San Diego Therapist Blog: Regina Huelsenbeck, PhD

Suffering is a part of being human...

Certain types of suffering are unavoidable: examples of unavoidable suffering include aging, death, illness, and natural disasters. The suffering associated with these examples is often simply unavoidable and a necessary part of human life.

Some types of suffering may be more avoidable than others...

These forms of suffering are often mediated more by the stories that we tell ourselves than actual events. This is not to say that this sort of suffering is not valid, real, or painful. Indeed, it is all of these things. Suffering fueled by the mind is very very real, and very very painful...however it may not be "unavoidable".

The mind is constantly at work and a great storyteller. Often we are mesmerized by it's stories- like children listening to a fairytale...

Here's a very simple example of this phenomenon: It's Monday morning, You're on the way to a new job. You're in traffic, but your mind- and thus you- are already at the office. You see yourself meeting your new boss and he is rude and condescending towards you. You begin to feel nervous and amble your way to your new office, which is actually not an office at all, but a cubicle with dank lighting...you begin feeling sick. Snapping back into the present moment, you pull the car into the office driveway and notice that your heart is beating quickly and your palms are sweaty-and you suddenly don't want to go to this new job....you don't understand why....but your body is saying, "no way".

This example was fairly innocuous, no real harm done here, but you get the idea- the mind's thoughts- if unchecked/unfiltered can become a pretty big part of how you experience life...

Sometimes we listen to the mind's various tales, without a filter, for an entire lifetime. In some cases, these tales are not even original; they're heirlooms from our parents. They are our parents fears, thoughts and beliefs- not ours. But we experience them as our own.

Who ever gave them to us isn't really the issue per say- you may not need to lounge on Freud's couch for years to get relief. However, you might want to step out of these stories of the mind from time to time- re-set yourself- check your mind....find out:

what stories am I spinning? Is this really true? What record is my mind playing today?

In slowing down, and listening to your mind- writing down your thoughts in a journal is really helpful- you can begin to see what your mind focuses upon. You can begin to see what it naturally gravitates towards. This is really empowering. You don't have to be a slave to your mind's stories.

Story spinning is what minds do, they are busy little guys. There is nothing innately wrong with this activity- every human mind does it.

To avoid "avoidable" suffering however, begin to take time to listen to your mind. Slow down, join a meditation group, journal, or attend mindfulness therapy and begin to take control of your mind and thus your life experiences.

~Dr. Huelsenbeck

"A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction."
- Rita Mae Brown

Yesterday in my blog article, "Mindfulness- what is it and why should I do it?" we discussed Richard Davidson's research on mindfulness practices. Davidson found that regular mindfulness practice over a period of just 8 weeks significantly increased immune system functioning and additionally increased left-brain activity (furthermore, increases in the left-brain functioning directly mediated the increases in immune system functioning). I wanted to take a quick minute today to explain a bit about left-brain activation.

The following is quoted directly from Daniel Goleman's article in the NY Times Feb. 3, 2003 where he discusses some of Davidson's general research on the brain asymmetry (left versus right):

The functional M.R.I. images reveal that when people are emotionally distressed -- anxious, angry, depressed -- the most active sites in the brain are circuitry converging on the amygdala, part of the brain's emotional centers, and the right prefrontal cortex, a brain region important for the hypervigilance typical of people under stress.

By contrast, when people are in positive moods -- upbeat, enthusiastic and energized -- those sites are quiet, with the heightened activity in the left prefrontal cortex.

Indeed, Dr. Davidson has discovered what he believes is a quick way to index a person's typical mood range, by reading the baseline levels of activity in these right and left prefrontal areas. That ratio predicts daily moods with surprising accuracy. The more the ratio tilts to the right, the more unhappy or distressed a person tends to be, while the more activity to the left, the more happy and enthusiastic.

