at first to keep my attention on the task of eating but it got easier.
Becoming More Mindful
Mindfulness meditation, commonly associated with Zen Buddhism, has become popular in the past few years as a technique for dealing with depression and managing stress and chronic pain. Evidence shows that mindfulness meditation can help reduce the chance of problems such as depression returning and add another string to your bow against emotional problems.
Being present in the moment
Mindfulness is the art of being present in the moment, without passing judgement about your experience. The mindfulness process is so simple – and yet so challenging. Keep your attention focused on the moment that you’re experiencing right now. Suspend your judgement about what you’re feeling, thinking and absorbing through your senses. Simply observe what’s going on around you, in your mind and in your body without doing anything. Just allow yourself to be aware of what’s happening.
Mindfulness literature talks about the way your mind almost mechanically forms judgements about each of your experiences, labelling them as good, bad or neutral depending on how you value them. Things that generate good and bad feelings within you get most of your attention, but you may ignore neutral things or deem them to be boring. Mindfulness meditation encourages awareness of the present moment with an uncluttered mind, observing even the seemingly mundane without judgement. The whole experience is a bit like looking at the world for the first time.
Try mindfulness exercises when you’re in the countryside or walking down the street. Whether the surroundings are familiar to you or not, try to see the details of the world around you through fresh eyes.
Letting your thoughts pass by
You can develop your mindfulness skills and use them to help you deal with unpleasant thoughts or physical symptoms. If you have anxiety, for example, you can develop the ability to focus away from your anxious thoughts.
Watching the train pass by
Imagine a train passing through a station. The train represents your thoughts and sensations (your ‘train of thought’). Each carriage may represent one or more specific thoughts or feelings. Visualise yourself watching the train pass by without hopping into any carriage. Accept your fears about what other people may be thinking about you without trying to suppress them or engaging with them. Simply watch them pass by like a train through a station.
Standing by the side of the road
Another version of the exercise is to imagine that you’re standing on the side of a reasonably busy road. Each passing vehicle represents your thoughts and sensations. Just watch the cars go by. Observe and accept them passing. Don’t try to hitch-hike, redirect the flow of traffic or influence the cars in any way.
Discerning when not to listen to yourself
One of the real benefits of understanding the way that your emotions influence the way you think is to know when what you’re thinking isn’t likely to be helpful or very realistic. Being mindful means learning to experience your thoughts without passing judgement as to whether they’re true or not.
Given that many of the negative thoughts you experience when you’re emotionally distressed are distorted and unhelpful, you’re much better off letting some thoughts pass you by, recognising them as symptoms or output of a given emotional state or psychological problem. Chapter 6 covers the cognitive consequences of emotions, giving you an idea of the types of thoughts that can occur as a consequence of how you’re feeling.
Incorporating mindful daily tasks
Becoming more mindful about little everyday tasks can help you to strengthen your attention muscles. Essentially, everything you do throughout the day can be done with increased awareness. For example, think about the following:
Washing-up mindfully can help you experience the process more fully. Notice the smell of the washing-up liquid, the temperature of the water and the movement of your hands.
Eating mindfully can give you a more enjoyable eating experience. Slow down the speed at which you eat, and pay attention to the texture of the food, the subtlety of the flavours and the appearance of the dish.
Tolerating upsetting images and unpleasant ideas
Certain psychological problems such as depression and anxiety disorders like OCD are frequently accompanied by unwelcome, unsettling images or thoughts. Depressed people can have ideas about harming themselves or even get strong visual images of doing so – even when they’ve no real intention of taking suicidal action. These thoughts are understandably very distressing and people may worry that they indicate a real risk. Happily this is not often the case; most of these thoughts are merely an unpleasant by-product of depressed mood. It’s easy to misinterpret these images and thoughts as dangerous or portentous but learning to see them as what they really are – just unpleasant symptoms of depression or anxiety – can render them less frightening.
People with OCD (more on this disorder in Chapter 14) often experience intrusive thoughts and images. The content of these thoughts and mental pictures can vary widely, but they’re frequently about harming people you love or acting in a way that dramatically violates your moral code. Other emotional or anxiety problems can also give rise to a host of nightmarish ideas and images. Some classics may include the following:
Losing control of your bladder or bowels in public
Blurting out something really offensive
Behaving in a sexually inappropriate manner
Jumping on to a train track
Driving your car recklessly
Harming an animal
Harming yourself or another