Consider 2 on the next page.)
What are our goals as we age? Is It to fight the process of aging or is the goal really to age with grace and strength? We want to be disease free, have good vision, and preserve memory and body structure. Yoga has been shown to help decrease chronic illness, preserve memory, and maintain body structure.
Yoga, Inflammation, and Its Potential Role in Aging
The average lifespan around the world is increasing. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that life expectancy in the US is at a record high of 78.8 years for those born in 2012—females live for an average of 81.2 years and males live 76.4 years. As we age, the likelihood of contracting a chronic illness increases. With chronic illness, inflammation grows. We desperately need tools to help us age gracefully, preserve our minds and body structures, and improve our quality of life.
The goal of aging gracefully is to not live in a bubble. We cannot escape stress. It is part of life. But we can change the way in which our body perceives stress. Stress can be good because it raises our awareness. But it can also raise stress levels to a point where it causes anxiety and sleep disorders. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system during the alarm phase or period of acute stress can set up a cycle of high adrenaline, leading to higher levels of cortisol. When left unchecked, these elevated levels can cause multiple symptoms of stress and lead to chronic illness. However, most forms of yoga recharge us and lower cortisol surges.6,7,8
One study looked at female breast cancer survivors who had breast cancers staged between levels II and IV. Researchers found that regular yoga practice of 90 minutes done twice weekly for eight weeks resulted in lower levels of both morning cortisol and evening cortisol levels and better overall well-being and fatigue scores.9 These cancer patients felt better when they did yoga, and their stress markers went down!
There are also studies showing that relaxation responses, such as yoga, meditation, and breathing, can enhance mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of cells, by impacting the genes that regulate the energy-producing reactions of our body.10 Energy is created through formation of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Relaxation response has been shown to increase ATP and, therefore, increase mitochondrial energy production. This makes us more effective at utilizing our supply of ATP and balancing demand. At the same time, these practices have been shown to decrease inflammation causing decreasing production of proteins (such as NF-KB) that turn on inflammation cascades in the body. Lower levels of NF-KB in immune cells have also been correlated with lower oxidative stress. These data suggest that yoga can positively affect energy, inflammation, and oxidative stress pathways, which are all implicated in chronic disease and aging.
One recent study linked loneliness in older adults to inflammation and showed that a mindfulness program reduces both inflammatory markers in the blood and feelings of loneliness.11 (See Consider 3 on the next page.)
Caregivers who have the burden of providing care to the chronically ill also experience high levels of stress. Recall that stress triggers inflammation.12 One study looked at the inflammatory markers of family members caring for parents with dementia. They found that those caregivers who meditated 12 minutes daily for eight weeks were able to decrease the inflammatory markers in their bodies. As people are living longer, there are many families providing care to the elderly. This finding reminds us that meditation is a great tool for calming stress and reducing inflammation in this caregiver population.12
CONSIDER 3
Consider that here is another tool to decrease the inflammation in our blood!
Yoga and Hormone Balance
One of the most frustrating aspects of aging for both patients and physicians is hormone imbalance. Yoga has the ability to affect our hormone balance and directly address that stress response. More on this in a minute. First, let’s talk about a few basics. Hormones are proteins in the body that communicate between different organs and tissues. They regulate most functions in the body, such as (but not limited to) digestion, metabolism, sleep, reproduction, and mood. Hormone imbalance and decline in most hormones are key factors in aging.
For example, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and growth hormone are naturally occurring hormones that decline as we age. DHEA has been linked to muscle mass, vitality, and cognitive health. Growth hormone, which is secreted from the pituitary gland of the brain, is linked to our ability to grow and heal. One study looked at the effects of regular yoga training for 12 weeks. Researchers observed that subjects who practiced yoga (using postures, breathing, and meditation) had higher levels of DHEA and growth hormone. The training utilized breathing practices, meditation techniques, and poses in various combinations over different time periods.13 Yoga is an amazing way to naturally elevate hormones, especially as we age.
