I’m going to be talking about an eight-week course I’m taking on mindfulness meditation, but before I start with my experience, I have to define a few terms so we’re all on the same page. I’m going to define mindfulness and mindfulness meditation so we all know what we’re talking about.
What is Mindfulness?
Well, that depends on who you ask. A very simple definition for mindfulness might be, “being right here, right now, and nowhere else.” Mindfulness has also been defined as “purposefully paying attention, in the present moment and without judgement.”
According to Sheri Van Dijk, MSW, author of The Dialectical and Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, mindfulness skills, “. . . help people to live more in the present moment, rather than getting stuck in the thoughts about the past or future, which can trigger painful emotions. These . . . help you get to know yourself better, because you’re focusing on the present moment, you’re more aware of your emotions, thoughts, and feelings.”
Multi-tasking is the antithesis of mindfulness. (Personally, I still don’t think multitasking is always bad and I don’t think mindfulness is right for all occasions. But that’s my personality and a function of my job.)
While mindfulness is a form of meditation practice, you don’t have to sit cross-legged on a yoga mat chanting in order to do it. Both formal practice and informal practice can take place.
Formal and Informal Mindfulness Practice
For example, Van Dijk lists this simple mindfulness exercise which you could use for formal mindfulness practice:
Pretend you are in a field of grass looking up at the clouds. Whenever a thought enters your mind, imagine that it rests on a cloud floating by. Don’t judge the thought, and don’t label them; simply observe them as they float through your mind. Don’t grab onto them or get caught up thinking about them – just notice them. When you notice your attention straying from the exercise, gently bring it back to observing the thoughts.
Informal mindfulness practice simply means trying to live life more mindfully. So, for example, when you’re engaged in conversation, fully engage in that conversation with the other person and do not focus on anything else. Do not think about what you will say next. Only focus on the other person and the interactions between the two of you.
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness meditation is formal mindfulness practice (like the example above). It incorporates mindfulness, relaxation training and breath work. There are lots of ways of doing mindfulness meditation and I’ll be talking about the exercises I’m learning through my mindfulness meditation course, but they certainly aren’t the only ones.
Do I Have to Clear My Mind and Think of Nothing in Order to Meditate?
The biggest thing I always heard about meditation is that it’s about clearing your mind and not thinking at all. And I always knew if that was the goal I could never do it. I could never, ever make my bipolar brain not think.
Luckily for me, not thinking is not the goal during meditation.
My instructor said something along these lines: Your brain is an organ and its job is to think. You can’t expect that it will ever stop doing that. We all think, all the time.
This was like a whole, new world opening up for me. If it wasn’t about not thinking, I could do it!
And thanks to this one idea, I’m having positive results with my mindfulness meditation (even though I initially bristled at the idea), but more on that later.
Also check out these tips on setting up a mindfulness meditation practice (up shortly).
Through MBCT (Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy) I was able to relate differently to my moods and states of mind. I learned how to put the brakes on my anxious thoughts by pulling myself into the moment and sitting with things the way they are. I am now drug-free going on two years after suffering with severe bi-polar for much of my life. . As a Mindfulness facilitator now, I’ve not met a brain that is too filled with racing thoughts that can’t, for one moment, pay attention. You build upon that. I can pay attention, intentionally, for one moment and , when my mind wanders, noticed it wandered and gently escort it back to the object of my attention. It is mental agility training and life changing along with being evidence based to provide just as good or better outcomes than anti-depressants for the treatment of depression.
And, no, you physically can’t multi-task but, as one poster alluded, you can do several tasks at one time if you give each task its full attention.
Good luck on your journey!
I’m just stumbling on to this article now, so not sure if you will see it, but I wanted to say, I have been practicing mindfulness for a few years. I have “in the moment” tattooed on my foot. Having bipolar can be difficult, and it has made me want to check out of here more than once, but I have found my way to happiness. I am generally one of the happiest people I know. This change came when I quit feeling like a victim, took responsibility for my illness, and decided my goal was to be happy.
I hope you have found mindfulness helpful for you, and you have been able to come a little closer to happiness.
Kim
>> This change came when I quit feeling like a victim, took responsibility for my illness, and decided my goal was to be happy.
Boy, Kim…..I couldn’t agree with you more. Responsibility and acceptance of consequence has been a major step forward for me, as well. Also, freedom from outcome – being totally “in the moment” – also works well for me.
Thanx for your post!
Pax,
R-
I am sure this will only have a chance to work with people who are at a shallow state of their bipolar cycle; otherwise the mind is way too ‘self-absorbed’ to be clear.
Even then, I believe Zen has it that one cannot achieve mindfulness by trying to rid your mind of thoughts, because the act of trying is of itself requires thinking that distracts from mindfulness. One of the training manuals teaches the practice of routines that interfere with the automatic things we do and makes us more mindful of them. For example, we may wash our faces and clean the teeth so automatically that while we will remember we have done those things we will not recall what it felt like to do them. So, the practice is that these things should be done in a particular way every time. For example, the instructions are to clean the teeth in a particular way, in a particular direction in the mouth and using a specific number of brush strokes. Rinsing the mouth afterwards is also done in a precise way. Doing these things requires concentration on the action of washing and cleaning the teeth, so they cannot be done automatically any more, so one is mindful of the process and of feeling it.
Regarding multitasking, if one is going to do multitasking at its most effective level, one actually has to do it “mindfully”. One may have, say, 5 tasks to do at the same time, but in practice, one can only do one task at one moment, it is just we switch between tasks fairly fast like a computer multitasking. When we are doing a task at a moment, we focus on that task alone and not think about the other 4 tasks, that is mindfulness. If we think about the other 4 tasks while doing task 1 for example, then it will increase the chance of making a mistake doing task 1 and also it will increase the chance of not doing the most effective job on task 1 b/c we are distracted by thinking about the other 4 tasks. So, if we multitask, do each task mindfully.
I’m sorry, I think if you have a severe case of bipolar, you HAVE no capabilities to meditate because you feel so doomed, there is nothing left for you…..now as far as medications goes and meditation, that , I believe CAN be done
With bipolar, you can certainly feel too “doomed” to meditate – on the down swing. I mean, what’s the point? In this mood, I can barely get up. However, I have heard of meditators talk about “monkey mind”. On the up swing, it’s seriously like monkey mind on STEROIDS! Most people simply have to watch their thoughts and let them go. My thoughts can whiz by so fast it’s distracting! And as soon as you let a thought go, another one is surely behind it, and a traffic jam of thoughts behind that!
“Personally, I still don’t think multitasking is always bad and I don’t think mindfulness is right for all occasions.”
Yeah…..absolutes like good and bad don’t work well for me.
My understanding of the difference between Mindfulness and Meditation is just as the name implies – Mindfulness is a practice where I give attention to thoughts…..Meditation is when I go to that space between thoughts where nothingness exists, for me.
I also found Meditation very hard, though NOT impossible, after MUCH practice. Actually, Dr. Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey are givine a 21 day “course” in Meditation right now. It’s free.
R-.