![]() Online Metta meditation sites are available today as well. Meditation groups have gathered in homes, in churches, and coffee shops. Thankfully, there is a plethora of formal mindfulness opportunities. A formal mindfulness practice would be to intentionally take time out to meditate, mindful walking,(4) practice yoga, do a mindfulness body scan,(5) or even a Metta meditation.(6) Mindfulness is broken into a formal versus informal mindfulness practices. So, if I’ve caught your attention enough to continue, let’s break down mindfulness a little more. Rather than staying in a state of heightened anxiety, fear, or soaring blood pressure, mindfulness trains a person to kick in a formal or informal response to the stress. What the practice of mindfulness attempts to do is teach a person to self-activate a different response to stress. ![]() These physiological actions lead our bodies to choose between a fight, flight, or freeze response. Mayo Clinic has done some brilliant research to validate the effects stress has on the human body.(3) This research includes how stress can put you at an increase risks for many of the following health challenges: Anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, heart disease, sleep problems, weight gain, and memory and concentration impairment. The increase of cortisol can slow down your digestive system, reproductive system, as well as challenge your immune system. Cortisol will increase glucose into your blood stream but it will also slow down other bodily functions. The release of adrenalin alone will cause elevated blood pressure and heart rates.Ĭortisol reacts differently. When you perceive a situation as a threat, the hypothalamus will prompt your adrenal glands to secrete cortisol and adrenalin. Mindfulness addresses the physiological reaction your body has to stress. Interested in the science behind the practice of mindfulness? Let me share a quick synopsis. When you leave the negativity of unhealthy thought patterns out of your mind, the world can and will change. It feels so liberating and accelerating to no longer live your life on auto-pilot or tied up in frustration or judgment. While practicing mindfulness you have the opportunity to become aware of new possibilities that your previously frustrated mind may have been blocking out. You are not a judge but a scientist.”(2) Viewing every grumpy patient, every repetitive procedure, every challenge and success through the lens of a scientist could bring about a whole new perspective. As the author of “What the Buddha Taught,” Walpola Rahula states, “(Mindfulness) is simply observing, watching, examining. ![]() Let me first validate your feelings, but also ask you to stay with me on this journey. I don’t want to be tuned into another repetitive procedure that allows my mind to wander and causes my body to scream in pain.” You may now be tempted to shout at me, “What if I don’t want to be aware of my moment? I don’t want to be fully present to the grumpy patient in my dental chair. In other words, finely tuned into the moment you are a part of. Pause and consider what it would be like to be so present with your dental patient, so attuned with your procedure that you are alert yet not stressed, aware yet without judgement. I see mindfulness spilling over into every dental professional, every dental situation, every dental research lab, and every dental operatory to help us all attain our personal best. I believe the practice of mindfulness has the power and ability to affect all facets of our lives, including our dental careers. “Mindfulness is about being fully aware of whatever is happening in the present moment, without filters or the lens of judgment.”(1) It’s not the nature of mindfulness to jump out at you either. The essence of the word doesn’t scream front page headline. Ever heard of it? If you haven’t, that wouldn’t surprise me.
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