Adiponectin is a hormone generated by fat tissue. It is key to the metabolism of fat and glucose. Visceral fat, or belly fat, surrounds our internal organs. Excessive visceral fat is linked to an increase in inflammatory markers. Studies show yoga helps to reduce weight, improve muscle mass, and decrease blood pressure, along with reducing inflammatory markers. Yoga also increases adiponectin levels, which then regulate glucose and fat metabolism and assist with weight management.14 (See figure 2 on page 144.)
Other studies find yoga helps to reduce hormones associated with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is a disorder where the balance between a woman’s estrogen and testosterone becomes imbalanced. Women will have excess testosterone leading to irregular menstrual cycles, acne, excessive hair growth, insulin resistance, and infertility. Yoga has been shown to favorably impact glucose metabolism, lipids, and hormone balance that occur with PCOS. One study showed yoga was superior to exercise in lowering insulin resistance, which is a precursor to diabetes.15
Yoga and Cardiovascular Benefits
Stress is increasingly identified as a culprit in cardiovascular illness. The link is felt to be through the effects of cortisol and the sympathetic nervous system.16 Stress appears to trigger endothelial dysfunction (inability of the blood vessels to dilate appropriately). Damage to the endothelium has been implicated in the formation of plaque. One study looked at healthy men who were given a mental stress test. Researchers found that after periods of mental stress, the men had endothelial dysfunction for up to four hours.17 It is amazing to think that our stress can trigger heart disease. This further emphasizes the importance of having tools to decrease stress.
In another study, stress reduction techniques, such as yoga and meditation, were examined in 33 people both with and without heart disease. Participants meditated and did yoga for weeks. In the participants with cardiovascular disease, yoga and meditation improved endothelial function significantly.18 Although this particular study did not find significant change in endothelial function in the individuals without heart disease, they did find a decrease in blood pressure, heart rate, and BMI (body mass index) in both the participants with and without heart disease.
Even with all of our current advances in knowledge about medications, procedures, and surgical interventions, cardiovascular disease still remains the leading cause of death in the US. Pioneers in lifestyle medicine, such as Dean Ornish, MD, realized more than 30 years ago that lifestyle changes, including stress reduction strategies such as yoga and meditation combined with dietary changes, can reduce risk factors for cardiac health. With these lifestyle changes, parameters that improved were cholesterol, endurance, work performance, and heart function.19 More recently, the European Journal of Clinical Cardiology looked at more than 37 randomized controlled trials on asana-based yoga practice and found lower cardiovascular risk factors, such as lower BMI, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, and triglyceride and LDL levels. Higher HDL levels were also noted. They concluded that there is promising evidence for yoga’s improving heart health.20 In fact, when comparing participants who did yoga but no traditional cardiovascular exercise to those who did traditional exercise, the study showed there was no difference in their heart health. It suggests that yoga shows promise in improving cardiovascular health.
Yoga and Mood
As clinicians, we also like to give people the lifestyle tools they need to regulate mood issues. One mindfulness program initiated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, at the University of Massachusetts, entitled Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), has become quite popular. He has created an eight-week program that teaches mindfulness in a stepwise fashion. Kabat-Zinn’s programs have been studied in research trials and have been found to deliver significant benefits, so that more than 250 hospitals worldwide use them as an adjunct to health care in a variety of areas.
MBSR has been used successfully to help people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which has a significant stress component. There has always been a strong connection between mood and the gut. IBS is considered a functional illness because its symptoms (such as bloating, gas, and constipation alternating with diarrhea) relate to the gut’s functions, but there are no structural, infectious, or microscopic changes in the gut. Often, these symptoms are triggered by emotion. It is a very common diagnosis with limited treatment options, which frustrates both patients and providers. However, in one study, the group who completed MBSR training showed a reduction in the severity of symptoms of IBS and the symptoms of stress, both of which were maintained at the six-month follow-up.21 One of the most exciting studies recently published was conducted at Johns Hopkins University in 2014. This study reviewed more than 18,000 meditation studies over 47 different research trials and found that mindfulness programs improved levels of anxiety, depression, and pain.22
In areas where stress can play a large role in flares, such as with inflammatory bowel disease, research has shown that those people with the highest stress markers (measured by urinary cortisol) were the ones who reported better quality-of-life scores with mindfulness practice, even during their flares.23 If we extrapolate from this, then mindfulness will have benefit in so many chronic illnesses.
