Mindfulness (MBSR) is about noticing a thought or feeling, observing it and then letting it go without judging it or taking anything away from it, so to speak.

It's most often used in distress tolerance for people who suffer from negative thinking/panic/anxiety but I believe it can also used for physical ailments to help cope with pain.

I don't think it's meant to be used in every aspect of one's life, but to tolerate the things we cannot change and enjoy the things we are often too distracted to notice.

For example, if you tend to get deep negative in thought while doing the washing up, focus your mind instead onto the task in hand. Describe everything that it is you are doing. Describe how the plate feels, the warmth of the water, the smell of the soap, the colours in the bubbles.

If you feel a negative thought creeping in, observe it (don't push it away) and then take your mind back to the plate, the water etc.

I don't think it's meant to be used on worries like "I need to pay this bill and that bill and take out the rubbish and I don't know where my keys are and what is that doing there and argh I don't know where to begin"

but is most effective on things like "I have terrible headaches and it's stopping me from going to work and I feel like I'm letting everyone down and I wish I could feel better again"

i.e. things we cannot change in the short term and must accept.

It's about training your mind to follow different pathways. The goal is to be able to achieve a completely blank mind on demand.*

*If I recall correctly

It's a bit like meditation, except I can't do meditation. But I can do mindfulness.

Mindfulness = noticing thought, observing, letting go, focussing attention back to present

Apathy = pushing thought away, trying not to think about it

CBT = having thought, put a different light on thought*

*I think

It's a coping strategy, like CBT. They're just different approaches and I don't see why MSBR would be any less credible than CBT. I think MBSR works better for me because I'm not really very visual. I don't really think in pictures but in words. So if somebody asks me to describe something I could talk and talk but if somebody asks me to visualise something I'm useless. I fail miserably at guided meditation.

Disclaimer: If any of this is nonsense, I apologise in advance.

I have never heard of CBT being described as a visual process. It has always be a word thought process in my understanding. I can not visualize since 2001. My ability to create mind pictures went from a rotatable 3D image to at best a single dimension linear picture.

To me, apathy has been recognizing an issue or thought and disregarding its value for continued thought. Sounds like MBSR. IMO

andy said, Apathy = pushing thought away, trying not to think about it.

This sounds more like denial to me. But, it is andy's opinion, not her statement of fact. Just as my impression is just that, my impression or opinion or experience.

apathy to me had been, Thought xyz comes to mind. My response is I don't care about xyz.

No, CBT isn't visual - I meant mediation is visual. I can't focus on a guided meditation and 'sounds of nature' and such are just sounds to me.

Well, perhaps the concept is the same but the difference I see is that with MBSR you have a specific thing to bring your mind back to the present - i.e. the descriptive exercises -which I think is crucial, especially in order to achieve the 'blank mind' and to 'train' your brain to process things differently.

If somebody said to me 'disregard that thought', I might, but I'd probably start thinking about it again almost immediately.

If somebody said 'disregard that thought and focus your attention on this instead', I'd be more likely to be successful in keeping the thought at bay.

I suppose it's a bit like going for a run/cycle/round of golf whenever you feel stressed, but on a cognitive scale.

I think it has a lot to do with mindset and one's willingness and openness for something to work. The way you describe apathy, Mark, (and not judging, just observing) sounds a bit negative and not helpful (even though the concept is virtually the same.)

In my case, I don't believe in homoeopathic remedies because I am very set in my science-y ways. Therefore, I am unlikely to feel a benefit from them because I am not open to them working. Not because they don't work (who am I to say?)

I like mindfulness because it is neither spiritual nor scientific, it's just a way of training the mind to think differently.

ThetaZ,

Glad to hear about your progress. I have been also doing Meditation twice a day and some yoga stretches. It sure helps my brain to settle down and achieve some sort of balance ( I have to get the help from Xanax too). So you are taking Integrated approach about your condition and found the midway. Way to go.

Andromeda has some good point about meditation. But when I meditate I don't visualize anything. Even don't resist the thoughts and with practice all the thoughts subside just like that and you can reach that state but need lots of practicing. Being in the present is the key thing. It is hard to explain in simple words and one has to experience. I do Transcendental Meditation btw.

Who ever meditating and do yoga keep doing it. It will only bring good and millions benefiting (now more and more scientific evidence) and been practiced for more than 2000 years

Cheers!

I'm SOOOOOOOO happy to see this. Remember I am still here if you ever need to talk. Keep up the progress and you are in my thoughts daily!

Just a quick note of appreciation to andi, pretdou, pcslife, andromeda, nightnurse, sospan for your posts here of genuine supportiveness, encouragement, acknowledgment and appreciation.

I've been w/o home internet all week (an 'area outage') so I've only popped online momentarily @ a friend's house to quickly check email, etc. Update & individual replies soon.

Much appreciation,
Theta

Dateline Wed., Oct. 31, 2012
Weblink to NeuroTalk Health News Headlines article How Mindfulness Meditation Works, as reviewed by DocJohn, PsyD., founder of this forum ... and much more.
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How Mindfulness Meditation Works

Home » News » Research News » How Mindfulness Meditation Works
By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 31, 2012

"Mindfulness helps individuals release negative emotions and thoughts, while encouraging more positive feelings such as compassion and forgiveness. But how does this type of meditation actually work?"

"Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have devised a new model that sheds new light on the science behind mindfulness."

"Instead of describing mindfulness as a single dimension of cognition, the researchers show that mindfulness involves a large framework of complex mechanisms in the brain that lead a person down the path of developing self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART)."

"According to the researchers, in order to achieve self awareness during meditation, one must do the following: reduce biases and negative thoughts, regulate one’s behavior, and increase positive, pro-social relationships with oneself and others ..." [Click on the link, read the full article.]

Dateline Wed., Oct. 31, 2012
Weblink to NeuroTalk Health News Headlines article How Mindfulness Meditation Works, as reviewed by DocJohn, PsyD., founder of this forum ... and much more.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How Mindfulness Meditation Works

Home » News » Research News » How Mindfulness Meditation Works
By Traci Pedersen Associate News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 31, 2012

"Mindfulness helps individuals release negative emotions and thoughts, while encouraging more positive feelings such as compassion and forgiveness. But how does this type of meditation actually work?"

"Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have devised a new model that sheds new light on the science behind mindfulness."

"Instead of describing mindfulness as a single dimension of cognition, the researchers show that mindfulness involves a large framework of complex mechanisms in the brain that lead a person down the path of developing self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART)."

"According to the researchers, in order to achieve self awareness during meditation, one must do the following: reduce biases and negative thoughts, regulate one’s behavior, and increase positive, pro-social relationships with oneself and others ..." [Click on the link, read the full article.]

Interesting article. Upon reading the research behind this article, mindfulness is presented as a spiritual based process as it requires a spiritual belief in a higher power or universal power. To many of us, this means it has a religious dimension.