Mindfulness: How it can reduce your 75 open browser tabs.

Mindfulness: How it can reduce your 75 open browser tabs.

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Mindfulness is living in the now

It’s been hailed as a “revolution” and when something has hit the PerthNow website, you can be sure it’s hit the mainstream. But what exactly is mindfulness and what’s it got to do with how many browser windows you have open? How many do you have open?

I’m betting it’s more than two. I’m on seven right now… and I’m writing this whilst on a yoga retreat in Bali. My colleague, when I asked her last week replied with, “75”. This isn’t unusual. Modern technology has enabled us to ‘multitask’ – our smartphones enable us to reply to business emails, WhatsApp loved ones, Snapchat newfound Tinder friends and scroll Instagram for some ‘fitspiration’ or dinner ideas.

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It is common knowledge now that ‘multitasking’ or attempting to focus on many things simultaneously is not actually very effective. It has been labelled ‘a myth’ and there has been countless articles written about “stopping the glorification of busy”. But what is it like to not be busy? How else do you answer the question, “How are you?” apart from with “Yeah good, busy, you know.”

Busy had become the norm, thankfully this is changing. City life is arguably faster than life in the country; in 2012, having moved back to Perth after living in rural WA for 12 months, I was booking social events four weeks in advance, just like everyone else. This was a stark contrast to life in the country, where the weekend’s events were decided that day, at most a few days before. Now obviously, there’s a greater pool of people in the city than a country town of a few thousand thus more choice, more opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and spend quality time together. Though how many times have you caught up with friends only to have them check their phone multiple times during the conversation? I openly admit, I have been guilty of this.

Mindfulness allows us to concentrate on one thing – in short, it’s an accessible form of meditation without the incense cliché .

Mindfulness is living in the now. It is essentially about being more aware and awake in every moment of your life. It is about intentionally paying attention to each moment, being fully engaged in whatever is happening around you and within you. It involves bringing an attitude of curiosity, acceptance and friendliness to whatever is experienced, rather than habitual patterns of judgment and criticism. – Monash University

The above definition is from Monash University who have been including mindfulness in the core curriculum for medical students since 1989. It makes sense, would you want to be in the hands of a heart surgeon who was wondering what to cook for dinner or one who was focused on your double bypass operation?

The inclusion of mindfulness in the medical curriculum was reinforced by a 2004 study of medical interns [Willcock SM et al.]. Eight months into their internship 75% of interns had burnout and 73% met criteria for psychiatric morbidity on at least one occasion. Being a doctor isn’t an easy job – a human life is a little different to 10×4 press ad going in tomorrow’s edition of The Post.

[quote_center]In times of stress at work, I always come back to the question of, “Is anyone going to die?” The answer is always no. Thankfully, I am not a doctor[/quote_center]

Scientific evidence is all well and good but how does being still, being fully present relate to combating psychiatric morbidity (or, physical and physiological deterioration as a result of a mental condition)? Mindfulness teaches the individual to observe, rather than to react and engage with any thoughts and feelings that arise. Just the same way a great aunt might say to an inquisitive three year old, “Oh that’s nice dear,” we can do the same with our thoughts – observe, acknowledge and let them pass.

Mindfulness doesn’t mean to desensitise, to numb the feelings that arise – we have a host of tools already that allow us to do this. Alcohol, drugs (legal or not), sex, exercise, the list goes on and many of us probably employ these tools on a Friday night. And to be honest, many of my close friends would be considered heavy users of these tools… this is not say that these people are any lesser humans because they do this, quite the contrary, I choose to spend (differing amounts of) time with these people because of their personalities, their practice of these habits is merely an expression of their passion. And because I believe in human potential, more on that below.

Mindfulness teaches us to sit and remain present with feelings that arise, regardless of whether we label those feelings as good or bad, to be more resilient. In other words, to help you watch the final quarter of every Freo Dockers game. My father, a Dockers fan, used to turn off the TV if there was less than 12 points in the game – he’s got a lot better at this though whether it’s a mindfulness practice or the growing competence of the Dockers that has enabled this I don’t know.

My equivalent to this is in Yin yoga where we hold deep, hip opening stretches for 3+ minutes. Deep hip releases often invoke tears raining down my cheeks and a desire to exit the pose ASAP to reduce this discomfort despite it actually not being physically detrimental. My challenge is to stay with this, to allow that feeling to pass and to not try to explain that feeling in my head (“WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!?”). Just like my father and the Dockers, I’m getting better at this too – tears are pretty normal and showing vulnerability (to the yoga class and to myself) isn’t such a bad thing at all.

Mindfulness and meditation has also been hailed as a treatment for depression, a study in the UK showed that it was as effective as anti-depressants at treating depression.

[The researchers] established that mindfulness-based therapy is equally as good as drugs, which could offer a new option for those who do not want to be on medication for years. – The Guardian

Given that current best practice is “to encourage people with a history of recurrent depression to remain on antidepressants for at least two years,” this is big news. An alternative to sticking drugs into your body – because if an individual can control their own mind and take themselves to places that alcohol/drugs/sex/exercise would otherwise do, that’s pretty damn powerful! In yoga, this place is known as samadhi (enlightenment) and as one of my yoga teachers said in class recently, brief moments of samadhi can be found in orgasm or even buying a pair of shoes! Obviously there are other external things one requires to experience samadhi this way…

The Latin translation of compus sui is ‘master of the self’ – the term ‘master’ denotes great power. It may come as no surprise that many famous sports stars and businesspeople practice mindfulness; Cathy Freeman, Richard Branson, Katy Perry even British MP David Laws. In 2014, several MPs of Britain’s parliament started practicing weekly meditation.

The above people are what we would commonly consider ‘successful’ as they’re perceived possess an innate skill be it singing, running or business acumen. Genius definitely exists and there a body of evidence citing the correlation between creative genius and mental illness – for example, those that can spend hours writing a song, oblivious to what is happening in the world round them, oblivious even to their basic physical needs such as food.

On an anecdotal level, as a primary school teacher I witnessed this. Teaching Year 3 students some BodyBalance (a yoga fusion class held in gyms world-over) as part of a Music lesson was eye-opening. They were required to i) listen to my voice, ii) listen to the music, and iii) move their body as per my instructions. It was the children who often exhibited challenging behaviours – often due to diagnosed ADHD or autism – who held their focus intensely, executing the poses in such a way that, despite not being physically perfect, was extraordinarily controlled. Their whole being was focused on what they were doing at that exact moment, quite the opposite to their usual behaviour in class.

Schools have started adopting mindfulness and meditation practices to help students deal with exam stress. In Perth Santa Maria College conducts meditation with their senior students:

“Particularly in the senior years, we’ve become more aware of their increase in anxiety and the fact that they are so very busy. They are always thinking about what’s next, what’s in the future or worrying about what’s happened in the past. So really this was a practical way of introducing a skill set that allowed the girls to unplug.” – Carol Bell, senior school head, Santa Maria College (courtesy of ABC).

It’s all well and good when meditation is part of your schooling or yoga class but what about the every-day Joe Bloggs, how can he reap the benefits of mindfulness? To help deal with the Freo Dockers match results, totes obvs. GOOGLE. The answer to everything; type in ‘free mindfulness’ and a host of results will come up. Mindfuless coaches and classes have now sprung up all over big cities, you can even be mindful for a whole month (and raise money for charity) via Mindful in May. If you’re looking to develop a meditation/mindfulness habit, being held accountable for meditating 15-20 minutes each day is great motivator!

So again, how many browser tabs do you have open? I’m now down to four. Mindfulness, much like an Australian shampoo, doesn’t happen overnight but it does happen.

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