Technical mindfulness resources and strategies
The English word is the translation of the word sati, the Pali language. In Portuguese, we also use the terms?Full attention?Or “mindfulness. ” The word sati means “consciousness, attention and remembrance”. Its origin comes from a meditation technique belonging to Vipassana meditation. Today we will talk about the main technical resources of mindfulness.
- Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn pioneered the application of mindfulness in the West regarding clinical importance.
- He defines it as “the consciousness resulting from the action of intentionally paying attention to the present moment.
- Without judging the experiences that are taking place at all times”.
Therefore, the essential element is the radical acceptance of the present experience without judging it, it means being willing to experiment and live with feelings, mental events and circumstances, whether negative or positive.
As for negative sensations, the idea is to expose yourself without taking any direct action on the experience, such as taking medication, being distracted or trying to perform some kind of control or avoidance.
It is an idea closely related to Buddhist detachment, which teaches the patient to be disconnected and oblivious to their experiences, thoughts and emotions. A widely used phrase is “I am not my thoughts, I am more than that. “
Some of the fundamental elements of the attitude necessary for the practice of mindfulness are: not judging, being patient, the beginner’s mind?Without letting past experiences influence us, trust us, make no effort, accept and see things as they are. .
Bishop (2002) proposed a very detailed model that includes the following components of mindfulness: self-regulation of attention and orientation to the experiences of the present moment, characterized by curiosity, openness and acceptance.
This resource refers to the maintenance of attention in the immediate experience, without seeking its control, thus allowing greater recognition of mental events in the present moment.
To do this, the patient must acquire other skills, such as sustained care or the ability to maintain care for a continuous period of time.
Another skill is attention change, which leads us to focus our attention on breathing by recognizing thoughts, feelings or sensations.
Finally, we also emphasize the importance of not developing thoughts, feelings and sensations, that is, not getting involved, but observing them and redirecting attention.
This feature involves the concept of ‘beginner mind‘, that is, learning to use attention in such a way that it focuses on direct and purified observation of the various objects around us, as if it were the first time we saw them.
Instead of looking at the object through the distorted filter of our experiences, beliefs or expectations, we focus on removing all that luggage.
The secret of this resource is to maintain an attitude of curiosity, opening your mind to the identification of each of the thoughts, feelings and sensations that are presented.
The person should be willing to allow himself to think, feel and experiment, without using avoidance strategies.
It is therefore a question of addressing the experience with an attitude of curiosity, regardless of its emotional burden, that is, learning to achieve a radical acceptance of the experience.
Other technical resources of mindfulness, in addition to those we have just explained, are attention oriented to the present, radical acceptance without judgment and the free choice of actively engaging in something (breathing, activity, etc. ).
Mindfulness’s technical resources help strengthen the ability to maintain a stable concentration of attention, contrasting with the automatism that generally defines negative automatic thoughts, which arise in the mind inadvertently.
We have seen that mindfulness, being a practice that breaks with automation, helps decrease physiological activation levels and somatic symptoms.
There would be an activation of the parasympathetic nervous system that would help the person relax, even more so than with traditional relaxation.
In addition, some neuroscience research may state that the practice of mindfulness alters brain activity, including perceptual processes, superior cognitive processes and emotional regulation processes (Cahn and Polich, 2006).
Finally, another great benefit of mindfulness is improving physical and emotional health. Evidence suggests that mindfulness is associated with greater behavioral flexibility and has a positive impact on health.