Dr. Linda Miles

The Sensation of Living in the Now

by Dr. Linda Miles

Do you frequently stress about yesterday and worry about tomorrow?

Are you afraid that you’ll run out of time or that you’re somehow missing out on life?

Have you ever stopped to register how your entire body is feeling?

When was the last time you were consciously grateful to be alive?

In their inspirational book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, writer Philip Yancy and surgeon Dr. Paul Brand explore the fascinating world of the human body and spirit, examining “the miracle of skin, the strength and structure of the bones, [and] the dynamic balance of muscles.” Dr. Brand reflects on his time spent with people suffering from leprosy, revealing how that experience altered his life by making him appreciate the function of the human skin and its ability to feel sensations. Leprosy is a condition that causes granulomas of the nerves, respiratory tract, eyes, and skin; it results in a person’s inability to feel. Apart from the skin lesions and damage due to the disease itself, lepers are typically covered with sores that are caused when they sit on something hard or when they lean on sharp objects. Wounds and infections can result in tissue loss and deformation, numbed and diseased skin, and permanent damage to the nerves, limbs, and eyes.

We often take the gift of our five senses for granted. Yet just stop a moment and imagine having no feeling in your skin to warn you of extreme heat, sharp objects, or dangerous situations. Dr. Brand imagined this frequently. Although leprosy can be treated, it is contagious via nasal droplets; the doctor often wondered if he would wake up with the numbing symptoms. It changed his outlook and made him intensely grateful for his life and for the world around him.

I have had the privilege of working with a group of terminally ill cancer patients. What floored me was their vibrancy, their joie de vivre; they took such delight in every moment because they knew that their lives would soon end. If we thought that we were going to wake up tomorrow and not be able to see, feel, smell, or hear, then we would cherish everything that our senses could drink in.

So try that. Live the day like it’s your last. Take a moment and just look around you, see what draws your attention and what pleases your eyes. Allow your attention to focus on that someone or something for 30 seconds. Of course other thoughts will enter your mind meanwhile. Notice them, acknowledge them, but don’t let them distract you from your object. You may notice a greater sense of relaxation and calm as you immerse yourself in the experience of the present moment.

If you’ve never tried this before — or if you’re looking for a different method to practice mindfulness more effectively — the “body scan” is an excellent technique to get in touch with your senses on a daily basis and monitor how you’re doing and feeling.

The Body Scan Technique

1. Sit or lie down, and take three deep breaths. Mentally count each inhalation/exhalation.

1. Focus on your body for a few moments. Notice where you feel tension, pressure, or tightness. Simply allow your attention to scan through your body, as if you’re taking an X-ray. Become aware of all the sensations.

1. Remind yourself that the intention of this practice is to focus on bodily sensations and to notice what happens. Watch without judgment. Observe the sensations of the present moment.

1. Let yourself be curious about the sensations in your body and the places where you’ve been unconsciously tense and pressured all this time. How strong are the sensations? How tight is the pressure? Is there throbbing? What parts of your body are in need of attention and healing? Remember—it is essential to be kind and objective during your self-diagnosis.

1. Re-scan your body more selectively and thoroughly. Begin with your head. Notice any pressure or tension. Drop your awareness to your neck and shoulders. Then your chest—often a place where a lot of tension brews. Next let your focus shift to your abdomen, your belly, and your back. Shift your attention down to your legs, moving further down till you reach the soles of your feet and the tips of your toes.

1. Meanwhile, stretch each muscle as you go — and, as you visualize the knots loosening, imagine that this is due to the healing energy you are sending through your body. Repeat the mantra of loving kindness mentally or out loud: May you be healed. May you be at peace. May you be filled with loving kindness.

Repeat as needed throughout the day. Cherish your body and send oxygen, intention healing, and loving compassion to all the areas that need to relax.

Remember that there is no one right way to do this. You’ll do what feels right for you. The purpose of this exercise is simply to divert your attention into your body and to observe inner sensations with curiosity, openness, and gratitude. Just remember to stay centered and focused on the feelings and sensations. You can do body scans many times throughout the day, reminding your body that you don’t need to hold onto negative thoughts or toxic emotions. You can mindfully and gently release tension and start afresh.