By taking readings on hundreds of people, Dr. Davidson has established a bell curve distribution, with most people in the middle, having a mix of good and bad moods. Those relatively few people who are farthest to the right are most likely to have a clinical depression or anxiety disorder over the course of their lives. For those lucky few farthest to the left, troubling moods are rare and recovery from them is rapid....

By chance, Dr. Davidson had the opportunity to test the left-right ratio on a senior Tibetan lama, who turned out to have the most extreme value to the left of the 175 people measured to that point.

Results from Davidson's mindfulness research provides evidence for the use of meditative practices to reduce negative mood states - and furthermore shows that positive mood states are more likely to become a part of a person's natural state if they meditate regularly- and it doesn't sound like you have to become a Tibetan lama to do so (although it may help) - but from Davidson's research, it seems like just 8 weeks of practicing can effect change.

~Regina

Jon Kabat-Zinn, who has been researching the benefits of mindfulness practices since the 1970's at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center says, mindfulness is "The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment" (2003).

Regularly practicing mindfulness/meditation has been shown to decrease stress levels, decrease the recurrence of depression, decrease anxiety, decrease chronic pain/fibromyalgia difficulties, decrease symptoms of psoriasis and also increase immune functioning. These findings are important for all of us, but especially for people coping with high levels of stress and/or a physical illnesses like cancer.Conversely, high chronic stress levels have been shown to decrease or down regulate the immune system.

When trying to measure the immune system's responsive to different conditions- researchers get pretty creative. Measuring antibody responses to flu vaccinations seems to be a popular way:

In one study on chronic stress: researchers tested long-time dementia caregivers (the chronic stress group) versus a control group. The two groups were otherwise matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Each group was given a flu vaccination. The researchers hypothesized that the caregiver group, who was obviously more stressed, would not respond as well to the vaccine as the control group. Their hypothesis proved to be true: The immune response of the chronic stress group (caregivers) was less responsive to the vaccine than that of the control group. (See Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 1996)

Likewise, a cancer diagnosis is associated with high levels of stress (See Stefanak, Derogatis, & Shaw, 1987). The person diagnosed feels they can no longer trust their own body. They often feel alienated from friends and family, wonder if they will continue to exist and often feel completely hopeless/powerless over their situation. Obviously, living with cancer is stressful. However, practicing mindfulness has been shown to increase cancer patients ability to cope with their situation. Cancer patients who practiced Mindfulness vs. control group: decreased depression, anxiety, anger and confusion as well as increased vigor (See Speca et al., 2000).

Davidson, Kabat-Zinn and friends (2003) also found that practicing mindfulness could increase left-brain activity (see more of Davidson's research for left-brain relevance) and significantly INCREASE IMMUNE FUNCTIONING. They randomized two groups- one group to an 8 week meditation training and another to a wait list control group. At the end of 8 weeks, both groups were given the flu vaccine. The meditation group's immune system response was significantly greater than that of the control group, and so was their left-brain activity.

Practicing mindfulness regularly can clearly change your life- not just psychologically- but also physically. But don't take my word for it...practice...

Need help getting started with a mindfulness practice? Give me a call 858.880.0145. I have a mindfulness meditation group. I also have individual sessions open. You can also go online and order guided meditation CD's by Jon Kabat-Zinn or Jack Kornfield. Both are excellent.

Dan Rather recently covered a story on the power of meditation and it's usefulness. Davidson's work - one of the researchers we talked about above is part of the story- he actually does studies with long time meditators- Buddhist Monks. The Dalai Lama actually encourages them to participate! You can listen to the report on mindfulness here. After clicking this link scroll to the link in the middle of the page and select "April 8th, 2008 - Mind Science" show and then hit Watch Now. You can also find this video on facebook or download the podcast at this link.

Below are the studies that I cited:

Davidson, R. J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli, S. F., Urbanowski, F., Harrington, A., Bonus, K., and Sheridan, J.F. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine. 65, pp. 564-570.

