Your first week

Introduction

Thank You and Welcome to Week 1:

During the first week of the course we will begin our meditation practice, a sitting meditation. This will allow you to practise some mini-meditation in the first week. It will also help you to prepare a new routine.

For example, you can find a private place where you will be undisturbed for a period of time, and start deciding what time of day you do the practice, whether the morning or the afternoon. It will also allow you to find the position where you feel most comfortable.

We will also be considering some of the science behind stress in Week 1 and you will also begin your Mindfulness Log. 

Be Patient:

Mindfulness is a way of patiently and gradually having more moment-to-moment experiences, which we believe will allow you to see more of those wonderful moments people sometimes miss because they are too busy or unaware.

Mindfulness is essentially a way of being more in touch with yourself. It is not a passive way of interacting with our world; it provides clarity and wisdom and allows a person to adapt, be flexible and bring creativity and spontaneity to life events. It’s awareness of what is happening in the moment and not being weighed down by the past and future. 

Let’s start

You can start to understand Mindfulness by setting aside some time for yourself and meditating. The first step is to choose a time and a private place to start your meditation practice. 

Meditation: 

The practice meditation will start by showing you how to focus your attention on your breathing. As you begin to breathe, you will find that thoughts and feelings will come up for you. Once you become aware of these thoughts and feelings, you have begun the process of awareness. This is where the mindfulness happens.

As you start to be more aware of these thoughts and feelings, you will observe them and not judge them. You will accept them for what they are, which are thoughts and ideas in the mind, and let them go. We hope that this practice will start to filter into your day-to-day life over the next few weeks.

It takes Practice:

It’s important to understand that Mindfulness is not the answer to all your problems; it will just allow you to experience them differently, with a present moment perspective and wisdom. Strengthening your Mindfulness is all about practice. The more you do, the stronger you will become. 

Be Gentle on Yourself: 

Don’t be too hard on yourself as you observe your thoughts and feelings; accept that Mindfulness is all about being aware of them. If it takes longer to let go, that’s ok. You might say to yourself ‘this is not working’. That’s ok too. Just accept that you think that, and return to your awareness of breath. 

Awareness: 

Becoming aware of thoughts and feelings and not judging them and letting go, and returning to your breath, is Mindfulness. As the course develops, you will start to find more and more awareness of yourself. You should also remember that this course is a guide and that as you continue to practise and bring mindfulness into your daily routines, your awareness will grow more and more.

The Science:

In the first week, we will be looking at the science behind stress and the physiology of stress. This is an excellent way to understand how the body and the mind react to stress. People find that understanding how the brain works alongside practising meditation helps deepen their understanding of Mindfulness.

Summary:

By the end of the first week, you will have started your meditation practice a will have set up your reflection log and will have read some of the background and the latest research on Mindfulness.

The Science

Watch the Video Animation ‘The Brain and Stress’

Mindfulness and Stress:

In the first week of the course we will be looking at the effect of stress on the mind and body and also at how Mindfulness can relieve the symptoms of stress.

In essence, Mindfulness allows an individual to become aware of their present moment thoughts and feelings. This awareness gives a person a choice whether to react and create stress, or respond using Mindfulness as an adaptive coping mechanism and avoid stress. Let’s have a look at how this can happen. 

Meet the Brain: 

The brain explains why we behave the way we do. Neuroscience tells us why things happen in the brain. Mindfulness can change the brain through neuroplasticity and promoting awareness, which helps relieve the effects of stress by giving us an affective way of activating the ‘relaxation response’.

An Essential Tool for Stress Management:

Regularly practising and focussing attention on breathing trains the brain to avoid reactions and instead gives the brain time to consider a mindful response.

Mindfulness is, therefore, an essential tool in stress management and for avoiding maladaptive coping mechanisms like substance abuse or self-destructive behaviour. 

The Connection:

It’s important to understand the connection between Mindfulness and neuroscience. The brain can be divided into 3 levels: the Vegetative Level, the Limbic System and the Neocortical Level.

What does each level do?

Neocortical Level: 

This is where our executive functions of creativity, reasoned thinking, reading, writing, decision making, analytical skills, predictive skills, interpretative and evaluative skills live. This is where we make reasoned judgements. It’s very important that we try to get our sensory information to this higher level as much as possible. 

Limbic System: 

This is our emotional centre where our feelings live, such as love and anger. 

Vegetative Level: 

This is where our respiratory system and organs are controlled. We don’t think about this area very much and often we take it for granted that things just work. 

The Security Guard- The Amygdala:

The limbic system is where our emotions live. The most important part of the limbic system is the amygdala, which reacts to perceived fear and threats, of which stress is one. The amygdala is a security guard that either blocks or lets through information to the higher level neocortical area where higher-level thinking takes place.

When a person is stressed, the amygdala stops the information getting to the higher level and when a person is feeling good the amygdala lets the information through to the higher level. 

Fight, Flight or Freeze:

For example, when a person is in a negative emotional state and stress occurs, the amygdala processes the information from the 5 senses and blocks it from getting to the higher level. It reacts either by ‘fight, flight or freeze’ from these senses, which can be either real or perceived, and often leads to a reactionary or unmindful response.

