The Conditions of Mindfulness

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In the recent “Living Mindfully” conference at Fourth Presbyterian Church, we were discussing the characteristics of mindfulness. Jon Kabat Zinn (1994) has famously said that “Mindfulness is a way of paying attention: on purpose, in the present, and non-judgmentally.” In his recent book, The Wise Heart, Jack Kornfield (2008) discusses mindfulness as a function of Recognition, Acceptance, Investigation, and Non-identification (RAIN).

My own summary of the nature of mindfulness is that it depends on our WILLINGness to be completely present.

• Welcoming. This refers to our openness to experience, and is the opposite of experiential avoidance (EA - see this previous post). Our typical response to difficult experiences is EA: we try to avoid or reject the experience. This actually increases our distress, since experiences cannot really be “erased” once they have occurred. It turns out that EA adds insult to injury: we have our original distress and we have the damage done by our misguided attempts to refuse it. Being welcoming is not simply passive acceptance, but a deliberate choosing of this very experience, regardless of whether it is pleasant or unpleasant.
• Intentional. Our ability to be mindful depends on forming and sustaining the intention to be mindful. We make a commitment to cultivate mindful awareness, and encourage ourselves in this direction throughout the day. Without our intent, (what Jon Kabat Zinn talked about as being mindful “on purpose”) we would not be able to take advantage of the opportunities we have for mindfulness.
• Letting go. To be mindful, we have to develop the ability to extricate ourselves from the proliferation of thought (papanca) that results in mental grasping or clinging (upadana). Letting go of a train of thought, once we have become involved in it, is the psychological process that lets us turn dreaming into wakefulness. Letting go is required for that ability to take a fresh relationship to what is happening that we call “beginner’s mind.”
• Loving. Being loving means accepting what is, as it is. We could call this, taking good care of the experience. “Loving exactly what is” is non-striving in nature, and it is the essential condition of intimacy.
• Inclusive. We bring our whole self to our encounter with the world, and we are aware that there are always vast dimensions of both self and the world that we cannot experience at any given time. Mindfulness is willing to include the aspects of the world that we normally exclude with our habits and prejudices.
• Non-reactive. Gradually, in the practice of mindfulness, we come to realize that an experience is not necessarily a call to action. We are descriptive rather than evaluative. Learning to be non-reactive is necessary condition for being welcoming. It opens the way for us to be responsive to our problems rather than simply reacting in an automatic way.
• Grounded. To be grounded in the present moment is to know our experience for what it is. A synonym for “grounded” might be “realistic.” Thoughts are not fused with reality, and we do not mistake our thoughts, concepts, or linguistic conventions for the actual world. When we are grounded in our experience (present moment awareness) and realistic about what it is (thoughts are just thoughts, not facts) we are in the best position to respond with skillfulness.
  

This is a brief outline of the factors of mindfulness. I’d appreciate your thoughts, questions, and feedback.

MBSR-LD

Image via WikipediaWhat's the best way to help people learn mindfulness? What kind of programs are actually clinically useful? This recent paper on Low-Dose Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR-LD) is a really good example of some of the investigation that is being done these days. The MBSR model developed by Jon Kabat Zinn is wonderful, but people have been learning mindfulness for millennia in many different contexts, and there are many ways of offering the benefits of mindfulness for therapeutic and wellness purposes.

Many of us have found that, in contrast to the traditional MBSR emphasis on required practice ("You don't have to like it, you just have to do it"), an invitational approach to home mindfulness practice is quite effective. This is especially true when the course helps participants clarify their goals and values. When people know why they want to learn mindfulness, and are supported by their awareness of their deepest values, they will engage genuinely and effectively. I've found that it is very important to devote some class discussions to helping people clarify their values and intentions, because we often need help getting in touch with what is really important to us.

Traditionally, mindfulness practices are learned in the context of vow and intention. In a Zen monastery, for example, monks engage in daily rituals which renew their commitments to work for the liberation of all beings. Having entered the monastery, a monk only has to look around to be reminded that s/he is in this place deliberately, because of a deep intention to realize the buddha way. During my recent three-month experience with monastic training, I was very aware that I had this wonderful opportunity to learn and to grow, and that I needed to pay attention while it was available to me.

I think that clients in our mindfulness-based therapeutic programs participate most fully when they find their authentic reasons for doing so. The mindfulness-based clinical programs we offer, whether "low dose" or "mega dose," are only valuable to the extent that participants recognize them as advancing their life's purposes. I feel strongly that MB programs can benefit by paying attention to the lessons of therapeutic approaches like Motivational Interviewing and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

The psychological community is on the verge of discovering many effective ways of integrating mindfulness principles into therapeutic approaches. The so-called "Third Wave" of evidence-based psychotherapy is just forming now, and nowhere near its crest. Let's encourage each other to explore the possibilities!

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