Mindfulness

We live busy lives – from the time we wake up, we are bombarded with tasks that need to be finished. We make breakfast, go to work or school, commute while listening to music or talking on the phone, or playing video games. This takes a lot of brainpower so our amazing minds learn to autopilot.

This autopiloting behavior is efficient, but it comes with a downside – have you noticed how well-rested you are, how delicious your breakfast is, or how pretty the flowers are on your way to work? Autopiloting lets your mind wander, often leading to thoughts of fear, worry, anxiety, or dread.

This is where the skill of mindfulness comes in.

Mindfulness is about taking control back and focusing on what is happening now - without judgment. Focusing on the present helps you shift attention away from anxiety-inducing thoughts, which are usually rooted in the past or future.

Mindfulness Skills as a DBT Module

Dialectical Behavior Therapy incorporates four key modules, with mindfulness as the foundational element. This crucial component is often the starting point in therapy, providing essential groundwork for the other three modules: distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

By first establishing mindfulness skills, psychologists set the stage for more effective learning and application of the remaining DBT concepts.

The Mindfulness Skills taught in DBT are “What” Skills and “How Skills”

1. 1

   Observing Perceiving your present experience without filtering or judging it:
   

   • exercise M1: Observe Observing something without trying to change it.
   • exercise M2: Mind-Body Scan Paying attention to physical sensations throughout the body.
   • exercise M3: Internal vs. External Distinguishing between internal sensations and external stimuli.

2. 2

   Describing Putting words to your observations:
   

   • exercise M4: Describe Your Emotions Labeling your emotions in a factual and nonjudgmental manner.
   • exercise M5: Mental Noting Naming or labeling what you observe in your mind.

3. 3

   Participating Fully immersing yourself in the current activity with undivided attention
   

1. 4

   One-Mindfully Emphasizes doing one thing at a time
   

   • exercise M6: Thought Defusion Engaging with your thoughts in a way that allows you to be present and focused on one thing at a time.
   • exercise M7: Mindful Breathing Cultivate a state of being fully engaged in one activity, your breathing.

2. 5

   Effectively Focusing on what works and doing what is needed for the situation, not what your emotions dictate
   

   • exercise M8: Wise Mind Balancing the logical and emotional aspects of your mind to make sound decisions.

3. 6

   Nonjudgmentally Seeing things as they are, without adding labels like “good”, “bad”, “right” or “wrong”
   

   • exercise M9: Negative Judgments Recognizing negative judgments and learning to observe them without attachment.
   • exercise M10: Letting Go of Judgments Actively practicing the release of judgmental thoughts to see things as they are.

The mindfulness techniques taught in DBT play an important role in enhancing your ability to manage emotions, cope with stress, and improve relationships.

By cultivating a mindful awareness of the present moment, you learn to observe and describe your thoughts and feelings without judgment. This heightened awareness is crucial in helping you break the cycle of automatic, often negative, thought patterns that can lead to emotional distress.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Even if you do not need therapy, practicing mindfulness in your daily life can be very beneficial. Here are some of the benefits of practicing mindfulness:

• Overall Wellbeing. By practicing the habit of focusing on what is happening now, you are able to enjoy the activities you are currently partaking with, without fearing the future or worrying about the mistakes of the past. People who are not fearful or anxious are less stressed, happier, more energetic, and are more deeply connected with others.
• Getting Better Sleep. Practicing mindfulness can give you better sleep quality by reducing your stressful thoughts to help your mind relax, a state that leads to a more restful sleep.
• Lowered Blood Pressure. Mindfulness is known to reduce blood pressure by enhancing attention control and emotion regulation, encouraging a state of relaxation.
• Pain Management. Mindfulness helps with pain associated with fibromyalgia, migraine, chronic pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome, and other conditions.
• Enhanced Focus and Concentration. Individuals who practice mindfulness report improvements in concentration and the ability to focus.
• Helps with Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. Multiple studies were conclusive that mindfulness exercises do relieve stress anxiety and depression.
• Weight Control and Eating Behavior. Mindfulness helps you control weight by helping reduce binge, emotional and restrained eating.

Teaching mindfulness to children in the form of a game can be rewarding. Some examples of mindfulness activities for kids include:

• Balancing on one foot
• Lying down and focusing on each body part
• Heartbeat exercise
• STOP (stop, take a breath, observe, proceed)
• Rainbow breath exercise
• Blindfolded taste test
• How I feel today
• Mindfulness pennies game

Incorporating mindfulness into our lives can have a huge positive impact. Here are some ideas:

• Mindful breathing can be done to help calm ourselves when stressful events happen.
• During conversations, you can practice one-mindfully and focus on listening and understanding what they are saying.
• Same with work or study. Practice one-mindfully and focus on working and achieving your goal.
• You can achieve a better understanding of your diet by being mindful of what you have eaten and plan to eat throughout the day.
• Everyday, you can do a mind-body scan to see if your body and mind are still in shape.
• You can appreciate nature trips more if you incorporate mindfulness into the experience. How cool is it? Do you hear the birds? How does that fruit taste? Savor each sensory experience to enjoy it more.
• Same with art. Being mindful of the colors, textures and how the art makes you feel will help you appreciate the beauty in art more.
• Being mindful of your exercise helps you get the most of your workout. Mindfulness while exercising helps you lift more, make your workouts safer and lose more fat.
• Turn your routine activities into an impromptu mindfulness exercise by focusing on your thoughts, sensations and feelings. For example, while showering, focus on how the water feels. While sitting on the train, look out the window and focus on the sky or the landscape. Observe the people, their expressions and clothes without making up a story in your head or judging what they wear or appearance.

• Positive Psychology. “Harnessing the power of happiness, mindfulness, and inner strength”.
• Marsha Linehan. “Mindfulness: The First Skills Module Taught in DBT”.
• PubMed. “Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for generalized anxiety disorder”.
• PLOS ONE. “Mindfulness-Based Blood Pressure Reduction (MB-BP): Stage 1 single-arm clinical trial”.
• NIH National Library of Medicine. “Mindfulness meditation–based pain relief: a mechanistic account”.
• NIH National Library of Medicine. “Cognitive Effects of Mindfulness Training: Results of a Pilot Study Based on a Theory Driven Approach”.
• ScienceDirect. “Exploratory randomised controlled trial of a mindfulness-based weight loss intervention for women”
  Waterford. “51 Mindfulness Exercises for Kids in the Classroom”.