Pema Chodron is among those who take mindfulness one step further. She is an American-born Tibetan Buddhist, ordained nun, and author. She strongly advocates the Buddhist meditation practice called Tonglen, which is Tibetan for “sending and receiving.” This technique is about visualizing taking in suffering — one’s personal suffering and/or the suffering of others—with each inhaling breath, and giving out acknowledgment, compassion, solidarity, and aid during each exhaling breath.

This technique has been shown to cultivate mind patterns which promote an attitude of love and self-sacrifice, where you can exchange pain for love and happiness. In practice, it can increase your own peace of mind, and thereby spread more harmony and happiness to your surroundings.

“There is only one time that is important: now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.”

–Leo Tolstoy

Retrain Your Brain and Tame Stressful Emotions with Mindfulness

by Dr. Linda Miles

Do you often shout and criticize your children or partner?
Do you frequently lose control of your emotions?
Do you make rash decisions that you later regret?
According to the 2014 Stress in America Survey, conducted and published by the American Psychological Association:

72% of U.S. adults reported feeling very stressed about money;
26% of respondents reported feeling stressed about money most or all of the time;
41% of those married or living with a partner reported having lost patience or yelled at their partner due to stress in the last month;
18% reported losing their tempers with coworkers;
35% reported constant nervousness or anxiety; and
32% reported prolonged periods of depression or sadness.

How Can You Keep Your Cool?

While you may not be able to change stressful external circumstances, you can change your response.

Mindfulness is a scientifically proven approach to self-calming and increased compassion toward others, and it can help alleviate all of these struggles you might be having.

So what exactly is mindfulness and how might it help you?

Mindfulness is defined as “the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally only to the unfolding of experience moment by moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 2003).

The definition of mindfulness has several components:

1. Using self-regulation of attention either by focusing on your inner experience or outer experience in the present moment. The focus is on being present to your immediate experience, which allows an increased awareness of the now.

1. Adopting an attitude of curiosity, openness, and acceptance toward your experiences in the present moment.

1. Refraining from turning away from unpleasant experiences and instead maintaining an open and compassionate attitude and a willingness to let things be as they are.

Focusing more on conscious control of your inner state instead of unconscious reliving of past learning.

Mindfulness is a systematic approach that has been rigorously studied by science. It is not a religion and it is compatible with many different faiths. Mindfulness practices have been found to reduce stress, anxiety, and burnout. Those who practice it are able to increase their self-esteem, empathy, self acceptance and regulation of emotion, due to their ability to take conscious control of thought processes.

Mindfulness has been extensively researched and shown to help with stress management, self- compassion, pain management, and overall happiness. Though it requires practice and attention, and is therefore not for everyone, there is a formal practice called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction developed and researched by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn of the University of Massachusetts Medical School Center for Mindfulness.

Mindfulness Practice

In my work as a psychotherapist, I developed a way to help my clients practice mindfulness throughout the day: Thinking of the word NOW is a reminder to drop into the present moment and pay attention without judgment.

“N” stands for NOW, a reminder to stop, breathe, and attend to the present.

“O” stands for OPPORTUNITY, a reminder to learn the lessons of living and become better instead of bitter.

“W” stands for WITHIN, a reminder that regardless of life circumstances, you can find inner resources within yourself for healing and wholeness.

Train Your Brain

One problem with the evolution of our brains is that the “low road” part of our brain evolved for survival purposes, and has a quick startle response to anything that seems threatening. Of course, there are very few immediate threats in our current life, and so most of us overreact to things that we need not fear. We may overreact to a frown from an authority figure, backtalk from our child, or an unkind gesture from our spouse. We can benefit in all of these situations from taking what scientists call the “high road” in the brain, and not responding from a startle or fear response. This allows for more informed decision-making instead of simply reacting based upon past learning.

When you are able to be fully present and aware, you have an open mind and open heart that are better able to make creative and meaningful choices. You learn life lessons and develop flexible new behaviors that lead to realizing your full potential. When we follow the low road in our brain, our potential is limited by our past learning.

As a result of adopting a full awareness of the present reality, we discover new opportunities and focus on positive feelings connected with inner potential and strengths. In other words, we are better able to develop our best self-based on acting from love, not fear.

Change Your Brain

Mindfulness practices have been proven by neuroscience to actually change the structure and function in the brain. When we engage in a regular practice of mindfulness for at least eight weeks, there is a thickening of the high road regions of the prefrontal cortex, the area relevant to an individual’s ability to focus and engage in reflection prior to taking action. There is also a thinning of fear activation in the amygdala, the low road part of the brain, and this helps us to break the pattern of reactive fight or flight responses. Science has also found that mindfulness practice can help people defuse ill feelings or negativity by augmenting the brain’s gamma waves, which are associated with an increased ability to tolerate ambiguity and relinquish control.

