About the Sit4Health™ technique

In other places, what I call Sit4Health™ you’ve heard referred to as “contemplative practice,” “mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR™),” “centering prayer,” “contemplative prayer,” “Transcendental Meditation™,” “mindfulness meditation,” “salât,” “vipassanā,” “bhakti yoga” or “zazen.” I call this consciousness-training technique Sit4Health™ to welcome attenders to a secular approach without the cultural trimmings, but will often refer to the practice simply as “meditation” since that’s the most popular term in use today.

The above family of techniques have in common a conscious attempt to:

A. focus attention in a non-analytical way;

B. not dwell on discursive, ruminating thought;

C. attend solely to the present moment,

D. and be aware of awareness itself.

These techniques also have an array of attributes NOT in common, which are historical, cultural or religious elements not germane to the health benefits Sit4Health™ can provide. “D” above is particularly prone to accrue cultural explanations of who, what or why there is the sensation of an extra-dimensional witness in certain states attained during meditation. We are not going to address spirituality during Sit4Health™ sessions, except to note that other states of conscious exist beyond our usual waking, sleeping and dreaming states which we can attain through this practice and that help us step outside of the ego (personality) perspective that makes most of us more or less miserable.

Attaining a heightened state of unitary consciousness can free us––to varying degrees––from fear, hatred, anger, compulsiveness, and other unpleasant or dysfunctional feelings and behavior. As a mental health counselor, I’m dedicated to helping folks free themselves from these issues and have found meditation very effective for mitigating stress and being able to self-regulate distressful emotions and behaviors.

One of the basic tenets of meditation is that passive awareness is a natural, elementary, direct form of experience ordinarily overwhelmed and obscured by the ego-supporting activity of the mind. The purpose of Sit4Health™ is to reclaim the capacity for this experience and its many health-inducing benefits.

You will learn focusing techniques to gain equanimity, so your brain will to be able to chose “responding” as oppose to “reacting” to stress, thereby supporting mental health. Also, over the last four decades due to increasing understanding of neuroplasticity, the science of neurophysiology has discovered many ways meditation supports physical brain health. Neuroplasticity means we can—usually unwittingly—change physical attributes of the brain through the activity of the mind. As Dr. Dan Siegel says, “what fires together wires together.” For example, angry behavior creates neuronal structures that are prone to select anger as a behavior.

Here’s an article from the Huffington Post presenting 20 Reasons Meditation is Good For Your Health.

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While there is there is no one way to meditate, here are some basic instructions to get you started:

1. Sit comfortably on a chair with a straight back or cross-legged on a cushion on the floor. Do not slouch. Sit as erect with your backbone as straight as is comfortable. The straighter your backbone, the easier it is for your bodymind to breathe and the more easily energy can flow up and down your spine to all areas. If you choose to sit on a chair, put both feet flat on the floor to enhance a sensation of stability, groundedness and balance through connection to the earth.

2. Eyes slightly open if there are not too many distractions. Head tilted approximately 20 degrees and eyes down approximately 20 degrees from center. Neurophysically, this position enhances the chances of attaining a meditative state. Dim the lights so as to not trigger the highly light sensitive brain into activity. However, some light helps to maintain attention. Meditating in darkness promotes sleep.

3. Fix gaze softly on a small object like a pebble, a leaf or a candle flame, so the eyes do not move. This decreases activity in the visual processing parts of the brain allowing the meditative state to arise more easily. You may, of course, shut your eyes but the eyeball has a tendency to move under your eyelid and you may find yourself drifting off to sleep.

4. Breathe normally focusing attention on your breath either as it enters your nostrils, or be aware of your belly or on your chest rising and falling. At the beginning, elongate the out breath to decrease neurological firing and assist in relaxation. Then just breathe naturally.

You may also pay close attention to a sound such as a ticking clock, the sound of waves or even traffic passing in the street. Sensing takes the place of thinking. Awareness is focused through your senses, attentively noticing all that you sense. No time for thinking now. Your consciousness begins to move out of the brain, leaving the analytical mind behind.

5. You may silently chant a focusing word, e.g. ONE, on each out breath, or count your out breaths from one to ten. If you lose count, start over without self recrimination. If you choose to not chant or count, when you notice your attention has wandered from your attention device, you may silently say a refocusing word of your choice to signal a return to focusing on your breath, e.g. BREATHE.

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Some effects of a meditation practice gathered from personal experience and various published sources:

• Beneficial effects on health include increased emotional regulatory ability, sensitivity and perceptual ability, better athletic performance, increased ability to learn with heightened academic performance, anxiety and anger reduction, increased creativity and less substance abuse and other impulsive and reactive behaviors.

• Studies report improved condition of hospital patients across the board regardless of disorder or disease, e.g. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR, relays a story about a reporter of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal who had afterward gone off to Japan for a number of years to practice Zen. When he started sitting, it was freezing in the monastery––no central heating. The conditions were harsh and primitive, yet after a few months of daily meditation his chronic stomach ulcers went away and never returned.

• Learn to dampen emotions by paying mindful attention to slow respirations by releasing an inhibitory pulse of the brain’s own opioids, serotonin, and releasing acetylcholine, an awareness enhancer.

