‘Mindfulness’ – the new buzz word  rivalling ‘sustainable’ for its sudden popularity. But what does it actually mean and where has it sprung from?

Jon Kabat-Zinn is probably the person most responsible for bringing this age-old word, and the way of being suggested by it, into our ordinary language. Being both a scientist and a meditator, he was uniquely positioned to draw these seemingly separate worlds together in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program which he founded in the University of Massachusetts Medical Centre in 1979.

Aimed at the many people with chronic medical conditions who had reached the end of what the medical experts could offer, Kabat-Zinn believed that learning how to reduce our stress levels and to take an active role in our own healing had the potential to greatly enhance our prospects of recovery. And this hunch has been borne out by the many scientific studies conducted from the outset, with the result that the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction course has been replicated and developed in hundreds of settings through-out the world.

So what is mindfulness and how might it actually help reduce stress and anxiety, chronic pain and depression; increase immune function and empower people with chronic medical conditions to live fuller and more active lives?

Kabat-Zinn defines it as “paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement”. In other words, just being present to our experience of the moment no matter what is going on, whether we find it pleasant, difficult or merely neutral.

This capacity to simply be present is something we all innately have, but how many of us actually live like this?

Most of us feel so pressured by the demands of life that we rush from one task to another, more or less on automatic pilot. Or, when we are not working, we try to fill our time to the brim with pleasurable activities without actually slowing down enough to be able to savour any of them. And, if we experience pain, whether of physical or emotional origin, we definitely don’t want to hang around long enough to know what it feels like!

It is, often, only when we come across circumstances which we cannot change by external means, such as chronic pain unrelieved by pain killers or we feel so stressed that life feels out of control that we question whether there is another way of relating to our experience other than running from the painful and chasing after the pleasant. In mindfulness, we learn to open to whatever is going on with an attitude of curiosity and gentleness.

For example, our normal reaction to having a pain in the back is to tense and brace against it, almost as if we think that if we distance ourselves from it enough, we won’t have to feel it! Instead, what we have done is to add a second layer of pain to the original one.

Bringing an attitude of mindfulness, by contrast, means that we become curious about what the sensation of pain actually feels like, opening to its various qualities one moment at a time to the degree that we are comfortable with, in a gentle and kind way. What had previously been thought of as a solid block of pain may be experienced, at close range, as a series of changing sensations, accompanied by particular emotions and thoughts. Opening to the sensations in this way can sometimes lead to the pain diminishing but, whether it does or not, we find that our relationship to the pain has changed and we have also avoided adding a further layer of pain to the original one. One participant on a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course in Galway, called Susan, who is living with chronic nerve pain, described mindfulness as having given her a sense of control over her life, allowing her to live her life in a way which is not dominated by the constant pain.

And this attitude of exploration can be equally helpful when it comes to coping with anxiety, sadness, anger or any emotion which we find distressing. Supposing we have just had an upsetting experience, such as a row with the boss, and we are feeling anxious and fearful. Oftentimes, our minds immediately jump in to paint the worst possible scenario: ’My job is on the line; How will I pay the mortgage?’ until we have whipped ourselves up into a state of panic or collapsed into depression, depending on our tendencies.

Mindfulness interrupts this process. By bringing attention to how we experience the feelings in our bodies – maybe a fluttering or tightening in the stomach, a sense of shakiness or a racing mind – we ground our attention in the reality of the moment, thus preventing the escalation of anxious or depressive feelings. Just giving space to our feelings in this way allows them to pass quite naturally and allows us to regain a truer perspective on the situation.

And its not all about coping with difficulties – living mindfully also enhances our sense of pleasure in the little experiences that come our way on a daily basis if we are open to noticing them.

So, mindfulness is as simple as that – being present to our experience in an embodied way- and, yet, it has the potential to transform our lives in the most profound way.

Finola Ó Siochrú offers Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction courses in Galway City. The next one begins on 3 February 2010, and again on 5 May and 29 September. For more information, contact Finola on  finolaos@eircom.net 087 2279071.