On the other hand, the pleasurable events go to the prefrontal cortex and are responded to using a reasoned or mindful action. 

So:

Senses go to the amygdala and then to the prefrontal cortex = mindful response

Senses go to the amygdala then blocks the information leading to a ‘fight, flight, freeze’ = unmindful response

Mindful thinking occurs when sensory input is allowed to enter the prefrontal cortex to be processed. 

Memory: 

The Hippocampus, which is also in the limbic part of the brain, assists the management of fear and threat, memory and learning and emotional regulation. So, good memories and past unmindful memories are stored there. We would like to replace the memories of unmindful reactions with positive memories and responses, which will create mindful habits. 

Neuroplasticity:

Research tells us that Mindfulness can be used to increase the size of grey matter in the hippocampus, which will allow more mindful memories and mindful responses.

It has been shown that Mindfulness can change the neuroplasticity (the ability to change parts of the brain structure) of the grey matter in the hippocampus, by making it bigger, which is good, and in the amygdala, by making it smaller, which is also positive.

In summary, Mindfulness leads to an improvement in responses to things around us instead of reactions to things around us. 

What is Stress and what is the Science behind it?

Before we examine how stress affects the mind and the body, it’s important to understand exactly what stress is and the different levels of stress which an individual can suffer from. It’s also important to understand that a person can suffer from various levels of stress throughout his lifetime. 

What causes Stress? 

Stress can affect different people in many ways. Certain people will be more resilient to stress compared to other people and it’s a person’s ability to manage and adapt to stress that will affect the outcome.

Stress is a reaction caused by both internal and external stressors, which could be interpreted as real or perceived threats.

External stressors might include the following: Social, Societal, Economic, Environmental and Physical threats, which might be real or perceived.

For example, stress could be caused by how a person thinks other people perceive her, or real socio-economic threats.

Alongside these external factors are the internal stressors. This is when a person thinks something, which might not be real or true.

There is also another problem with stress, which is that it can create a feedback loop that can trigger more stress, particularly rumination. Stress can create more stress. Once a person is in this stress loop, it’s extremely useful to have a tool like Mindfulness to enable him to manage it.

Real or Perceived, It’s the same Reaction:

The problem the body has is that it doesn’t matter whether a tiger is chasing you or you’re thinking something that isn’t true; the stress reaction is the same. 

• Acute Stress: Acute stress is the most common type of stress and mainly occurs from the pressures of the recent past and the anticipation of future problems.
• The most common symptoms of acute stress are emotional stress, e.g. anger, depression, anxiety and muscular stress, which includes headaches, back pain, stomach and associated digestive system problems as well as high blood pressure and general discomfort caused through sweating, and heart palpitations. 
• Episodic Stress: The second type of stress is episodic stress which is where a person has acute stress frequently and her life has become ridden with crisis and chaos.
• Often, a person who suffers from episodic stress will view the world from a pessimistic perspective and see negativity everywhere.
• Chronic Stress: Chronic stress is where a person suffers from stress on a daily basis. It can occur when someone is caught in poverty or result from a traumatic experience in childhood or adulthood.
• Chronic stress can also be caused by a feedback loop that can trigger additional stress. Chronic stress has a massive impact on health. 

The Body 

Stress affects 3 parts of the body: 

• The Nervous System
• The Endocrine System 
• The Immune System. 

By reducing stress through using Mindfulness, and becoming more responsive to life’s ups and downs, you will improve your health, performance and relationships.

Let’s now have a look at these 3 important systems and how they interact with one another. 

The Nervous System:

The Nervous System contains two parts, the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS). The CNS looks after the brain and the spinal cord and the PNS looks after the Somatic and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).

The ANS contains the Sympathetic system (fight, flight, freeze response) and the Parasympathetic system (relaxation response). 

These two systems control the metabolic equilibrium or homeostasis in the body by releasing hormones to suppress or accelerate metabolic functions.

The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are mutually exclusive, so you cannot be aroused and relaxed at the same time. The problem is that the sympathetic system dominates the parasympathetic system and often you need to use conscious thought or Mindfulness to activate the relaxation response. 

There are 3 types of stress: 

• Acute Stress: Acute stress is the most common type of stress and mainly occurs from the pressures of the recent past and the anticipation of future problems.
• The most common symptoms of acute stress are emotional stress, e.g. anger, depression, anxiety and muscular stress, which includes headaches, back pain, stomach and associated digestive system problems as well as high blood pressure and general discomfort caused through sweating, and heart palpitations. 
• Episodic Stress: The second type of stress is episodic stress which is where a person has acute stress frequently and her life has become ridden with crisis and chaos.
• Often, a person who suffers from episodic stress will view the world from a pessimistic perspective and see negativity everywhere.
• Chronic Stress: Chronic stress is where a person suffers from stress on a daily basis. It can occur when someone is caught in poverty or result from a traumatic experience in childhood or adulthood.
• Chronic stress can also be caused by a feedback loop that can trigger additional stress. Chronic stress has a massive impact on health. 