• Stimulates the production of endogenous (internal) opioids such as endorphin which reduces the perception of pain and promotes a feeling of relaxation, warmth, pleasure and well-being without pharmaceuticals, i.e. addictive exogenous (external) opioids such opium, morphine or benzodiazipine.

• When patients who are chronically anxious learn to facilitate alpha rhythms, they can gain a global feeling of increased wellbeing. In the beginning, it may get worse before it gets better, so psychotherapeutic support is recommended for those who suffer from clinical depression or severe anxiety.

• Breathing out quiets the amygdala (emotional center). Breathing in excites it. Whenever we breathe quietly prolonging the out breath, we quiet the firing activity of nerve cells.

• Meditation increases clarity of thought and ability to focus.

• Helps develop more conscious control of thoughts. Choice equals freedom from emotional suffering as we cease to choose “automatic negative thoughts” (ANTs).

• Minimizes the future-oriented cerebrations of the frontal lobes––in other words, decreases worries about what might happen.

• The meditating brain resolves the existential impasse of accepting what is. When we don’t like “what is” and to be able to change it, acceptance is logically the first step. Denial of “what is” is a barrier to change.

• Learn how to tolerate uncomfortable inner experiences.

• Become increasingly free from cravings and aversions, e.g. overeating or substance abuse.

• Causes coherence of brain wave activity in various regions of the brain. Integrates experiences more successfully throughout the brain helping to resolve inner conflict.

• Increased empathy. Feel closer to others and larger universal reality. Meditators think of new ways to related to others. Increased flexibility in ability to relate to others.

• Meditation cultivates greater moment-to-moment intimacy and familiarity with our own bodymind. Also, cultivates the realization of the interconnectedness of things beyond our perception of them as being separate and disconnected, and beyond our frankly delusional attachment to things being under our control and for our personal benefit. Cultivating intimacy with how things actually are is a first step on the path of healing.

• Flexibility and freedom from ego-driven, knee-jerk reactions. Reduces the influence of the maladaptive self and strengthens what is called the “true self” or “original mind.”

• Helps shed excess psychic baggage and damage. Reclaim passions from inappropriate or dysfunctional conditioning.

• Lessens notions of physical self image and its importance. Meditation is not recommended for those suffering from ego formation disorders such schizophrenia as the tendency to hallucinate may increase.

• Encourages the practical self to mature.

• Widens ones field of vision to take in and integrate more knowledge.

• Deep subconscious insight can occur with increased frequency and absorption.

• Increases ability to self regulate through conscious intent.

• Biochemical changes associated with relaxation. For example:Author Steve Buhner says that physiologically, the hippocampus in our brain is a primary target for the molecules that carry information, such as ion balance, blood pressure, immunity, pain, reproductive status, and stress. It is directly involved in the feedback system for blood pressure, the hypothalamus-adrenal-pituitary axis, and the immune system. The hippocampus also works closely with the amygdala, another part of the brain, to modulate body physiology in response to emotions. While it was long thought that the brain created no new neuronal cells after birth, it is now known that the body constantly sends stem cells to the hippocampus to be made into new neuronal cells. In response to some emotions, such as anger and fear, the body produces a great deal of cortisol. The more cortisol, or sustained negative stress, that occurs the more the ability of the hippocampus to do its job decreases. Nerve cell generation in the hippocampus slows or stops with sustained cortisol levels. Hence another important reason to meditate.

• Neuro-physically recover from stress faster.

• Senses become more acute.

• More sensitive to internal processes such as intuition and extrasensory perception.

• Learning how to deploy attention.

• Positive changes in attitude.

• Extends the general search for meaning in ways that probe topics at deeper existential levels, i.e. universal search for existential meaning.

• When a person becomes free of discriminations between self and non self, the mind can grasp the reality of a situation with lightening speed and clarity.

How-to Tips:

• There are different states of consciousness. We are most familiar with “waking,” “sleeping” and “dreaming.” There are many more. We are going to try and achieve “concentrative awareness” or “no thought” to achieve the above mentioned health benefits.

• An advanced form of meditation is to not focus and just watch the flow of thought maintaining the Watching Awareness. That’s pretty tricky to keep two centers of consciousness simultaneously distinct, so it’s only for experienced meditators, but you are welcome to practice noticing awareness. If you can sense the awareness watching, you are getting close to this state.

• Slightly open eyes aid in focus and concentration. When eyes are closed they can move unwittingly and thought flows more freely. Practicing with open eyes engages learning and relaxation skills are more easily transferred to stressful situations in ordinary life.

• Gazing at a lighted candle, or some other small object, stabilizes eye movement and enhances attention.

• At first, counting from one to ten and then repeating can help still the mind. Another technique is to use a favorite word to refocus, such as saying in your mind, “love,” “peace” or “stillness” to mark the end of the thought and returning to focusing on your breath.