When you are able to let go of the need to be right or perfect, there’s an increased integration of body, emotion, and mind. You learn to see a person with the freshness of mind and an openness of heart. Although you care about the pain and suffering of others, you’re able to remember that you cannot make choices for them or control their lives.

Jon Kabat-Zinn also describes mindfulness as an inclusion of an affectionate, compassionate quality with the sense of openhearted friendly presence and interest. For example, rather than immediately reacting from the low road if someone has made a comment that you find threatening, you stop in a curious way and ask, what do you mean? Countless arguments could be avoided on the basis of that one question. Either you misunderstood the meaning, or, if you take the high road, you become curious about what is going on and thus take a more effective response.

In summary:

- Mindfulness is a systematic and scientific approach to relaxation and stress reduction.

- Mindfulness helps take you to the higher regions of your brain such as the frontal cortex where you are able to make more informed and creative decisions.

- Mindfulness helps adapt to modern realities where most threats are actually in our minds.

The physical structure of the brain can be altered through regular practice of mindfulness, for at least eight weeks.
It is possible to train your brain to be more agile, flexible, and in a state of learning new and better ways to handle your life.

Mindful Eating During the Holidays and Always

by Dr. Linda Miles

Do you have a habit of overeating during the holidays?

Do you fill your plate, disconnect as you eat, stuff yourself, and then feel regret?

The holidays offer unique opportunities to become aware of eating habits and begin to practice mindful eating. Since food is such a huge part of the holidays, you have many chances to observe and begin to change destructive eating habits.

Over the years in my practice, I have heard from many of my clients how they zone out and eat large quantities of food without tasting or enjoying the experience. The description goes something like this: The first couple of cookies (chips, crackers, etc.) were pretty good and after that I kept eating until the bag was empty and my stomach felt bloated. What happened here?

Neuroscience is finding some answers from studying the pleasure chemical Dopamine. Scientists like Robert Sapolsky of Stanford report that the brain secretes this pleasure chemical before eating, in anticipation of a food reward. When the food reward is given less often, the dopamine levels go significantly higher. Another way of thinking about this is that just the IDEA that there may be a food reward motivates people to move toward that anticipated pleasure. The problem occurs because we often become numb and disconnected during the actual experience of eating.

Mindful Rewrites

So what is mindful eating?

Mindful eating is paying attention to the food we are eating in the present moment by using our senses. It asks us to take the time to experience smell, taste, texture. It is conscious consumption. Mindfulness- based interventions target unconscious eating patterns by increasing awareness of bodily and emotional signals. Mindfulness helps you stay awake and aware of what you are eating.

All of the pictures, associations, and expectations of a Holiday feast flood the brain with dopamine in the anticipation of pleasure. The disconnect happens because when we begin to stuff ourselves unconsciously, we do not notice the lack of pleasure. At the end of the day, disappointment creates the feeling that maybe if we try some other treat we will get the pleasure we expect. The cycle happens again: Anticipation-Dopamine-Maybe this time I will love this food-uncertainty of the rew ard-more Dopamine-eating frenzy-disconnect-disappointment-discomfort, and then the cycle begins again.

Practice

Over-eating patterns are written in the brain. The challenge is to REWRITE in a way that replaces these patterns of behavior with increased awareness of cues that trigger dopamine and anticipatory pleasure.

How do mindfulness-based interventions come into play?

- Set aside a few minutes a day to practice mindful eating — even if you can do this for one part of a holiday meal, it is a beginning. Focus your awareness on the sensations of hunger, taste, texture, fullness. Go slow and stay conscious of what you are doing.

- Notice if you actually WANT or LIKE what you are eating. It may have sounded good in anticipation and yet is not satisfying in reality,

- Begin a food journal with observations of patterns. Write about your actual experiences without judgment. Self-condemnation only leads to more loss of control.

- Take note of your thoughts and feelings. You may notice that you are disappointed by the taste of a piece of pie that looked so appealing. You may notice that you feel better when you eat something healthy.

- Tune into your body. Ask yourself what you really want. You may find that you would rather walk with your cousin than sit and eat dessert.