The Brain:

The brain has 3 parts: the neocortical level, the limbic system and the vegetative level. This is where it gets interesting.

These 3 parts can be classified into higher and lower levels. The higher level is the neocortical level where high-level mechanisms live and are activated, such as creativity, imagination, analytical skills, evaluation and logic.

The next level is the limbic system which is the emotional processing centre and contains the amygdala, hypothalamus, thalamus, hippocampus and the pituitary gland.

The lower level is the vegetative level which contains the Reticular Activating System (RAS), the bridge between mind and body.

Higher Levels can Override Lower Levels: 

The most important aspect of this system is that the higher-level parts of the brain can override the lower levels of the brain. In summary, conscious thought in the prefrontal cortex can override both the limbic system and the vegetative system. Therefore, conscious thought can influence the emotions and the body.

This means that Mindfulness practice can get more sensory information to the higher levels of the brain, the neocortical level, and override the reactive, emotional centre. 

The Endocrine System: 

The Endocrine System controls a number of glands throughout the body; these release chemicals as and when required.

The Immune System: 

Finally, the Immune System controls our health. Constant attack from stress will reduce the strength of our immune systems over time.

Stress will also affect the digestive system, growth and reproduction functions (sex). In order to stay healthy and have a strong immune system, individuals need to reduce stress by using Mindfulness. 

Stress Physiology:

Let’s explore the physiology of stress and look more closely at the process.

Too much Stress can be damaging:

Stress and worry are parts of everyday life.

Some stress can be beneficial to us; for example, when a person is trying to reach a deadline at work. However, when stress reaches a certain level it can be very damaging.

Often a person can internalise her stress, as it’s often socially unacceptable to fight or run away from an event, and this results in tension building up over months or years. People often cope with this tension by using maladaptive coping mechanisms like self-destructive behaviours, overworking or overeating, or substance abuse, alcohol or drugs. 

Real or Perceived Threat: 

The stress response will occur from a real or perceived threat and prepare our bodies for a ‘fight, flight, freeze’ response. This type of response is normally an unmindful response. 

The Security Guard – The Amygdala:

The first thing that happens is the amygdala in the limbic system decodes or processes sensory information and acts like a security guard, stopping the information getting to the higher neocortical level. The amygdala sets off an alarm bell, which triggers the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ part of the PNS, the sympathetic system.

This is because the prefrontal cortex always assesses sensory information a little slower than the amygdala, which means that the amygdala reacts before the prefrontal cortex gets the message. The amygdala sends the information to the hypothalamus, which regulates the CNS and secretes chemicals, via the sympathetic part of the ANS to the adrenal gland in the body’s endocrine system.

The adrenal gland then goes on to make adrenaline or epinephrine and also takes part in making cortisol, another hormone, which releases into the blood vessels. This will cause your body to change: heart rate will increase, breathing will get faster, you will start to sweat, the digestive system shuts down, your mouth goes dry and you feel stressed. 

Another crucial part of the process is the effect on the hippocampus, which controls memory. The hippocampus assists with the transfer of information to the prefrontal cortex. Once stress occurs, and chemicals are released, the hippocampus function stops working and the prefrontal cortex does not receive information which would allow it to distinguish between real and perceived threat and make a rational or mindful response.

Research states that long-term stress leads to a decrease in hippocampal volume and can affect declarative memory, the long-term memories of facts and knowledge. (16)

Face to Face with a Tiger:

All this is good if you are face-to-face with a tiger but not good for those little problems like someone jumping the queue.

The problem is that prolonged stress causes too much cortisol to be produced, which damages the memory (the hippocampus) and your health, the immune system.

Therefore, intermediate and prolonged stress causes decreased frontal lobe activity and increased sensitivity to the amygdala. This means that stressed individuals will react to the smallest negative day to day events more often than a ‘mindful person.’

‘If a particular stimulus is misinterpreted as a threat, this leads to an immediate fight, flight or freeze response (to non-threatening stimuli). This causes this system to respond to minor irritations in a totalistic manner.’ (17) 

Mindfulness activates the ‘Relaxation Response’:

By using Mindfulness, which teaches you to focus on breathing or the body, we can learn to get past the security guard, the amygdala, activate the relaxation response contained in the parasympathetic part of the ANS, and get information up to the higher levels of the brain and start making mindful responses. 

Mindfulness is an Excellent Stress Management Tool: 

If you can practise Mindfulness every day and build a routine, you will find that this routine or habit will strengthen the neural pathways, changing the neuroplasticity of the brain. You will start getting more and more information up to the higher levels and start making more and more beneficial responses to life’s ups and downs.

Each time you Meditate:

Each time you meditate, it creates a personalised way to help you recognise thoughts and feelings. Sometimes these thoughts and feelings will be painful, uncomfortable and emotionally charged.

By becoming more aware of these feelings and accepting them and letting go of them, returning to your breathing will help you prepare for similar experiences in your daily life. 

Mindfulness will slow you down and reduce reactions, which might normally be internalised, by allowing you to get information up to the prefrontal cortex and make more mindful responses to internal and external stressors.