Yoga, Learning, and Memory
Meditative techniques have been found to augment specific areas of the brain that relate to restfulness, but they also improve attention skills and reaction time to stimuli. These meditative techniques actually shrink areas of the brain involved with anxiety, rage, and low mood.2 In addition, the most exciting aspect of meditation for us is that it builds up the gray matter in the front of the brain—a good thing. This is called the prefrontal cortex and is associated with working memory (or making new memories).
A study from Harvard University showed that parts of the nerve cell called axons, which transmit information to other cells, can increase in the brain of those who meditate.24 Other studies have shown that meditative practices, such as restful waking (lying awake in the dark and focusing on breathing), facilitate auditory learning.25 This means that just the practice of resting and focusing on being calm can improve the ability to learn through hearing. Further, meditation can increase the connections between cells which will increase memory, overall brain function, and resilience to stress.24 In a time when the rates of Alzheimer’s disease are exponentially increasing, this is very exciting information and could potentially help us with the war against brain thinning (atrophy) and memory loss. (See Consider 4.)
CONSIDER 4
Yoga is another tool that will help your memory and your ability to combat stress, as well as improve overall brain function.
Yoga and Alignment
Yoga also incorporates a focus on posture and alignment. Poor posture and alignment have been linked to many medical disorders. Having a curved spine as a result of sitting for 8 to 10 hours per day has many detrimental effects, not only on stature. It also can be the source of pain issues and decreased energy and can play a role in other chronic disease states. Regarding chronic illness, prolonged sitting can cause our muscles to utilize insulin less effectively. This can directly lead to issues with glucose metabolism and eventually with insulin resistance and prediabetes. Prolonged sitting can also be associated with pain syndromes. Strained neck, carpal tunnel, shoulder pain, and lower back and hip pain can all arise from sitting. In an age when most of us sit—commuting to work and sitting in a car for two hours per day, then sitting at a desk for eight hours—our posture and alignment can suffer.
Normal alignment requires three curves of the spine, which contains 33 bones arranged as the cervical (C1–C7), thoracic (T1–T12), lumbar (L1–L5), and sacral (S1–S5) sections. (See figure 3 on page 151.) With good posture and a neutral spine, we have a slight cervical curve (anteriorly or toward the front of the body), thoracic curvature posteriorly, and lumbar curvature anteriorly. Sitting at a desk at work and typing for long periods can put a large strain on many different parts of this system. For instance, sitting at a desk causes forward protrusion of the neck, which can result in not only cervical or neck issues but also upper back and shoulder issues. The counterbalance is to keep the shoulders relaxed and the neck from leaning forward, while sitting with the pelvic muscles flexed and keeping the feet flat on the floor.
Sitting for long periods also causes tightening of the hip flexors and weakness in the gluteal and abdominal muscles. This can lead to stiffness and inflexibility and can impact our spinal discs. It also causes instability and increases the risk of falling. Yoga poses can combat these issues with their focus on lateral movement, extension of the spine, and balance. Imagine how good you feel when you do a light stretch after a prolonged period of sitting; now imagine what a daily practice with yoga could do for combating the stress on our bodies from our daily routines.
Diaphragmatic breathing, which is a form of breathing practiced during yoga, can utilize shoulder, thorax, and abdominal muscles more efficiently if done periodically during the work day. In fact, one meta-analysis showed an improvement in lung flow for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) when they practiced yoga.26 The mechanism is not clear, but it may involve relaxing the body, as well as improving muscle function. It also allows for a focus on neutral spinal alignment, which benefits air entry.
Many yoga poses, such as downward-facing dog or the cat and cow pose, work on the opposing muscles that are contracted while sitting all day. Adding stretches and yoga poses into your day or using a sit-stand desk can help protect against the adverse health effects caused by sitting eight hours a day. There are many websites available that summarize up-to-date research on the benefits of sit-stand desks.