• If you do not have issues with psychosis, don’t be concerned if you have hallucinations or visions. This is common in mentally healthy people when they begin meditating. The brain is used to having something to do, so when you stop, it just makes stuff up. Also, as you move into other states of consciousness things can look different, because the brain is not usually looking at the world in the naked NOW. In reality, our eyes do not see everything. Our brain fills in the gaps with projections, but usually we are unaware. If you do have issues with schizophrenia, please do not attempt these techniques as they enhance the breakdown of psychic barriers. The state of mind labeled “schizophrenia” is characterized by a disorganized ego boundaries.

• Even highly-trained meditators occasionally fall asleep. 🙂

• Restless energies can build up, but repeated practice calms them down. Please stand and stretch if you must, but learning to tolerate inner discomfort helps one mature emotionally and move toward self-regulated choice and wisdom.

• “Name it to tame it.” When a thought arises, try silently naming it. For example, “anger,” or “desire,” or “hunger,” then go back to counting or watching your breath. This naming will help you to not get caught up in the content of constantly arising thoughts and can even help you in everyday life.

• Please don’t judge yourself negatively if you find it difficult to focus on your breath. Your mind constantly produces thought, so it is only doing what it is supposed to do. Your job during Sit4Health™ is to name the type of thought, then go back to observing your breath and the present moment.

• Between sessions, you are encouraged to practice on your own. At least, be attentive to explicit sensory experience in your daily life. Note your concrete encounters with everyday perceptions. Cultivate immediate ongoing mindful perception in everyday living.

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Some Favorite Books

The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Dr. Norman Doidge. Penquin Books, 2007.

Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom by Dr. Rick Hanson. New Harbinger Publications, 2009.

Calming Your Anxious Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Anxiety, Fear, and Panic by J. Brantley. New Harbinger, 2003.

Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD. Hyperion, 2012.

Destructive Emotions: How We Can Heal Them by D. Goleman. Bantam, 2003.

Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart by T. Bennett-Goleman. Harmony, 2001.

Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness by Jon Kabat-Zinn. A Delta Book, 1990.

Meditation in Action by Chögyam Trungpa. Shambala Press, 1991. This book was originally released in the early 70s and reprinted in 1991 by Trungpa’s wife, Diana Mukpo.

Mindfulness and the Transformation of Emotion by J.M.G.Williams, J.D.Teasdale, Z.V.Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. Guilford, 2005.

Mindsight: the New Science of Personal Transformation by Daniel Siegel MD. Norton, 2010.

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. Viking, 2006.

The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of the Heart in the Direct Perception of Nature by Stephen Buhner. Inner Traditions/Bear & Company, 2004.

The Truth of Suffering and the Path of Liberation by Chøgyam Trungpa. Shambala Press, 2009.

The Spectrum of Consciousness by Ken Wilbur. A Quest Book, 1977.

Wake Up to Your Life by K. McLeod, Harper, 2001.

What is Meditation: Buddhism for Everyone by Rob Nairn. Shambala, 1999.

Zen and the Brain by James H. Austin, MD. The MIT Press, 1999.

Here’s a quote I love from Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa, a former Tibetan monk who set Buddhism aside and taught a secular approach to “sitting practice.”

“Regard your home as sacred, as a golden opportunity to experience nowness. Appreciating sacredness begins very simply by taking an interest in all the details of your life. Interest is simply applying awareness to what goes on in your everyday life––awareness while you’re cooking, awareness while you’re driving, awareness while you’re changing diapers, even awareness while you’re arguing. Such awareness can help to free you from speed, chaos, neurosis and resentment of all kinds. It can free you from the obstacles to nowness, so that you cheer up on the spot…

…You may wonder what the best approach is to helping society and how you can know what you are doing is authentic or good. The only answer is nowness. Now is the important point. That now is the real now. If you are unable to experience now, then you are corrupted, because you are looking for another now which is impossible. If you do that, there can only be past or future.

…Periods in history when great art was created, when learning advanced or peace spread were all now. But after now happened, those cultures lost their now… The vision of an enlightened society is that tradition and culture and wisdom and dignity can be experienced now and kept now on everyone’s part…

Enlightened society must rest on a good foundation. The nowness of your family situation is that foundation. From it you can expand. By regarding your home as sacred, you can enter domestic situations with awareness and delight, rather than feeling you are subjecting yourself to chaos. It may seem that washing dishes and cooking dinner are completely mundane activities, but if you apply awareness to any situation, you are training your whole being, so that you will be able to open yourself further, rather than narrowing your existence.

You may feel that you have a good vision for society, but that your life is filled with hassles––money problems, problems in relating to your spouse or caring for your children––and that those two things, vision and ordinary life are opposing one another. But vision and practicality can be joined together in nowness.

Too often people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching earth, touching ground…trying to conquer the earth to try to ward off reality. There are all kinds of deodorant sprays to keep you from smelling the real world and all kinds of process food to keep you from tasting raw ingredients…

…live on this earth, the real earth, the earth that grows crops, the earth that nurtures your existence. You can learn to live on this earth… how to pitch a tent, how to ride a horse, milk a cow, build a fire. Even though you may be living in a city in the 20th century, you can learn to experience the sacredness, the nowness of reality. This is the basis for creating an enlightened society.”

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 Note: this document is revised intermittently.  Please check back for new information. draft 1.10.14

 

December 20th, 2012 | Permalink