Meditation practice makes you more resilient! It also helps reduce anxiety, worry, and stress, while enhancing your self-esteem. Join us for a unique mix of calm and inspiration as Dr. Melanie Somerville guides a 15-minute mindfulness meditation on acceptance and removing negative thoughts.
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How To Practice Mindful Meditation With Dr. Melanie Somerville [Episode 41]
Mindfulness
Welcome to Understanding the Human Condition. My name is Dr. Melanie Somerville. In this episode, I’m filling in for Dr. James Flowers and Robin French on the show. We’re going to do something a little bit different in this episode. Something I’m passionate about is mindfulness and meditation. I’ve been a practitioner off and on for about fifteen years. I’m going to talk a little bit about mindfulness, the definition of mindfulness, and how it’s beneficial to us.
I’ll lead us on a body scan or a mindful exercise. Mindfulness is a pretty big buzzword these days. A lot of people are talking about it. We even see it showing up in some of our behavioral psychologies, such as dialectical and behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, where mindfulness is a component of helping us change our behavior to be more effective human beings, and get along better with ourselves and with others.
One of the early proponents or champions of mindfulness is Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts. I’m going to use his definition of mindfulness. Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose to the present moment without judgment, in the service of self-wisdom. To break that down a little bit, as human beings, we have a lot of things to do and a lot of things to accomplish every day.
Mindfulness is paying attention on purpose to the present moment without judgment, in the service of self-wisdom.
Our lives are pretty busy. It’s easy to get caught up in what I often call autopilot. We drive to work, and we get there by getting there. We don’t pay attention to the scenery or other things around us. We’re worried about what’s going on in our day. We may ruminate over things that happened in the past. Mindfulness is a way to take us out of autopilot and bring us into the present moment. Eckhart Tolle is another well-known name in the mindfulness community.
His book is called The Power of Now. Many other practitioners teach us how to benefit from being in the present moment. If you think about it, life happens in the present moment. It doesn’t happen in the past. What has happened in the past cannot be regained or recaptured. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, even though we think we know. I may go home and say, “If I do this, my partner is going to do that.” I know that, but do I really know that?
When we can stay in that space between what has already happened and what has yet to happen, that’s the present moment. That’s mindfulness. Mindfulness allows us to be aware of ourselves, our thoughts, our emotions, and our bodily sensations. It can give us so much information to help us behave in more effective ways. I like to think of it as holding space for ourselves. That definition of in the service of self-wisdom, you can learn a lot about yourself by slowing down and by observing what your mind does when you sit in mindful meditation.
You don’t have to do meditation to practice mindfulness. You can practice mindfulness in so many ways. You can practice mindfulness by walking from your house outside to get your newspaper. When you’re outside, instead of thinking about what you’re going to have for breakfast, pay attention to your feet as they walk on the ground. Pay attention to what ambient sounds may be in the environment as you go outside to pick up your newspaper. Those are ways to bring your mind to the present moment. The more you do that, the more you will find some space for yourself and the more you will recognize what kinds of thoughts you automatically go to.
Some of us may automatically go to things that happened in the past, thinking, “I wish I had done such and such.” How many times have you left a conversation or an argument and said, “Why didn’t I say x, y, z?” We beat ourselves up over that. Others of us live in the future, “I have to make sure this happens. I have to make sure I present myself this way so this person will think something about me. I’m worried about what I’m going to say on the podcast tomorrow.” We project ourselves into the future. That takes us out of the wisdom of the present moment.
We project ourselves into the future. That takes us out of the wisdom of the present moment.
Mindfulness has quite a bit of science behind it. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the mindfulness-based stress reduction program. They’ve done quite a bit of research on how his eight-week program helps people regulate their high blood pressure. It helps them overcome symptoms of diabetes and psoriasis. Mindfulness and meditation also help lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the brain when we’re under stress.
If we are on autopilot and if we are constantly either worried about the future or ruminating about the past, it’s possible that our cortisol levels could be chronically high. When they’re chronically high, our bodies are much more vulnerable to disease, high blood pressure, heart disease, and higher body fat count. Mindfulness is a way to physically lower some of those high cortisol levels that we see in chronically stressed or even traumatized people.
Mindfulness Exercise
I’d like to start a mindfulness exercise right now. What we’ll do is if you’re tuning in to this show, you can follow along. I’m going to do a body scan. If you’re driving, maybe you might not want to close your eyes. If you’re somewhere where you can take a minute and put your feet on the ground and relax your body a little bit, you could close your eyes if that feels comfortable. You don’t have to close your eyes, but when we’re learning to be mindful, it’s helpful if we withdraw our attention from the outside world.
Self-contain your being to your own personal experience. Mindfulness is being able to pay attention to one thing on purpose. Usually, it’s the breath. Sometimes it can be a mantra. It could be an object that you’re gazing upon. It could be a prayer or a phrase. In this case, we’re going to focus on the breath. As you’re practicing mindfulness and noticing your body as you go through this body scan, you may notice that your mind is wandering.
You may start to think about your stomach growling, something that you need to do when you get to wherever you’re going, or something that you should have already done. Acknowledge that thought and come back to the sensation of your breath as it enters your body. Sometimes focusing on the tip of your nose as the air enters your nose is a good place to focus because there’s a temperature difference between your body temperature and the temperature of the air coming in. You can usually feel the cool air entering your nose. It’s a good place to come back to.
