The Science Behind Mindfulness

By: River O’Leary

Many of us have heard the term “mindfulness” as a buzzword – but what is mindfulness and how does it work? Who invented mindfulness?

Mindfulness as we understand it in Western culture originates from one particular style of Buddhist meditation. Mindfulness meditation has been used for thousands of years primarily in South, South Eastern, and Eastern Asia where Buddhist mindfulness meditation is traditionally a spiritual and cultural practice. Western mindfulness practices, however, are often used as an approach to life that is not tied to any particular religion or spiritual practice, and instead is used as a tool for mental and physical health. It can refer to a state of being rather than a distinct meditation practice.

Mindfulness has two main components: attention and acceptance. Attention refers to turning your awareness to what you are experiencing in the present moment. This can include our physical sensations, our breathing, our thoughts, and our emotions. Acceptance means that we are accepting those experiences in their entirety, without judgement, and we observe these experiences without reacting to them. We allow ourselves to experience the thought, emotion, or sensation, and let it go to be able move on to the next experience with our full attention. We can approach life with mindfulness during any part of the day, including walking, eating, breathing, working, and interacting with others.

What Does Mindfulness Do For Us?

Mindfulness benefits both our mental and physical well-being. Regularly practicing mindfulness can help treat:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Social Anxiety

• Substance Use Disorders

• Dissociation

• Emotional Regulation Difficulties

• Alexithymia (having difficulty or the inability to identify one’s emotional

• experiences)

Those who practice mindfulness regularly can expect an increase in key areas of mental health such as:

• Higher life satisfaction

• Empathy

• Improved self-esteem

• A sense of autonomy

• Optimism

Mindfulness has shown positive outcomes in helping people cope with physical problems such as:

• Chronic pain, through reducing pain, fatigue, and stress.

• Smoking

How Does It Work?

Mindfulness works a useful treatment because it lowers our stress response. It does this by changing brain structures and activities in brain regions that are responsible for attention and emotional regulation, including the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. The general impact mindfulness has on our brain is reducing amygdala response and increasing our prefrontal cortex activation.

Our amygdala is the area in our brain primarily responsible for our:

• Fear response

• Aggression

• Our reward system

• Learned behaviors related to addiction

• Connecting our senses to emotions

• And much more!

Our prefrontal cortex is area in our brain most responsible for:

• Decision-making and self-control

• Problem solving

• Focus

• Emotional regulation

• Adjusting to new situations

• And much more!

How does reducing amygdala response and increasing our prefrontal cortex activation have real impacts on how we feel? Here is how it works. People who practice mindfulness regularly are less likely to react to their negative thoughts or unhelpful emotional responses, interrupting a feedback loop of increasingly distressing thoughts and feelings. Some ways we might respond to our negative thoughts or feelings (such as worry, fear, anger, or rumination) might include unhelpful tendencies such as avoidance, suppression, or over-engagement. When we practice mindfulness, we can instead notice our thoughts and emotions without reacting in these unhelpful ways.

How Do I Get Started?

Many people will find it helpful to first practice a mindfulness exercise with someone who can guide their experience, such as a therapist, meditation instructor, or even a YouTuber who creates guided mindfulness voice recordings! Having another person guide you through the process relieves you of the responsibility of keeping yourself on track, so that you can let go into the experiences. Eventually, you may find that you can start some mindfulness exercises on your own.

Mindfulness is considered a practice because it does indeed take practice each and every time! It can take several tries to get the hang of it, and even then, we might find ourselves getting distracted or engaged in unhelpful reactions. Don’t get discouraged by this! It is a perfectly normal part of learning to be mindful. When we notice we are distracted or reacting to our thoughts and feelings, this is the perfect moment to apply our attention and acceptance to those experiences, too. With time and practice, mindfulness can be an accessible tool, ready to be used at any moment.

References:

https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation

https://www.clarku.edu/human-resources/2021/11/22/history-of-mindfulness/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3679190/

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24894-amygdala

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/prefrontal-cortex