- Take a few sips of coffee or tea with mindful awareness.

- Ask yourself, Does my body need this? Why am I eating this? Am I hungry?

Slow down. Eating fast leads to unconscious eating and old worn-out pat terns that no longer nourish.

Mindful eating is not about deprivation. It is about finding more pleasure and joy in the present moment. As you become mindful when you zone out and overeat, you become aware that you have choices about what is most fulfilling to you.

Managing Family Stress During the Holidays

by Dr. Linda Miles

Peace, joy, and gratitude – feelings we all wish for, but ones that can be hard to come by during the holidays. In addition, when we’re bombarded with our own negative thoughts, it can seem as though we’re in a self-made prison of blame and judgments, making it feel impossible to relish the good in our lives. Fortunately, the science of mindfulness gives the whole family tools to calm down and experience the gifts of the present moment despite holiday stressors.

Mindfulness can be defined as paying attention in the present moment with awareness, curiosity, and acceptance. Simple practices help remind us to stop, breathe, and connect with ourselves and others with an attitude of compassion and loving-kindness.

According to The UCLA Mindful Awareness Center, “In the last ten years, significant research has shown mindfulness to address health issues such as lower blood pressure, increased attention and focus, reduced anxiety and depression, foster well-being, reduce emotional reactivity, and thicken the brain in areas of decision making, emotional flexibility and empathy.” The Journal for Family (2013) reported that in a study of 400 children, mindfulness training resulted in significant increases in students’ attention, self-control, classroom participation, and respect for others.

Research shows that we can take steps toward creating a positive and healthy mental space, despite the stresses of living in a demanding existence that tends to be amplified by social demands of the holidays.

So how can Mindfulness practice help your family cope with holiday stress?

By focusing on simple pleasures and practicing a mindfulness of the present moment, we can get out of our own heads and into the world around us, allowing for an increased awareness and connectivity to the blessings and positivity in our lives.

As I write this, my husband, Robert, is smiling because I am alternating between talking about mindfulness strategies and shouting at my recalcitrant computer. Mindfulness works like that… I can find peace and solace and then revert to stress reactions in a flash. Mindfulness is like training a puppy… my mind wanders away into anger and reactivity and I have to gently lead it back. So, I wish for you and your family many moments of pure blessings and peace amidst the holiday clamor and challenges.

As neuroscientist Dr. Wayne Drevets attests, “In the brain, practice makes permanent.” If you would like to try to foster peace of mind for your family, here are some suggestions:

1. Focus on your breathing. When breathing in, think “be.” When breathing out, think “calm.” Breathe in and out slowly and purposefully.

1. Spend 30 seconds (or more) allowing your attention and senses to be fully in the present. Focus on simple, tactile pleasures: the colors of nature, a fabric’s texture against your fingers, or the taste and aroma of homemade bread.

1. Label your negative thoughts. Categorize them as “judgment,” “fear,” or “reliving the past,” as they pass through your mind. Then, redirect your attention back to the here and now.

1. Understand that you may have been programmed to engage in a negative way of thinking, and recognize that you have the choice to practice turning toward positivity instead. Many of us come to realize that negativity has somehow become our “default” way of thinking, and that we had been moving through life on autopilot.

1. Repeat these phrases of Loving Kindness in your mind:
  - May I be at peace
  - May I be healed
  - May I send out loving kindness to others
  - May you be at peace
  - May you be healed
  - May you be filled with loving kindness

1. Notice when you feel moments of joy, and focus on what brought you that joy.

1. Notice when you feel jealous or resentful and ask yourself why that happened. If a negative thought finds its way through, simply notice and acknowledge that thought, then return to the moment.

1. Forgive yourself. Say, “For the ways I was jealous or resentful, may I forgive myself.”

1. Give appreciation to yourself. Appreciate when you have offered kindness and love to others.

1. Notice the many blessing around you. Consider writing down these blessings as the day ends.

1. Intend to look for joy, love, and miracles around you. If you have trouble noticing such things, ask yourself why.

1. Set “mindfulness alerts” as reminders to stop during the day and experience the moment.

1. Remember the acronym NOW as a reminder:
  - N is for Notice… Notice colors, lights, aromas, textures of the holidays and allow your attention to rest on some object for thirty seconds.
  - O is for Opportunity… See the holidays as an opportunity to develop and practice family rituals, loving kindness and awareness, and appreciation of the gifts of the present moment.
  - W is for Within… Go within yourself and work toward treating yourself as you would a friend so that you take care of yourself in the midst of holiday demands.

