Mindfulness in the Morning!

As a Behavioural Psychologist I am often expected - by laypersons and by fellow (and much more senior) academics - to be a little bit...well... cold. By cold I mean hard-headed, rational, down-to-earth (why we associate these exemplary traits with some sort of negative overtone is a topic for another time) and altogether very grounded. 

I'm not expected to give much quarter to the (perceived) spiritual side of life; meditation, Buddhism, inner peace and so on are simply not conducive to scientific inquiry, nor appreciation. As a Behavioural Psychologist, I am type-cast as being anti- anything that smacks of mentalism. Indeed, my job as a Behavioural Psychologist involves me focusing quite relentlessly on Behaviour. 

So enters Mindfulness. 

What is Mindfulness you ask? Well Mindfulness is a meditative practice born out of Jon Kabat-Zinn's definitive work with clinical patients in the 80's. It's non-clinical origins lie in ancient Buddhist thought and it based - very broadly - on the idea that through practice and focused attention one can develop more a number of positive traits - such as resilience - and can, in general, learn to resist things like depression and anxiety. For Buddhists it was (and is) seen as a way of achieving Nirvana and is mentioned specifically in the 8-fold path of traditional Buddhism. 

Mindfulness as we know it is actually a secularized version stripped of its mystical origins and revised in a number of ways to deal with problems such as eating disorders (MB-EAT), Cognitive disorders (MBCT), and behavioural problems (ACT. DBT). However outside of it's clinical application it has a number of non-clinical applications that make it a wonderful thing to practice even in the absence of some psychological problem. The most mainstream application is through Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, which whilst clinical, is nonetheless something we can all benefit from (after all, who isn't a little stressed?). 

Now, Mindfulness as we know it is born - in part - out of Humanistic psychological philosophies, inspired by such people as Erich Fromm and Abraham Maslow. Humanism is not something that traditionally jives well with Behavioural Theories with it's emphasis (in fact, it's zeal) on denouncing any sort of deterministic thinking in regard to human beings. So why am I talking about it here? Well Mindfulness is not as mystical or cognitive as some of it's proponents would have us believe, and furthermore I believe that by relinquishing Mindfulness to the Cognitive psychologists on grounds of it being "out of our expertise" would be both wrong and foolish. 

Wrong because Mindfulness clearly involves a number of observable (and private) behavioural patterns and involves a number of behavioural results (such as changing biological markers). Foolish because to acknowledge a subject that is outside of behavioural psychology's remit is to accept a terminal failure of our philosophy - something I am not prepared to do. 

Although here is where it gets tricky. There has been little (if any) work exploring the relationship between Mindfulness proper and Behavioural psychology. So I can't say exactly HOW behavioural psychology fits in with Mindfulness (yet!).

However I can say that it works.

And so I come to the main crux of this post. I have been practicing Mindfulness-based stress reduction for two years now and I can honestly say the benefits are innumerable. Reduced stress levels, better mental acuity, better sleeping patterns, more control over impulsive behaviour and so on... I can't honestly overstate how much better I am for practicing it.

Now I have to be honest, I don't practice every day, and have gone long stretches of time without doing it (and suffered for it!), but I try and do at least 30 - 45 minutes of Mindfulness every day. Now personally I prefer to do it early in the morning. So I wake up, go to work and at around 8am, sat at my desk in my quiet office and I spend a bit of time gathering my thoughts and focusing on my mind (rather than everything else!) and it really sets me up for the day. If you can I suggest you get hold of a book or attend a course on Mindfulness and get practicing. You really won't regret it! 

If you want to know more about Mindfulness I recommend this site; http://www.bangor.ac.uk/mindfulness/