The Mindfulness Initiative

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Jonathan C. Smith, PhD Roosevelt University

© Jonathan C. Smith, PhD

AN EXPLOSION OF INTEREST IN MINDFULNESS

You can see it in the popular press . . .

Even supermarket magazines on mindfulness

EXPLOSION OF HYPE ON BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS

Surf the web . . .

SERIOUS RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS (Number of scientific publications on mindfulness

since 1920. Note explosion of interest in 2010, 2015, following brain studies on meditators.)

Number of Pubs

4000 3900 3800 2700 3600 3500 3400 3300 3200 3100 3000 2900 2800 2700 2600 2500 2400 2300 x 2200 2100 2000 1900 1800 1700 1600 1500 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 50 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

© Jonathan C. Smith, PhD

REVOLUTIONARY BRAIN RESEARCH

Mindfulness has a real impact on the brain.

(Google for details)

General networks: Executive Network, Default Network, and Salience Network. Specific areas and structures: Left Prefrontal Cortex, the Cingulate, the Amygdala, and the Insula. Brain wave activity: generalized EEG Alpha activity, and localized Alpha dampening activity associated with pain and depression reduction. Gamma bursts.

From: Yi-Yuang, Tang, Holzel, B. K., Posner, M. I. (2015) The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16, 213-225

RECOGNIZED BENEFITS

Psychological effects recognized by the American

Psychological Association (which will grant psychologists CE credits for learning):

GENERAL BENEFITS 1. Focus 2. Reduced rumination 3. Reduced stress 4. Working memory / Mind wandering 5. Metacognitive ability / Introspective ability 6. Less emotional reactivity 7. Cognitive flexibility 8. Relationship satisfaction 9. Health benefits

BENEFITS FOR THERAPISTS

1. Increased Empathy 2. Increased Compassion — nonjudging and nonreacting

3. Improved Counseling Skills ---

Mindfulness is incorporated in third wave cognitive behavior therapy programs such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Act and Commitment Therapy.

THE ROOSEVELT UNIVERSITY MINDFULNESS INITIATIVE

(Formerly the “Stress Institute”)

Goals

1. Basic and applied research on mindfulness from a broad and inclusive non-Buddhist perspective 2. Classroom and online training for students wishing to incorporate mindfulness into cognitive and problem-solving stress management. Core texts:

What it is not.

1. Not Buddhism 2. Not training in specific therapeutic strategies 3. Not intensive personal intensive training

DEFINITION OF MINDFULNESS

FOCUS

Sustain attention on a restricted

stimulus

ACCEPT

Accept without pursuit (elaborative thought) or judgment of

distraction and mind wandering.

Mindfulness is Sustained simple, easy focus

without unnecessary thought.

OUR APPOACH, OTHER APPROACHES

Most mindfulness-based therapies like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) elaborate upon the acceptance component. Actually, this is the easiest task, perhaps achieved through tutoring, education, and homework assignments. Developing the skill of simple, sustained, easy focus is more difficult. People find it frustrating and drop out of programs. Probably takes more than a month of daily practice. Maybe much more. We don’t know. We focus on both elements, with an emphasis on training the skill of sustaining focus and exploring: deeper relaxation, positive affective experience, proto-transcendent experiences, and transcendent experiences. (Later)

OUR TRAINING MODEL IN A NUTSHELL

1. We start, and always return to a core set of standard mindfulness exercises, the “Eye of Mindfulness.” This is our “Home Base.” 2. We explore a broad range of complementary exercises that have mindfulness as the central component, the “Galaxy of Mindfulness Companion Exercises.” The serve as warmup and followup exercises that prepare for mindfulness and extend and apply the effects of mindfulness beyond the core practice session 3. Our goal is to explore, experiment, and develop personalized programs. 4. We use the M-Tracker, a simple post- exercise checklist, to sensitize trainees to effects and help compare and combine strategies.

TRADITIONAL / CASUAL TERMINOLOGY Traditional and popular presentations differentiate two global types of meditation or “mindfulness” (often blurring the distinction between the two). Concentrative meditation selects a simple restricted target stimulus like a special sound or word (a mantra). Examples include Transcendental Meditation and Christian Centering Prayer. Additional examples can be found in virtually every religion and outside of religion in secular contexts. Traditional “mindfulness” includes exercises that have no restricted target focus, but instead involve directing attention to all stimuli that come and go, even distractions. Today, experts no longer use these terms, and refer to Focused Attention (FA) meditation and Open Monitoring (OM) meditation. This new terminology is standard among serious students. It is central to our conceptualization, the “Eye of Mindfulness.”