Expert opinion and research have shown that prolonged sitting can have an effect on our response to insulin. The Washington Post ran an article several years ago showing the hazards of sitting on many organs in the body. The authors showed a decrease in appropriate insulin response after only one day of prolonged sitting.27 Other studies show that yoga postures and meditation reduced fasting glucose and insulin levels, suggesting that the pancreas became more sensitive to glucose signals and did not have to work as hard. We can now consider using yoga to decrease our sugar levels.28,29
Yoga and Your Pelvic Floor
Women often experience difficulty with holding their urine at one time or another. This is called stress incontinence and can often be triggered by excessive impact, as happens with running, excess weight, and multiple pregnancies. Stress incontinence can also happen with hormone changes in menopause. Symptoms are frustrating for women who often have to urinate frequently and have small amounts of urine leakage when coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercising.
Pelvic floor yoga (yoga that works on the muscles, ligaments, and nerves that support organs such as the bladder, uterus, rectum, and vagina) is a great tool for combating urinary incontinence. Our pelvic floor muscles are use-it-or-lose-it muscles. We need to work on them actively to maintain them. Kegel exercises are a type of pelvic floor workout that utilizes contractions of the pelvic floor muscles for 5 to 10 seconds at a time to mimic the cessation of urine flow. These work, but they need to be done several times each day. We recommend linking Kegel exercises to an activity that happens often in your day, such as receiving a phone call or sending an email. However, adding pelvic floor yoga takes Kegels to a new level. We have found pregnancy yoga tapes to be helpful for bladder strengthening. These exercises are simple and can be done sitting in a chair even when at work.
Types of Yogic Poses
There are numerous types of yoga, which can make starting a practice confusing and overwhelming. As you will see, however, any of the many yoga practices can offer incredible health benefits.
Yoga can be broken down into many different styles. One common style of yoga seen in the US is hatha yoga. Hatha yoga is an umbrella term for the practice that utilizes asanas or poses in combination with breathing techniques. Power yoga is a high-intensity style, popular in gyms, which focuses on flow from one pose to another and is primarily intended to build strength and flexibility. Iyengar, anusara, and viniyoga are other common styles that are slow-paced and focus on alignment. Kripalu yoga is a slow-movement style that emphasizes mind/body awareness. Kundalini yoga uses more meditation, chanting, and breathing along with poses.
A challenging type of yoga now commonly practiced in the United States is ashtanga yoga, which features constant movement and breathing techniques. Through movement, heat is generated, which is felt to be vital to yogic practice. Bikram yoga is another such yoga. Bikram yoga features 26 fixed postures, each repeated twice and performed in a room with 40 percent humidity, heated to more than 104° Fahrenheit. Practitioners often excessively sweat as they complete the postures. These higher intensity yoga styles are recommended for those who do not have active medical issues. As you can see, there are many types of yoga, making it easy to individualize a practice to fit each person’s needs. (See figure 4.)
A Unique Type of Yoga: Yoga Nidra
Our favorite type of yoga is called yoga nidra, which allows us to enter a state between wakefulness and sleep.30 Yoga nidra is referred to as yogic sleep and is a practice in which you lie in savasana (corpse pose). You utilize breathing techniques, followed by periods where you focus on one body part at a time, then follow a guided meditation. It has been shown to induce alpha brain waves, which are associated with a relaxed mental state. Yoga nidra improves restful sleep but does not have to be done at night. It recharges the autonomic nervous system by improving the parasympathetic (rest and digest) component. It is an excellent tool for facilitating sleep when a person is aroused at night. (See Consider 5.)
CONSIDER 5
Do you find that you have difficulty calming your racing mind when you wake up at night? Yoga nidra can be a great tool for this.
