Mindfulness

Tillit

Man kan øve seg på å få tillit til øyeblikket, akseptere hva vi nå enn måtte føle eller se, fordi det er dét som skjer akkurat nå. Hvis vi slipper taket og lar oss synke inn i opplevelsen av øyeblikket, kan det hende at vi oppdager at dette øyeblikket er verdt å ha tillit til. Når vi har prøvd dette gjentatte ganger, vil vi kunne få en helt ny følelse av at et sted dypt inni oss er det en sunn og pålitelig kjerne, og at vår intuitive opplevelse, som en dyp etterklang av det aktuelle øyeblikket, er verdt å stole på.

Kabat-Zinn, Akkurat Nå, 75

Mindfulness som spiritualitet

For meg som har en religiøs bakgrunn, er det interessant å se avslutningen på dette klippet av Jon Kabat-Zinn (gå inn etter 52 minutter og 15 sekunder). Summen av avslutningsordene - de bibelske metaforene (frø, vanning etc.), tanken om at det må være noe som har dratt den enkelte til foredraget, påstanden om at mindfulness nærmest er den egentlige meditasjonen og løftet på slutten ("you are much bigger than you think you are!") gjør det nærliggende å sammenligne mindfulness, slik Kabat-Zinn her utlegger det, med en form for spiritualitet.

 

Jon Kabat-Zinns CDer

Er det noen som har erfaringer med Jon Kabat-Zinns meditasjons-CDer der ute? Vi har brukt dem to ganger nå på universitetets (lavterskel) meditasjonsgruppe, og jeg opplever at folk reagerer veldig forskjellig på dem. Jeg elsker dem, mens andre finner dem altfor ordrike. 

The paradox of non-striving (or: Attitude is everything!)

Since the practice of mindfulness meditation is fundamentally one of awareness in each moment, the appropriate attitude to cultivate is one of non-striving. This attitude ... is the only way to practice this meditation correctly and, paradoxically, the best way to derive benefint from it.

Kabat-Zinn, "An Outpatient Program," 37

Mindfulness and chronic pain

... mindfulness requires focusing on unpleasant and painful sensations when they are present and discourages efforts to escape them by distraction or by absorption in some other object of attention. ...

The potential benefit of using meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain would depend on the patient's developing an ability to observe intense feeling in the body as bare sensation. By repeated practice the patient might learn to assume intentionally an attitude of detached observation toward a sensation when it becomes prominent in the field of awareness, and to observe with similar detachment the accompanying but independent cognitive processes which lead to evaluation and labeling of the sensation as painful, as hurt. By maintaining a perspective during periods of formal meditation ... in which no mental event (including perceptions) is accorded any content value, the strong alarm reaction (the interpretation of the sensation as pain, i.e., "It's killing me", often accompanied by future thinking, i.e., the thought that it will last for a long time or forever) can lose considerable power and urgency simply by being observed as separate. This is because the associated thoughts can be perceived simply as events in the mind, not necessarily any more accurate or important than any other thoughts passing through the mind ... . In effect, assuming this attentional stance appears to produce a spontaneous (and momentary) uncoupling of the sensory component of the pain from the affective and cognitive dimensions (alarm reaction). If assumed regularly in the presence of pain, the attentional stance of detached observation can result in a specific deconditioning of alarm reactivity to primary sensation. This amounts to a learned recognition of primary sensation. The nociceptive signals (sensory) may be undiminished, but the emotional and cognitive components of the pain experience, the hurt, the suffering, are reduced.

Er du her ennå? Var ikke dette interessant?

Kabat-Zinn, "An Outpatient Program," 35.

Once more: Meditation instructions

Jeg må stadig minne hjernen min om punkt 4 - et punkt som hjertet mitt for lengst har forstått. Merk at særlig de to siste punktene også kan være gode å ha med seg i livet ellers:

1. Bring your attention to the primary object of observation.

2 Be aware of it from moment to moment.  

3. When you notice that the mind has drifted into thought, revery, and so forth, bring it back to awareness of the present moment, to the observation of what is dominant in that moment. In the sweeping meditation, the primary object is that region of the body through which one is moving at any moment.

4. When a strong feeling or emotion arises (i.e., a state of fear, pain, anger, anxiety), direct you attention to the feeling as it occurs and just be with it, observing it. When it subsides, return to the primary object of observation. Distinguish between observation of the experience itself and thoughts and interpretations of the experience.

5. Observe the thinking process itself. Avoid becoming involved in the content of individual thoughts. Observe them as impermanent mind events and not necessarily accurate. Treat all thoughts as equal in value and neither pursue them nor reject them.

John Kabat-Zinn, "An Outpatient Program in Behavioral Medicine for Chronic Pain Patients Based on the Practice of Mindfulness Meditation: Theoretical Considerations and Preliminary Results," General Hospital Psychiatry 4 (1982): 33-47, p. 36.

Basics

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality. It wakes us up to the fact that our lives unfold only in moments. If we are not fully present for many of those moments, we may not only miss what is most valuable in our lives but also fail to realize the richness and the depth of our possibilities for growth, and transformation.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (New York: Hyperion, 1994), s. 4

Å slå barn, jordmor og fødestue ut med badevannet

Mindfulness, the heart of Buddhist meditation, is at the core of being able to live life as if it really matters. It has nothing to do with Buddhism. It has to do with freedom," Kabat-Zinn said in a telephone interview from Lexington, Mass. "Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is irrelevant.

Los Angeles Times

Jeg synes utsagn som dette er helt utrolige. "The heart of Buddhist meditation", på den ene siden, og "has nothing to do with Buddhism", på den andre.

Les hele artikkelen på http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/02/local/la-me-1002-beliefs-meditation-20101002 

A practice wide and deep

The practice of mindfulness ranges far and wide and deep within the psyche and the heart. As a liberative practice, it calls us to face and honor the root causes of our individual and collectve anguish and suffering, and to observe them carefully as they work on us. For one thing, it asks us to be willing to observe what actually moves us, the root meaning of emotion, and to learn to stand inside of our feelings in ways that allow us to tap their power to teach and to heal and catalyze growth, and not simply to react and be chronically overwhelmed and imprisoned.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, "Foreword," in Saki Santorelly, Heal Thy Self, xxii.

Mindfulness, stress reduction and healing