THE EYE OF MINDFULNESS

Four Central Exercises Taught in virtually all mindfulness programs

1. FA (Focused Attention) Meditation

FAs (somatic focus, body and breath) FAc (cognitive focus, mantra) All involve restricting attention to a single simple stimulus

2. OM (Open Monitoring) Meditation Restricted Mindfulness (like on sounds) Pure Mindfulness Involves opening attention to all stimuli

3. Breath Scanning 4. Body Scanning

Virtually all schools of “mindfulness” blend these. The current popular metaphor among scholars is a camera lens. Meditation is like a lens. Meditation can have a narrow or wide focus or “aperture” (FA, OM). Or a roaming focus, moving from one target to another (breath, body scanning).

These 4 form my “Eye of Mindfulness”

THE GALAXY OF COMPANION “WARMUP/FOLLOWUP” EXERCISES

Popular warmup and followup exercises that:

1. Have a mindfulness component 2. Make mindfulness easier with additional “support activities”

Example: Hatha yoga is: Stretching focus (mindfulness) supported and enhanced by continuously interesting and relaxing stretches.

3. All are mindfulness “warmup” or “followup” exercises that prepare for practice and extend the benefits of practice beyond the practice session. 4. We divide companion exercises into two groups: physical, and cognitive/emotional. Physical exercises (yoga, muscle relaxation, breathing, autogenics) prepare the body for mindful focus and acceptance, reduce body-based distraction, and offer an opportunity

to expand mindfulness into physical experience. Cognitive/emotional exercises (deepening imagery, contemplation, loving-kindness, gratitude exercises, journaling and secular interactive “prayer” enable the development and exploration person-focused nondogmatic beliefs, values, and commitments that form the context of mindfulness practice. They enable one to answer such questions as “why” and “where am I going?” They provide richness, depth, and meaning to physical and simple focusing exercises that can when practiced in isolation devolve into mechanical health chores.

THE MINDFULNESS GALAXY

Central core of “Eye of Mindfulness” plus Body-Based and

Emotion-Based Cognitive Approaches

MINDFULNESS CYCLING Our approach is based on experimentation and exploration, grounded in core “eye of mindfulness” practice. Specifically, we teach mindfulness cycling. Here one begins by learning and selecting a preferred mindfulness exercise from the eye of mindfulness options (scanning, FA meditation, OM meditation). This becomes one’s core “home base” exercise. Throughout training the practitioner ventures forth and explores a complementary approach from the galaxy of complementary approaches. However, one systematically returns to their core eye of mindfulness exercise, the home base of practice. Through cycling, one tries again and again a wide range of complementary approaches, learning what each has to offer, and continuing practice with those that prove to be

useful. One always returns to home base, the eye of mindfulness. Cycling provides the trainee with a rich repertoire of warmup and followup strategies to enhance mindfulness.

CORE TRAINING TOOL: The M-Tracker (take after practicing an exercise)

WHAT DID YOU FEEL OR EXPERIENCE IN THIS SESSION? CHECK CIRCLES USING THIS KEY (SKIP ITEMS YOU DID NOT FEEL OR EXPERIENCE)

Ó234 1Ó34 12Ó4 123Ó Felt this SLIGHTLY Felt this MODERATELY Felt this VERY MUCH Felt this EXTREMELY (most ever) SKIP ITEMS YOU DID NOT FEEL OR EXPERIENCE

1234 1. I felt FAR AWAY FROM MY CARES and the TROUBLES AROUND ME. 1234 2. My MUSCLES felt RELAXED, loose, limp, warm and heavy. 1234 3. My BREATHING was RELAXED, slow, even, and easy. 1234 4. I felt AT EASE, AT PEACE, refreshed. 1234 5. I was experiencing pleasant MIND WANDERING. 1234 6. I felt lost in FANTASY and DAYDREAMING. 1234 7. I felt FOCUSED 1234 8. Things seemed CLEAR, vivid, intense. 1234 9. I felt CENTERED, absorbed, grounded. 1234 10. Things felt UNEXPECTED, new, different, interesting. 1234 11. I felt a sense of GOING DEEPER. 1234 12. I felt things are changing, OPENING UP, being revealed. 2345 13. My mind was QUIET, still, few thoughts. 1234 14. I felt ACCEPTING of what I can’t have or change. 1234 15. It felt EASY to stay on task. What was doing felt EFFORTLESS. 1234 16. I’ was NOT EXPERIENCING MUCH MIND WANDERING. I stayed focused 1234 17. I was NOT BOTHERED by possible disturbances. They weren’t important. 1234 18. I felt like a QUIET OBSERVER like I was standing aside and watching uninvolved. 1234 19. I simply WATCHED WHAT CAME AND WENT, not reacting or getting stirred up. 1234 20. I felt HAPPY, OPTIMISTIC, TRUSTING. 1234 21. I felt LOVING, CARING. 1234 22. I felt THANKFUL, GRATEFUL. 1234 23. I felt a sense of MEANING, PURPOSE, DIRECTION. 1234 24. I felt a sense of something GREATER OR LARGER THAN ME.

