Mindfulness.
The practice has made its way into popular media and is now being touted as the
perfect “drug” to increase productivity in the workplace. While I will likely
never tell someone he or she should not pursue a mindfulness practice, I get a
little queasy when I see individuals believing that such practices will bring
their business greater wealth/profits and in general, allow them to do MORE.
Instead of criticizing people for their personal choices when it comes to
starting meditation or yoga, I choose to take the higher road above any desires
for personal gain and draw from the remarkable wisdom of congressman Tim Ryan,
perhaps the only open meditator in politics, and ask what would America be like
if it were full of mindful citizens passionately pursuing meaningful work for a
greater good? I don’t think anyone would argue, that sounds like a country in
which we would all love to live. The
only problem standing in the way?- the very foundations and infrastructure
government and society have created leading us to our present state of relative
dillusionment. From dysfunctional food and energy production to hierarchal big
business controlling what we eat, read, and use to medicate, we might be
literally and figuratively stuck climbing stairs towards goals and a future we
don’t really want. As Ryan has postulated in numerous interviews and talks
including CBS’s 60 Minutes: what if by promoting mindfulness in our daily
pursuits, we can transform the way we produce, distribute and feed our nation,
reinvent the way businesses promote healthy lifestyles and support wellness for
their employees and reinvigorate a failing education system where grades and
test scores are replacing physical activity, creative expression and social
engagement? Without sounding too greedy, I ask why can’t we have our cake and
eat it too? Why can’t mindful and compassionate living lead to greater
happiness as well as a more productive and efficient workforce? You see,
mindfulness can be the gateway drug to so many positive changes for an individual
and for our nation as a whole. And lucky for us, the addiction has no side
effects, only the potential for us to be and do all in the same breath.
While I
have limited knowledge into policy development, drafting and enacting
legislation or anything remotely related to instituting change on nationwide
let alone a statewide scale, I do have some knowledge when it comes the
smallest functional unit of our society: the individual. Starting from a place
of one, we cannot get any more simple or grassroots. One person choosing to
recognize their thoughts for what they are at that very moment: just electrical
activity coursing through the anatomical wonder that is the human brain, is
exactly that, one person. True healing is about creating a relationship with
one person: the patient. While I believe providing holistic treatment for a
single individual requires a team of like minded healers and social support
from other patients, family and friends, at the core of the healing process is
the individual: mind, body and spirit. Unfortunately, even integrative
practitioners can become lost in the numerous resources to provide healing, and
can encourage their patients to make multiple lifestyle changes including
improving diet, exercise and sleep as well as increasing sun exposure, social
activity and incorporating a regular stress reduction practice. To be honest,
I’m overwhelmed just from reading that list and can’t imagine the perspective
of an individual being presented with these concepts for the first time. As an antidote and alternative to this
mountain of healthy lifestyle habits, I routinely tell patients, as well as
myself, to start with just one simple thing: 5 minutes of a mindfulness
practice. Whether you choose to sit on the sofa and breathe for 5 minutes, walk
out to your mailbox and back while rhythmically breathing and pacing, or listen
to music as you reflect on your day and fall fast asleep, a mindfulness
practice can be anything. The key? Start small, start simple, and start without
expectation. The most basic practice I recommend is simply this, no matter
where you are just breathe in for 3 seconds and breath out for 6 seconds. Do
this for at least 10 breaths, which if you do the math is 90 seconds. Add in a
few pauses and variation between breaths and you are still looking at only 2
minutes. 2 minutes! I think we can all agree that we have the capacity to do
something as basic as a breathing exercise for 5 or even 2 minutes each and
every day. Taking his mindfulness practice one step further, I suggest to you that from this place of self
awareness, we have the potential to see clearly, live in the present moment and
act with right intention towards our greater goals. Suddenly, just by starting
with a 5 minute mindfulness practice, those other lifestyle changes may not
seem so daunting after all. There are no
such things as absolutes in medicine, and I will not sit here and say
mindfulness is the answer to all our ills, nor delve into the growing scientific
literature showing the benefits of mindfulness to try and validate my
proposition, I merely want to share my belief of empowerment and encourage self
experimentation into something as simple as a 5 minute mindfulness practice
Because I am a visual person, I will end this post with my final thoughts articulate through descriptive imagery. Imagine a country that collectively each and every morning at 7:00 AM took a 2-minute pause to just breath: no work, no school, no play, no doing, just being. And what if you are sleeping or engaged in an activity such as driving or flying a airplane at 7:00 AM, no worries, just don’t close your eyes. The cynics and realists of the world would say our nation of workers could never stop for 2 minutes, as we would all just crash and burn into some chaotic oblivion. And I would say to them, well, what a quiet and reflective end that would surely be.