Kiecolt-Glaser, J.K., Glaser, R., Gravenstein, S., Malarkey., W.B., and Sheridan, J. (1996). Chronic stress alters the immune response to influenza virus vaccine in older adults.

Speca, M., Carlson, L.E., Goodey, E., and Angen, M. (2000). A randomized, wait-list controlled trial: The effect of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program on mood and symptoms of stress in cancer outpatients. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, pp. 613-622.

Depression Relapse: What causes it? The risk factors for a relapse of a major depressive episode include a family history of depression, a recent trauma or loss, the number of depressive episodes you may have had in the past, and a cognitive reactivity to sad moods. Negative feeling states and thought patterns seem to get wired together and can recreate depressive states more easily the next time, and easier the next time...and so on and so on.

Researchers have found that regular mindfulness practice and mindfulness based cognitive therapy significantly decreases the relapse/recurrence of depression (Teasedale et al., 2000).

How does this happen? Why does mindfulness practice help someone who suffers from depression?

The brain is filled with billions of neurons- These billions of neurons are connected to each other via synapses- specifically about 10,000 different synapses connect 100 billion neurons. A neuron fires whenever we have an experience.

When we practice mindfulness regularly - we could, over time, by repeating this mindfulness experience increase "synaptic densities in those regions that were activated with mindful practice" (Siegal, 2007). In essence, re wire your brain....making it more likely that you will be in the mindfulness territory of your brain when new stresses or potentials for depression arises.  

In fact, "mindful awareness is a form of experience that seems to promote neural plasticity". Neuroplasticity is essentially brain rewiring- "neuroplasticity is the term used when connections in the brain change in response to experience" (Siegal, 2007).

If you are interested in more information on mindfulness and neuroplasticity get David Siegal The Mindful Brain. If you want more on cognitive reactivity and a mindful way to approach your thinking, check out my blog article : The Thought Stream.

Today, let's talk about Sally's recent experience with meditation. She's been practicing more and more lately, but today she didn't have time to practice her meditation before leaving the house, so she decided to do it at work. She shut her office door and set the alarm on her cell phone for 10 minutes. She pushed herself away from the computer, put both feet on the floor, sat up very straight, closed her eyes and began following her breath. She barely made it through one in-out breath cycle before a thought came in. She got caught in the thinking about the thought for a bit, started worrying, and then brought her attention back to her breath. A second or two later, another thought came up and she began chasing that one too, planning something that she could do to "fix" the situation. Then she realized that she had drifted away from following her breath and pulled her attention back again. This pattern continued for a while. Soon her 10 minute timer went off and she returned to work.

Honestly, it was one of those meditation sessions that Sally pretty much pushed herself into because she wanted to keep her commitment to the process and she thought she might feel better afterward. Meditation is sometimes like punching the clock at the gym- whether you feel like it or not- at that particular moment, keeping the commitment to yourself is important.

After her timer went off, Sally did feel a sense of calm. She also noticed that she was able to think a bit more clearly. This phenomenon occurs because the orbitofrontal cortex relaxes when it's not stressed out by the amygdala. The amygdala is the stress response center which bombards the orbitofrontal cortex when we feel overwhelmed.

When we meditate- the orbitofrontal cortex, our executive control center which modulates emotions, social reactions, and other decision making and memory areas- gets to chill out and operate at full capacity. Thus, we are better able to operate at full capacity. We are able to think more clearly and respond the way we truly intend to respond. With a regular mindfulness practice, this relaxed, high functioning state becomes more frequent.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche explained to his son, Saykong Mipham Rinpoche the rationale for mediation. "It's easier to put on a pair of shoes than to wrap the earth in leather".

When we meditate we help ourselves let go of the expectation that the environment (others and circumstance) will change. We realize that what we experience has much to do with the mental shoes we are wearing. The world in fact, is not wrapped in leather; to experience a less stressful reality, we practice.

Love & Light,

Regina