SPECIAL ITEMS (RARE STATES AND FEELINGS NOT OFTEN REPORTED) Did you have a profound, personal meaningful spiritual or “mystical” experience – that is, a moment of sudden spiritual awakening or insight, like those below? Please rate the following. SKIP ITEMS YOU DID NOT FEEL OR EXPERIENCE 1234 25. I felt a DEEP UNDERSTANDING of the mysteries of the universe. 1234 26. I was struck with AWE / WONDER, DEEP MYSTERY beyond my understanding. 1234 27. I felt REVERENT, SELFLESS, PRAYERFUL. 1234 28. I felt TIMELESS, BOUNDLESS, INFINITE, AT ONE. 1234 29. My experience was so profound it COULD NOT BE PUT INTO WORDS.

© Jonathan C. Smith, PhD

HOW WE USE THE M-TRACKER

1. Complete it after every exercise 2. Sensitizes one to hidden effects 3. Slowly trains one to articulate different aspects of mindfulness (providing a lexicon of mindfulness. . . like students in music or cooking gradually learn to differentiate types of music or cuisine by learning the lexicon of music or cuisine) 4. Helps one identify what approaches work best and which can be combined.

The M-Tracker: Based on 3 Decades of Research on over 6000 reports from individuals exploring a wide range of practices.13 publications, 20 books. (More later . . . )

SPECIFIC TRAINING OBJECTIVES

1. Always return to pure mindfulness, the Eye of Mindfulness. All paths lead to mindfulness. The final goal is simple awareness of the world as it is.

2. Reduce frustration, boredom, and dropout by making training continually interesting and rewarding, individualizing exercises from the Eye of Mindfulness and Mindfulness Galaxy menu of strategy.

3. Maintain curiosity and interest through diversity and exploration (“curiosity” is a core mindfulness emotion).

4. Teach skill components of mindfulness through different complementary “galaxy” exercises

5. Different parts of the Eye of Mindfulness work for different people. Different complementary approaches work for different people. Explore, Individualize, and combine. Use complementary exercises as warmups and followups.

6. Articulate personal beliefs, values, and commitments that form the basis of mindfulness.

COURSES The Department of Psychology offers two mindfulness courses: Psychology 203 (Coping with Stress) and Psychology 373/473 (Relaxation and Mindfulness). PSYC 203 Coping with Stress is primary a self-help course that integrates mindfulness with active coping techniques (assertiveness, problem-solving, anger management, negotiation, procrastination training, time management) and cognitive behavioral techniques for dealing with negative thinking. The mindfulness cycling approach is applied. After a coping strategy is applied, students return to practice mindfulness or a companion exercise (yoga, breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, autogenics, imagery, loving kindness meditation). Not a substitute for counseling or therapy. Coping with Stress is popular among non psychology majors and those just starting college. It follows the text, Stress, Coping, and the Eye of Mindfulness.

PSYC 373/473 Relaxation and Mindfulness presents the latest in mindfulness theory and research and includes the Eye of Mindfulness and the full array of companion disciplines. It follows the text, Mindfulness Reinvented and the M-Tracker Method. This course is popular among advanced undergraduates in psychology and MA students in clinical, counseling, and industrial psychology. MA and Doctoral students can take Relaxation and Mindfulness (Psyc 473) as an elective.

RESEARCH INITIATIVE

1. Development of M-Tracker. Reliability and Validity.

2. Different effects of different core Eye of Mindfulness Approaches, complementary exercises, and combinations.

3. Prevalence of M-Tracker states in everyday life.

4. Ways of enhancing compliance and interest in training

5. Ways of enhancing generalization of M- Tracker states in everyday life.

Currently, researchers from over a half dozen countries from around the world are using the M-Tracker to investigate meditation, mindfulness, and relaxation.

