Introduction to Mindfulness

(a western neuroscientific approach)

January 26, 2009St. George’s University

“Mindfulness frees the practitioner from looking to the

perpetually changing circumstances of the external

world as the source of his or her happiness.”

(Davidson, 2002)

Mindfulness practice trains your nervous system to know itself better and interfere with itself less. (Young,

2006, 2008)

Why train your mind?

• Make the mind a more serviceable tool;• Refine the mind’s powers of attention and

concentration;• Regulate/retrain the practioner’s emotional

responses to stressful external situations--• A powerful coping tool for self-regulation;• Freedom from “thought pollution”• “A relaxed, attentive state”(paraphrased from Richard Davidson, 2002)

Why mindfulness, cont’d.

• To be free from physical and emotional suffering;

• To derive greater pleasure from life;• To alter habitual patterns;• To understand who we are;• To be helpful to others.

(paraphrased from Shinzen Young, 2006)

Underlying formulae:

• Attention + Equanimity = Mindfulness

• Suffering = Pain x Resistance

• Everyday experience + Attention + Equanimity = Well-being

What is attention?

• A set of processes;• The controlling mechanism of our

conscious minds;• Attention affects every perception,

memory, and internal representation we possess.

• Can be internal, external;• When the process malfunctions, we have

distress, disease, discomfort, danger.

Techniques to enhance the stability and clarity of

attentionStep 1: Relaxation, a necessary first

step:- counters the tension that arises from intense mental focus- attention to breathing (breath re-training)- gives rise to a context of trust

Techniques, cont’d.

Step 2: Attentional Stability- on everyday perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations- one pointed focus- with equanimity

What’s equanimity?

• A fundamental skill for self-exploration and emotional intelligence

• Non-judgment• Internal balance, rather than

suppression or identification• Versus attachment to pleasant

experience and aversion to unpleasant experience

Techniques, cont’d.

Step 3. Attentional clarity- perceiving or envisioning with greater detail;- countering the tendency to dullness or apathy;-being willing to grant alien notions the same respect as familiar ones;- distinguishing which mental processes lead to suffering and which lead to well-being;- moving from personal well-being to universal well-being.

Skills training 1

Mondays, Founders Annex 112:05 to 12:55 pm(Except 5/11/2009)

Skills training 2

Everyday Life

Practice