Benefits of the Mindfulness Solution

Mindfulness is loosely translated as a way of paying attention: paying attention to what you are doing while you are doing it, in the present moment, with a non-judgmental attitude. 

Mindfulness is also called pleine conscience in French, atención plena in Spanish, and consapevolezza in Italian which roughly translate into full attention or full consciousness. 

Mindfulness includes simple behavioral modifications as well as contemplative practices which will help to develop the parts of the brain needed for increased focus, emotional control, and empathy. It helps maintain a restful awareness and a resilient mind and body. In the workplace, mindfulness practices cultivate increased engagement, self-awareness, better communication skills, and more creative problem-solving.

The Benefits are Undeniable

Thanks to the advances in neuroscience and the rise of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), numerous studies over the last 15 years have shown the physical changes in the traits of the brain that are the results of the regular practice of mindfulness.

World-renowned Harvard University researcher, Sara Lazar was part of a team who, in 2006, studied the brains of meditators. They found that those who practiced meditation have younger brains, and, specific areas of the brain related to focus, memory, and stress resiliency, were thicker and healthier.

Another study from Sara Lazar published in 2010, showed that people with no previous meditation experience, who practiced 40 minutes a day for 8 weeks, had noticeable changes in gray matter in critical areas of the brain involved in memory, emotion regulation, perspective taking and interoception.

Another neuroscientist, Richard Davidson, Ph.D., who has done extensive research on the effect of meditation shares some of his findings with Dan Goleman (author of Emotional Intelligence) in their recent co-authored book, Altered Traits. They looked at the hundreds of studies done in the last two decades and provide an unbiased view of what the research tells us.

“Heavy multitaskers, the Stanford group discovered, are more easily distracted in general. And when multitaskers do try to focus on that one thing they have to get done, their brains activate many more areas than just those relevant to the task at hand— a neural indicator of distraction… Just three 10-minute sessions of breath counting were enough to appreciably increase their attention skills on a battery of tests. And the biggest gains were among the heavy multitaskers, who did more poorly on those tests initially.

On the benefits of mindfulness practice: “Beginners also find improvements in attention very early on, including less mind-wandering after just eight minutes of mindfulness practice— a short-lived benefit, to be sure. But even as little as two weeks of practice is sufficient to produce less mind-wandering and better focus and working memory…Still, all such effects are unlikely to persist without sustained practice. Even so, these benefits strike us as surprisingly strong for beginners. Take-home: practicing meditation can pay off quickly in some ways, even if you have just started.” 

So to recap, the benefits of mindfulness include:

Increased ability to focus.

Being able to stay on task and ward off unwanted distractions – both external and internal – is important for two reasons. First, as mentioned previously, a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The more able you are to focus on a task, the happier you will be.  Focus is the essence of being in the flow.

Second, for knowledge workers, the cost of switching tasks is enormous. When you are working on a problem such as trouble-shooting a spreadsheet or creating a new presentation, switching off for just two minutes will cost you 20 to 30 minutes – the time it takes to get your mind focused back on task.  For workers in the farming, manufacturing, construction, or health industries, an increase in focus goes hand and hand with safety.  A moment of distraction can cost someone’s life.

Staying calm under stress. 

Maintaining a level head in the short term when encountering unexpected problems, and in the long term by keeping a positive attitude and being able to see abundance where others see scarcity, are a result of the practices of mindfulness which help to develop the part of your brain which helps you see clearly and mitigates your reaction to stressful events

Mindfulness practice mitigates your fight/flight response. Under normal circumstances, any setback such as a new deadline or a change in plans may trigger a fight/flight response. At any sign of threat, real or imagined, the amygdala (the activator of the fight-flight response) takes over and directs your brain and body to pump adrenaline and cortisol into your blood, shutting down access to the executive functioning of the brain (the prefrontal cortex). Evolutionarily, this is a good reaction when you are chased by a tiger, but not so helpful when responding to your boss telling you there is a change of plan.  While in fight/flight mode, your IQ lowers down by a few points, and this combined with adrenaline in your blood, can result in reactionary behavior that can affect your reputation.

When you are able to manage stress, you also have the ability to reframe the way you look at things. If you keep replaying a scenario or conversation in your head, or welcome worrying thoughts, you can over-activate the fight or flight response. This can create more stress and drive you to distraction.

With focused attention training and other mindfulness techniques, you become aware of the thoughts that do not serve you and replace them with those that are more helpful, keeping your mood and your spirit up.

Better memory and efficiency.

Adopting a regular mindfulness practice can strengthen and create more density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for short term memory and learning new things.

Have you ever been introduced to someone and forgotten their name almost instantly? Have you walked into a room and not remembered what you came in for? How about opening your mouth but forgetting what you were going to say?

This lapse in memory is a result of the brain being overstimulated by the stress hormone cortisol, which attacks the hippocampus. This part of the brain is like a cache with memory, but with age, it loses its density. Luckily, with the practices of mindfulness, you can reverse the trend, as mindfulness adds to the density. This is essential in the current climate where you may need to learn new skills while maintaining a clear mind.

Between the chat rooms, emails, social media, and being “on” 24/7 thanks to our phones, there is no respite from the bombardment of information. Focused-attention mindfulness meditation can help you learn to keep distractions at bay and focus on one thing at a time.

One of the most alarming problems for knowledge workers is multitasking.  Multitasking is not possible for tasks that require focused thinking – as switching rapidly from one task to the other takes a toll on short-term memory. It has been observed that those who habitually multitask have more difficulties remembering people’s names, a new phone number, or an address. Mindfulness practices not only increase your brain’s capacity to remember, but they also cultivate monotasking and the ability to stay on task.

Increased self-awareness. 

is an awareness of one’s emotions, one’s feelings, and moods as well as being aware of one’s thoughts and one’s body.  With self-awareness, you know how you are feeling and how it affects your behavior.  You know where your thoughts are and how they affect your mood.  Finally, you get a better sense of where your body is and the sensations coming from your body such as being too hot or too cold, being hungry or thirsty, and many other sensations that can affect our moods and how we behave.

Self-awareness is the sine qua non of mindfulness.  Without self-awareness, there is no possibility of controlling one’s emotions or behaviors.  One part of the brain that is affected by the body scan meditation is the insula.  The insula is the part of the brain that contains a map of the visceral body and helps us recognize changes in body chemistry.  The insula helps us with one’s awareness of body sensations such as hunger or being cold and can help us become aware of our emotions such as fear or anger.

Self-Awareness is also knowing one’s strengths and one’s limitations.  It helps make the right decisions.  It plays a significant role in taking on the right challenges to keep oneself growing while not getting overwhelmed.  Focused attention practices such as the mindful body scan increase self-awareness.

Enhanced innovation and creativity.

By adopting mindfulness practices, you can change the way you approach challenges and problems, by increasing your ability to creatively think. When you are stressed out, your creativity goes on hold. Luckily, research suggests that people who practice mindfulness have more cognitive flexibility and are better at innovation and solving problems requiring insight.

Rob Walker, the author of a Newsweek article, The Art of Noticing: How Entrepreneurs Can Crack the Innovation Code, writes “The connection between mindfulness and the determined focus that success requires has never been more popular. And research has shown how curiosity benefits decision-making and creativity.”

Mindfulness facilitates what creativity experts refer to as the incubation and insight stages within the creative process. With mindfulness, the action-oriented left brain gets a reprieve as the intuitive and imaginative right brain is accessed more readily. This is helpful when you need to come up with creative and inspiring solutions.