Another way to think about our thoughts when we’re sitting in mindfulness is you think about the big puffy white clouds that we often have in our Texas sky. The wind blows the clouds sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. I’m looking out the window, and the clouds are not moving. Imagine a windy day in which there are big puffy white clouds, and those clouds represent your thoughts. The thought is a cloud, and the wind blows the cloud, and it dissipates and goes away. That is sometimes a helpful image for people to focus on when they get hooked on their thoughts.
It’s very natural if you haven’t done mindfulness or a body scan for the mind to wander. Part of that mindfulness definition is paying attention on purpose without judgment. Acknowledge that you’re having thoughts or you went off and were thinking about something else, and suddenly you realize, “We’re in a mindful meditation.” Do that without any self-recrimination. Come back to the present moment.
Get comfortable wherever you are. Close your eyes if you’d like to close your eyes. Take a couple of nice deep breaths in through the nose, all the way down the back of your throat, into your lungs, down into your diaphragm. You’re doing that diaphragmatic breathing for a couple of breaths. As you inhale into the diaphragm and then exhale, drawing your belly in towards your spine. That breathing sends some oxygen to your brain and stimulates the neurotransmitter called GABA. GABA sends a message to your brain, “Chill out for a little bit.”
Take a couple of nice deep diaphragmatic breaths in through the nose, out through the nose, or the mouth. Allow your breath to return to normal. It doesn’t have to be any certain way. We’ll start with the feet, focusing your attention on the bottoms of your feet, wherever they may be. Maybe they’re resting on the floor. Maybe they’re on the pedals in your car. Just noticing, “Where are your feet?”
As you do this body scan, notice sensations that you may have in your body. Sometimes emotions come up or thoughts come up. Anything is acceptable. Acknowledge whatever comes up, and then return to the breath. Moving up to the ankles, to your calves. Just noticing, gaining awareness about your body. Taking the time to notice your body in ways that you might not ordinarily do. How often do we think about our calves?
Staying with the breath. Moving up to the big muscles of our legs, to what we’re sitting on, feeling the weight of our bodies and whatever we’re sitting on. Noticing tension or sensations, emotions, thoughts. Everything is acceptable. The purpose of mindfulness is not to get rid of thoughts, emotions, sensations, or even to relax. The purpose of mindfulness is to become aware, to notice, and to hold space for yourself.
The purpose of mindfulness is not to get rid of thoughts, emotions, sensations, or even to relax. Its purpose is to become aware, to notice, and to hold space for yourself.
Moving your attention up the body into your gut. Sometimes a lot of emotions reside in the gut. Ayurvedic medicine tells us that the gut is where our relationships are. Noticing what’s there, tension, relaxation, emotions, thoughts. Always coming back to the sensation of air as it enters your nose. Moving up into your diaphragm, your stomach, into the chest. The chest is often where we feel some other emotion like tension or anxiety. You may or may not be aware of that. It’s a way to be with whatever is present in you right now i’s okay.
Taking our attention to our throat, sensations in the throat, things that need to be said often reside here. Moving into the shoulders, noticing tension in the shoulders, allowing the shoulders to drop away from the neck. Staying with the breath, always coming back to the life-giving breath that’s with us all the time, no matter what. As long as we’re alive, we have this life-giving breath.
Following our attention down the arms, to the elbows, to the forearms, to the hands and fingers. Sometimes anger resides in our hands, just noticing what’s there for you. As we come back up the arms, we’ll go back up to the shoulders, the neck, and the back of your neck and the muscles, the trapezius muscles between our shoulder blades, we often hold a lot of tension here, and dropping the shoulders away from the ears can make a huge difference in how we feel, what we think about, and the sensations that we’re experiencing in our body.
Now, take your attention down your shoulder blades, to your mid-back, down to the lower back. Often a lot of tension is here in the lower back as well. Almost every person over the age of 30 will experience some kind of back pain at one time or another in their lives. We can hold a lot of tension here. Moving back up to the back, to the neck, into the jaw, another place where we hold a lot of tension that can cause headaches for some of us. Noticing tension, emotions, sensations in the jaw, in the tongue, in the mouth, up into our cheeks, eyes, and forehead. Are you furrowing your brow? Relax, and up to the crown of your head.
Quick Scan
We can do a quick scan from toe to top, noticing anything left over in your body. Scanning for sensation, emotions, thoughts, staying with the breath, allowing the thoughts to pass like clouds on a summer Texas day. You may feel relaxed after this. It’s not imperative. Mindfulness isn’t about necessarily becoming relaxed or clearing your brain. It’s a tool for self-discovery and awareness. I hope that you enjoyed this, those of you tuning in. You can find us on the web at JFlowers.com. I’m going to tap the singing bowl to finish out our episode. Thank you for joining us, everyone.
Mindfulness isn’t about necessarily becoming relaxed or clearing your brain. It’s a tool for self-discovery and awareness.
Important Links
- Dr. Melanie Somerville – LinkedIn
- JFlowersHealth.com
- JFlowers.com
- The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