EIGHT FACETS OF MINDFULNESS THE M-TRACKER

Mindfulness consists of 8 dimensions of experience, identified by our research on over 6000 practitioners of diverse approaches and new neurological approaches. These dimensions are embodied in the M-Tracker. Smith, J. C. (2016) Mindfulness Reinvented and the M-Tracker Method (Second Edition). Create Space

8 Facets of Mindfulness in the M-Tracker (Core Dimensions highlighted)

DIMENSION 1. BASIC RELAXATION 1. I felt FAR AWAY FROM MY CARES and the TROUBLES AROUND ME. 2. My MUSCLES felt RELAXED, loose, limp, warm and heavy. 3. My BREATHING was RELAXED, slow, even, and easy. 4. I felt AT EASE, AT PEACE, refreshed. 5. I was experiencing pleasant MIND WANDERING. 6. I felt lost in FANTASY and DAYDREAMING. DIMENSION 2. MINDFUL FOCUS 7. I felt FOCUSED 8. Things seemed CLEAR, vivid, intense. 9. I felt CENTERED, absorbed, grounded. DIMENSION 3. MINDFUL OPENING 10. Things felt UNEXPECTED, new, different, interesting. 11. I felt a sense of GOING DEEPER. 12. I felt things are changing, OPENING UP, being revealed. DIMENSION 4. MINDFUL ACCEPTANCE AND QUIET (“DEREIFICATION”) 13. My mind was QUIET, still, few thoughts. 14. I felt ACCEPTING of what I can’t have or change. 15. It felt EASY to stay on task. What was doing felt EFFORTLESS. 16. I’ was NOT EXPERIENCING MUCH MIND WANDERING. I stayed focused 17. I was NOT BOTHERED by possible disturbances. They weren’t important. DIMENSION 5. MINDFUL “META-AWARENESS” 18. I felt like a QUIET OBSERVER like I was standing aside and watching uninvolved. 19. I simply WATCHED WHAT CAME AND WENT, not reacting or getting stirred up. DIMENSION 6. MINDFUL POSITIVE EMOTION 20. I felt HAPPY, OPTIMISTIC, TRUSTING. 21. I felt LOVING, CARING. 22. I felt THANKFUL, GRATEFUL. DIMENSION 7. MINDFUL PROTO-TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCES 23. I felt a sense of MEANING, PURPOSE, DIRECTION. 24. I felt a sense of something GREATER OR LARGER THAN ME. DIMENSION 8. MINDFUL TRANSCENDENT EXPERIENCES 25. I felt a DEEP UNDERSTANDING of the mysteries of the universe. 26. I was struck with AWE / WONDER, DEEP MYSTERY beyond my understanding. 27. I felt REVERENT, SELFLESS, PRAYERFUL. 28. I felt TIMELESS, BOUNDLESS, INFINITE, AT ONE. 29. My experience was so profound it COULD NOT BE PUT INTO WORDS. © Jonathan C. Smith, PhD

M-TRACKER RESEARCH We invite students and scholars to use the M-Tracker and our cycling method in research (M-Tracker information is available in the core text, Mindfulness Reinvented and the M-Tracker Method: Second Edition). One warning. Researchers are often tempted to subject the M-Tracker to factor analysis in an attempt to simplify variables. This is risky. It is particularly ill-advised to attempt validation by giving the instrument to students in a classroom setting. This will yield an uninformative and undifferentiated factor solution, especially if respondents are not seasoned practitioners. Analogously, it would be meaningless to factor analyze the lexicon of descriptors of various types of oriental cuisine to individuals who’s culinary experience is limited to hamburgers. Note that each item on the M-Tracker reflects either a factor identified in previous research or a dimension

clearly suggested by practice manuals or brain imaging studies.

MATERIAL FOR THIS PRESENTATION IS FROM OUR CORE REFERENCE:

Mindfulness Reinvented and the M-Tracker Method: Second Edition Jonathan C. Smith PhD

282 pages ISBN-13: 978-1519618313 ISBN-10: 151961831X This revolutionary new approach to an ancient discipline uses to mindfulness to integrate a full spectrum of widely used relaxation, meditation, and relaxation exercises. A professional text for teachers and scholars. Appropriate for those new to mindfulness or individuals desiring to revive their practice. Includes core mindfulness exercises, premindfulness booster exercises, and exercises for extending mindfulness into life. Also included are transcripts for making audio recordings, tests, and checklists for assessing progress. Complementary companion exercises include:mindful yoga, mindful breathing, mindful progressive muscle relaxation, mindful autogenics, and mindful deepening imagery. Included: The M-Tracker 7 Inventory, a new and validated tool for teaching and assessing training. To purchase direct: https://www.createspace.com/5907751 Available on amazon.com