Treasures of the Moment: Mindfulness and Gratitude During the Holidays

by Dr. Linda Miles

As you approach the holidays, are you able to pause often and give thanks for small wonders all around you?

Or, are you so preoccupied by the pressure and stress of the holidays that you feel more like a human doing than a human being?

Do you dread being with certain dysfunctional family members over the holidays, and do you allow those feelings to overshadow your plans for celebration?

If stress, anxiety, and worry interfere with your feelings of gratitude, the holidays offer many opportunities to practice gratitude for the gifts of the present moment.

Thornton Wilder wrote, “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

Mindfulness practice can help us to be aware of our “treasures,” and prepare for the holidays while maintaining a conscious intention to practice gratitude and giving.

Mindfulness Rewrites

Instead of falling into the routine of seeing the holidays as a time of stress, seize this time of year to make positive changes in your life that will only bring you more joy throughout the season and into the new year. Consciously decide to rewrite your thoughts and train your brain so that you can enjoy and celebrate with gratitude, every day.

Robert Emmons is a an expert scientist who studies gratitude. His research is one example of a myriad of evidence showing the benefits of being fully conscious of our treasures by practicing gratitude. His work has shown that a practice of gratitude provides the following benefits:

Increased life satisfaction
Increased happiness and joy
Strengthened immune system
Improved the quality of sleep
Increased resilience in general

Gratitude is good for the whole family as well. Studies have shown that when children, preteens, and teens practice gratitude they have more positive emotions and feel more connected to others.

Practice

During the holidays, many people in my private practice experience a sense of dread about family gatherings. One young wife named Hillary described how the constant bickering of her in-laws overshadowed her gratitude and celebration during past family gatherings. We made a plan for how she could use mindfulness to focus on gratitude for the blessings around her this season. She made a habit of writing the word “NOW” as a reminder to shift her focus away from bickering and back toward the treasures of the present moment. Here’s how we consciously attributed meaning to each letter of the word:

- “N” stands for NOTICE.
  Hillary set an intention to notice sights, smells, and textures all around her that she was grateful for. She noticed the sight of fall flowers, the smell of cinnamon, the texture of her child’s hand in hers.

- “O” stands for OPPORTUNITY.
  Hillary set an intention to look for opportunities for gratitude. She deliberately planned to repeat to herself often, I thank God for joy and love and miracles..

“W” stands for WITHIN.
Hillary realized that she was allowing her in-laws’ behavior to overrule her inner peace, so we decided she would take time for walks, pay attention to her breathing, and attend to her inner well-being. She practiced dropping within herself to focus on breathing and thinking the word “be” on the in breath and “calm” on the out breath to help her remain centered.

So how can you increase your focus on gratitude during this holiday season?

- Avoid being judgmental toward yourself and others. We all have our struggles, but begin to train your brain to notice the struggles and move back towards gratitude.

- Ask your children to tell you three good things that happened during the day, or start a ritual with your spouse before you go to bed, of telling each other at least one thing that you appreciated about them during the day.

- Imagine your life without your partner as a way to focus on the blessings of their presence.

Keep a gratitude journal. The holidays are a great time to begin a journal. There is a user-friendly outline for a gratitude journal online at Thnx4.org

Mindfulness and gratitude are a practice, and they take some work, so expect setbacks. When caught up in the stress and demands of the holidays, you’ll find yourself needing to consciously bring your mind back to gratitude. Use the setbacks as opportunities to notice the ways that you wear yourself down with negativity and instead remind yourself of the positive.

Retrain Your Brain and Tame Stressful Emotions with Mindfulness

by Dr. Linda Miles

72% of U.S. adults reported feeling very stressed about money;
26% of respondents reported feeling stressed about money most or all of the time;
41% of those married or living with a partner reported having lost patience or yelled at their partner due to stress in the last month;
18% reported losing their tempers with coworkers;
35% reported constant nervousness or anxiety; and
32% reported prolonged periods of depression or sadness.

How Can You Keep Your Cool?

While you may not be able to change stressful external circumstances, you can change your response.

Mindfulness is a scientifically proven approach to self-calming and increased compassion toward others, and it can help alleviate all of these struggles you might be having.

