I wonder how you are feeling about Christmas?
The song says, “it’s the most wonderful time of the year,” but it’s widely known that Christmas stress is real, and it can even make you sick! Instead of Christmas cheer, many people are reminded of family or friends they have lost either by death or estrangement, or reminded of financial stresses triggered by so many false expectations that our happiness depends on the latest expensive whatchamacallit.
Whatever the reasons, we need a way out of our tendency to simmer in our own disappointments and then pretend that everything is happy.
This is exactly where cultivating skills of mindfulness and meditation are a game-changer. If you are sick and tired of listening to your own stream of unwanted thoughts and negative self-talk, this is tailor-made for you.
What is mindfulness, anyway? And what’s it good for? Here’s some background, then I’ll share some practical tips.
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Measurable improvements in a person’s well-being can result from skills training in mindfulness and meditation. Why? A few of the known reasons are that these create brain neuroplasticity (how brain cells talk to each other and rewire), epigenetic changes (which genes are turned on and off, literally changing body functions), and better two-way communication between mind and body. Personal traits that we would all recognize as “goodness” are cultivated by such practices.
What practices?
Things like self-awareness, awareness of what one’s mind is doing at any given time, self-reflection, and ability to distance oneself from one’s own mental and emotional states. For us to become aware that we are not our feelings or our thoughts and that we don’t have to believe everything our minds tells us is a crucial life lesson.
Interestingly, practicing self-awareness, learning to watch our own thoughts, becomes associated with social connections that are marked by kindness, compassion, and empathy, and also a sense of purpose in life. Being aware of our own thoughts gives us an opportunity to choose our thoughts. This is the opposite of mind wandering.
At least one very large study showed that on average, Americans’ minds are wandering and not paying attention to what they’re currently doing almost half of the time. And that mind-wandering makes people less happy.
MORE: Opinion: How to Keep Your Mind Sharp
Training the mind to pay attention (mindfulness exercises) increases overall sense of well-being. Exercises in mindfulness also train the brain to recover more quickly from emotional insults and stresses. Meditation practice also improves immune function and decreases inflammation (see the work of Richard Davidson at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin). Mindfulness is a wonderful practice for creating equanimity in a chaotic world.
There are numerous good resources online and apps to help with mindfulness and meditation. Here are a few of my favorites.: Free guided meditations from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, Mindfulness Meditation podcasts from the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, free resources at the Free Mindfulness Project, and Dr. Shauna Shapiro’s popular TED talk. Even without those, anyone can learn to sit quietly and pay attention only to their breathing for a few minutes.
When the mind wanders, come back to paying attention and to breathing at least once per day for 10 minutes.
Give yourself that gift this Christmas, you may be surprised at what happens!
With that, I hope that you will find more peace on earth, and within yourself, this Christmas.
To your health,
Robert Pendergrast, MD, MPH
