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Stillness

Touch of Care

“What is Stillness?”

  • An intentional state of focused, nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment without interpretation or criticism[71]
  • A mental state of calm concentration and positive emotions

“How is it going to benefit me?”

  • Helps Preserve the Aging Brain
  • Helps create a sense of inner peace and happiness throughout daily life[81]
  • Study at UCLA found that long-term meditators had better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged[77]
  • Fredrickson tested a nine-week loving-kindness meditation intervention and found that the participants who went through the intervention experienced increased daily positive emotions, reduced depressive symptoms, and increased life satisfaction[28]
  • Condon, Miller, Desbordes, and DeSteno found that eight-week meditation trainings led participants to act more compassionately toward a person who is suffering (give up their chair to someone in crutches)[29]
Promotes positive change in the brain pathways for healthier and younger brain.
  • Positive change in brain pathways involved in stress, focus, attention, memory, and mood[69]
  • Reduces age-related brain degeneration, less de-gyrification[69]
  • Suppresses the default mode network, a brain network associated with mind wandering, self-centered cravings, and other off-task distractions[69]
  • PEARL: When the default mode network is hyperactive, you’re more likely to cave to things like sugar cravings, anxious thought loops, or procrastination.
Cultivates enduring qualities such as selflessness and equanimity (mental calmness/composure) especially in difficult situations
  • Less likely to react with negative thoughts or unhelpful emotional reactions in times of stress.[80]
  • Gives mental strength, resilience, and emotional intelligence[76]
  • Increases awareness of your unconscious mind[76]
  • Group of students who underwent a two-week course in mindfulness training boosted their scores on their GREs by more than 30%[75]

Mental Wellbeing

  • Improves psychological wellbeing, helps regulate mood, anxiety/panic disorders, and stress
  • Helps reduce alcohol and substance abuse
  • Helps manage ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
  • Improves rapid memory recall, learning, working memory, and self-awareness[77]
  • Reduces emotional eating

Physical Wellbeing

  • Lowers blood pressure, improves blood oxygenation, regulates heart rate and respiratory rate[76]
  • Improves fatigue and stress in people with chronic pain.[78][80]
  • Improves the immune system, helps recover more quickly from cold or flu[80]
  • Reduces the risk of heart diseases and stroke[76]
  • Helps prevent asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease[76]
  • Reduces risk of Alzheimer’s and premature death[76]
  • Helps manage symptoms of Fibromyalgia[76]

Social & Professional Wellbeing

  • Helps with cognitive skills, fosters creativity, improves information processing and decision making on the job[76][77]
  • Reduces hostility and conflicts with peers[76]
  • Improve executive functioning by improving inhibition abilities[79]
  • Increases work motivation, lowers work-related stress, increases job satisfaction, and enhanced job performance[79]
  • Improves personal, social relationships, and reduces social isolations [76]
  • Increases positivity and compassion resulting in more meaningful relationships.[78]

“What do I need to do?”

  • Make Stillness a part of your lifestyle through various practices (Meditation & Mindfulness)
Become Meditative
  • This is enough to produce changes in the brain, however changes aren’t going to persist unless you keep exercising your mind
  • Practice mindful breathing exercises[69]
    • Sitting quietly, breathing naturally, and focusing awareness on the breath for just a few minutes
    • Don’t analyze, worry about, or force the breath. Instead, be an objective observer of the action of breathing
    • Any time your attention wanders beyond the simple act of breathing, take notice of it. Then, redirect your attention back to the breath
Practice Mindfulness:[75]
Practice Yoga/Pranayama
GOODNESS (AIHM fellowship lecture series)
  • GOOD: optimize social, mental, emotional, spiritual health foundation
  • Nutrition: Improve nutrition
  • Exercise: increase physical activity
  • Exercise: increase physical activity
  • Stress: Cope with stress, transition from reactive to creativity

Meditation

  • Cultivates enduring qualities such as selflessness and equanimity (mental calmness/composure) especially in difficult situations
  • Less likely to react with negative thoughts or unhelpful emotional reactions in times of stress.[80]
  • Meditation gives you mental strength, resilience, and emotional intelligence[76]
  • Meditation prepares you to deal with stressful events[76]
  • Meditation increases awareness of your unconscious mind[76]
  • Practice of meditation helps find a better connection with body in the everyday moments and create stronger awareness for how emotions influence behaviors[74]
  • Mindfulness meditation fosters creativity[76]
  • Meditation, though a solitary exercise, improves your personal and social relationships[76]
  • Meditation enhances psychological well-being[76]
  • Loving-kindness meditation also reduces social isolation[76]
  • Help you create a sense of inner peace throughout your daily life[81]
  • Increases positivity and compassion within ourselves resulting in more meaningful relationships.[78]

Daily Meditation Template

MONDAY

Gratitude

Find things to be thankful for throughout your day, and include them in your loving kindness meditation or a gratitude journal[79]

TUESDAY

Compassion

Set an intention to decrease any pain or suffering in others that you encounter throughout your day

WEDNESDAY

Acceptance

Accept yourself as you are and others as they are; appreciate yourself and other people without trying to change them

THURSDAY

Purpose

Think about your ultimate purpose in life, and where and how you find meaning

FRIDAY

Forgiveness

Forgive yourself first, then extend your forgiveness to others for any past transgressions

SATURDAY

Celebration

Make sure to take a day to celebrate all the joy in your life and the lives of others

SUNDAY

Reflection

Reflect on your week, your month, your year, or whatever period makes sense to you ‘now’

Types of Meditation Practices

Transcendental Meditation[83]
Vipassana Meditation[83]
Vitarka Meditation[83]
Samatha Meditation[83]

Mindfulness Therapy

Visit Be360 Integrative Wellness Alliance, Inc Center for a range of services.

  • Find a therapist trained in MBSR or MBCT interventions
  • Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a therapeutic intervention that involves weekly group classes and daily mindfulness exercises to practice at home, MBSR teaches people how to increase mindfulness through yoga and meditation.
  • Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a therapeutic intervention that combines elements of MBSR and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to treat people with depression.

“Why should I worry about missing a shot when I haven’t even taken a shot” – Michael Jordan.

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