Make the most of the benefits that mindfulness research reveals

Change your life by changing your mind

Would you like to know how to lower your stress; improve your resilience; develop a greater sense of everyday well-being; sharpen your ability to focus; enjoy more restful sleep; strengthen your immune system; cultivate richer relationships; and find more self-insight? Would you be interested to know there’s a single technique that can deliver all these benefits at the same time? Would you be even more interested to discover that this one, scientifically-proven, method involves no lotions, potions or drugs, and is completely free?

If – like most of our readers – you are an intelligent person, we think your answer to each of the above questions is likely to be an emphatic ‘Yes!’ This week’s briefing will outline neuroscience findings about the dramatic impact that Mindfulness Meditation can have on the way you think, feel and live. We believe that, if you aren’t already meditating, by the end of this newsletter you will feel motivated to at least give it a try!

Modern business applications of ancient wisdom

For thousands of years, in cultures around the world, meditation has been a method of self-discovery and self-management, often linked to formal religious or spiritual practices. In the West, philosophers, such as Alan Watts, have interpreted and popularised Eastern approaches to meditation for a Western audience. Watts’s first influential book on the subject was published in 1936. Since then, many writers have contributed useful books on the topic from a spiritual and, increasingly, from a psychological perspective.

For more than twenty years, UGM has included Mindfulness training as a regular part of our programs on goal setting and on cultural competence. Our consulting and research on Westerners operating internationally, for example, has shown the vital importance of Mindfulness in closing the gap between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’.  In the midst of the stress and complexity of even quite ordinary business interactions, it can be hard to notice what’s really going on. Your attention might be focused on your own agenda, rather than on how things are going. At the very time you need to be mindful, you risk becoming mindless! You can even find yourself slipping into behaviours that may be the opposite of what would help you secure a positive outcome. It’s the ability to be mindful that provides you with a powerful and dynamic link between ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’. When you’re mindful, you notice exactly what’s happening in both your internal and external worlds.

What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is essentially an attribute of consciousness. It reflects the ability to bring your attention and awareness to the present moment. Although you might think that attention and awareness are natural functions exercised daily by all of us, the term Mindfulness captures a particular clarity of consciousness. In this sense, it’s positioned in direct contrast to those habitual or automatic states where you simply react according to a long-standing behavioural pattern, irrespective of whether it’s useful in the current situation. It’s as if you create a space where you’re able to think. You can ask yourself, “What’s going on here? What knowledge do I have that could be relevant in helping me figure things out? What behavioural options do I have? What actions on my part might be both appropriate and effective?”

How is neuroscience sharpening the Mindfulness toolkit?

The first key finding of neuroscience in this area is the concept of neuroplasticity – the discovery that your brain changes in response to experience and so you can transform it through intentional training. This led to the rigorous investigation of how well-being, focus and emotional resilience can be developed through the specific practice of Mindfulness. At a specialised research centre at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a large team of neuroscientists is using technologies, such as fMRI, to scan the brains of people before and after engaging in Mindfulness training – including meditating for just 30 minutes a day for two weeks.

They’ve found that meditation actually alters the function and structure of the brain. For example, meditators are able to control the typical response of the amygdala (the brain’s emotion centre) to unwanted disturbance, distraction and distress. Instead, meditators show greater activity in the brain circuits associated with well-being and focus. This matters because the information processing resources of the human brain are known to be quite limited. Neuroimaging of meditators shows they use and control these limited brain resources much more effectively, so they are able to consciously target them towards goal-directed behaviour.

It has also emerged that meditation stimulates the various brain regions involved in empathy and care for others, thus increasing pro-social behaviour and ‘EQ’. In fact, the self-awareness impact of Mindfulness training is revealing that when you are consciously aware of an emotional trigger, this decreases the likelihood that an emotional reaction will bias your responses. Conscious awareness mitigates unconscious bias.

In these ways, neuroscience is telling us much more about the underlying brain mechanisms involved in well-being. It’s become clear exactly how and why Mindfulness training is the simplest, most powerful, multi-purpose neurological tool, helping people to flourish, whatever their circumstances.