Transcendental Meditation
Transcendental Meditation (TM) is another specific form of mind/body intervention that has generated compelling data regarding cardiovascular medicine. It is a form of meditation that uses a mantra—a word or sound that has phonetic significance—in order to settle the mind. TM is a technique performed for 20 minutes twice a day. Some benefits are related to a drop in cortisol levels of up to 30 percent.31,32 Studies show that a TM practice reduces sympathetic nervous system activation.33 Lower cortisol and decreased sympathetic activation have shown benefit in areas such as cardiovascular disease. One study showed that TM reduced the risk of mortality, myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke in patients with a history of heart disease.34 In fact, the American Heart Association recommends the use of TM for prevention and treatment of hypertension.35
Yoga and the Community
Yoga has been used in many high-risk communities with amazing results. The goal of these community programs has been to create resiliency in residents of high-risk areas and rehabilitation to those who have been imprisoned. Police inspector Kiran Bedi used mindfulness breathing techniques to rehabilitate hardened criminals in Tihar Jail, one of the largest complexes of prisons in India. Her successful program educating the inmates about anger, fear, and hatred and turning them into productive members of society earned her international recognition and world praise.36 Currently, programs are being instituted in select prisons from Seattle to Washington, DC, in hopes of using it to reduce violence and crime.
Another example of the benefits of yoga in the community is seen through the Holistic Life Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland.37 This foundation teaches meditation to teachers, parents, and children. The foundation began its work in areas of high risk, such as inner-city Baltimore, more than 10 years ago and has expanded to many other locations and demographic areas. It offers residency programs where instructors teach mindfulness to children, helping them to cope with chronic stress and anxiety.
Other leaders, such as Arianna Huffington, founder of Huffington Post, are trying to change corporate culture by suggesting that companies add a daily meditation practice in the workplace, starting at the CEO level. Hopefully this cultural mindset of working and feeling guilty about taking time to recharge ourselves with tools like meditation will diminish when we see how productive and pleasant the workplace can be when people are recharged.
The Multitasking Elephant in the Room—Are We Overdoing It?
One common real-life occurrence is how often Dr A cannot find her car when she returns to a parking lot after an errand. She is usually the one pressing her key alarm and listening for her car to respond. Most of the time when she enters a building from a parking lot, she is catching up on phone calls, emails, or texts and reviewing her overscheduled day. Does this sound familiar? Being more present at the task at hand would solve the problem. We often think such forgetfulness is a memory issue, but that is not completely true. Memory is not the problem. It is our lack of mindfulness—focusing on the moment and being present in the moment without letting distractions get in the way of the current moment.
Technology has changed our lives. The advent of smartphones, tablets, and other devices helps get us information quickly and stay connected to one another. We have a wealth of guidance at our fingertips. However, these high-tech toys also serve as distractions and cause us to be less mindful. The constant buzz of incoming texts and social media messages takes us away from our thoughts and tasks. Multitasking is a misnomer and suggests efficiency; a better label would be “rapid toggling between tasks.” Bob Sullivan and Hugh Thompson, in their New York Times article “Brain, Interrupted,” describe research done at Carnegie Mellon by Alessandro Acuisti, PhD.38 Acuisti showed that an increase in interruptions results in 20 percent lower test scores. That multitasking and constant toggling between tasks worsens performance. We think we are being more efficient, but in the long run, our efficiency is less, and we actually perform poorly. It’s also important to incorporate technology-free times into your day, so you can focus on family, relationships, and calming the mind. (See Consider 6.)
CONSIDER 6
Have you noticed how often your phone dings during the day or during an hour? In response, how often do you stop what you are doing to check the message? Consider how disruptive that is to your focus.
For the person in case 2 at the beginning of the chapter, Dr. R did recommend he try to practice mindfulness—do things with a focus on the current task, and don’t get sidetracked by cell phone calls or texts while he is working on a specific task. It worked wonders for him
Bottom Line: We need to take time to recover our bodies. Period. Plan for technology-free time, focus on getting restorative sleep with yoga nidra, and practice meditation at least five times a week. That could mean doing anything mindfully—staring at a candle for five minutes, ironing, swimming, or taking a yoga class. In the end, it does not matter which type of activity it is; it’s how often you do it that counts. Make mindfulness a daily practice. Just take a deep diaphragmatic breath, and swan dive into it!