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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Mindfulness: A Practice For All Americans?

            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.

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