So what exactly is mindfulness and how might it help you?

The definition of mindfulness has several components:

1. Using self-regulation of attention either by focusing on your inner experience or outer experience in the present moment. The focus is on being present to your immediate experience, which allows an increased awareness of the now.

1. Adopting an attitude of curiosity, openness, and acceptance toward your experiences in the present moment.

1. Refraining from turning away from unpleasant experiences and instead maintaining an open and compassionate attitude and a willingness to let things be as they are.

Focusing more on conscious control of your inner state instead of unconscious reliving of past learning.

Mindfulness Practice

“N” stands for NOW, a reminder to stop, breathe, and attend to the present.

“O” stands for OPPORTUNITY, a reminder to learn the lessons of living and become better instead of bitter.

“W” stands for WITHIN, a reminder that regardless of life circumstances, you can find inner resources within yourself for healing and wholeness.

Train Your Brain

Change Your Brain

In summary:

- Mindfulness is a systematic and scientific approach to relaxation and stress reduction.

- Mindfulness helps take you to the higher regions of your brain such as the frontal cortex where you are able to make more informed and creative decisions.

- Mindfulness helps adapt to modern realities where most threats are actually in our minds.

The physical structure of the brain can be altered through regular practice of mindfulness, for at least eight weeks.
It is possible to train your brain to be more agile, flexible, and in a state of learning new and better ways to handle your life.

How Mindfulness Helped Me Through a Health Crisis

by Dr. Linda Miles

How Mindfulness Helped Me Through Serious Illness

Even though I’d been practicing mindfulness for many years prior to my illness, its power became especially clear to me 15 years ago, when I was struck with a virulent strain of pneumonia. As I waited for yet another daily chest x-ray during my seventh day in the hospital, I knew I was dying. My husband is a doctor, and although he couldn’t bring himself to tell me the prognosis, I could read the signs. I felt my consciousness fading as my body began shutting down. I also overheard a conversation among the medical professionals working on me about my kidney failure, lack of oxygen, and the alarming blood work results they had just received.

Although my body was crashing, I felt a sense of inner peace and gratitude for my life. Fortunately, I was only 51 years old and had maintained good health prior to this point. It was a long struggle, but I eventually recovered. Despite the medical crisis, I maintained a mental state of inner peace and calmness during most of my illness. Using a practice of mindfulness, I was able to accept the seriousness of my illness while finding the strength to overcome it.

My practice of mindfulness prepared me to accept what was real in the present moment and refrain from comparing myself to those who were healthy and productive. I learned that when I compared myself to people who I had set up as the “ideal,” I rejected myself. I believe that my practice helped save my life because I avoided situational anxiety and instead was able to concentrate on healing. While I was able to accept my state with calmness, do not confuse acceptance with giving up. It is often the opposite. My acceptance of my infirmity saved my energy so I could meet my situation head-on. As John Kabat-Zinn writes, “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn to surf.”

During my illness, I could have watched my condition deteriorate. I could have told myself powerful stories about impending death or attacked myself for my weakness. However, I didn’t dwell on the worst possible outcome because I knew from mindfulness training that these worst-case scenarios were merely movies in my mind. These negative movies were damaging and would only increase my anxiety, which would lead to elevated blood pressure, rapid breathing, and secretion of the chemicals adrenaline and cortisol that would put my body into a state of alert. I was already on oxygen and needed several visits a day from a respiratory therapist just to survive, so more rapid respiration and stress would have only further harmed me.

As my body was fighting for survival, I chose to focus my energy on healing using positive and loving thoughts. I deliberately asked about the lives of my caretakers and worked at connecting with others in a conscious way. I thought about my family and friends with appreciation and loving-kindness, and these thoughts triggered the secretion of dopamine and oxytocin, which are both calming and healing chemicals. I was not thinking clearly enough to question WHY I was connecting and focusing on thoughts of loving-kindness —- the thoughts and behaviors were simply an automatic response to threat based on my years of practice of mindfulness. Although my established daily practice of mindfulness had previously been under far less dire circumstances, it prepared well me for my health crisis.

Using mindfulness daily in my work and personal life had a cumulative effect. As Dr. Wayne Drevets, a neuroscientist, writes, “In the brain, practice makes permanent.” So, in addition to the benefits mindfulness produces in the here-and-now, it will also equip you to overcome bigger challenges you might face in the future.