WEBVTT NOTE This file was generated by Descript 00:00:02.478 --> 00:00:03.618 Presenter: Hello everyone. 00:00:03.888 --> 00:00:07.368 Thank you for joining us for mindfulness and meditation 101. 00:00:07.628 --> 00:00:10.808 Countless studies have proven the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. 00:00:10.808 --> 00:00:14.138 These practices can help lower stress, improve your sleep, manage 00:00:14.138 --> 00:00:17.138 feelings of anxiety and depression, and increase your overall health. 00:00:17.648 --> 00:00:20.798 Today we're gonna be talking about the basics of mindfulness and meditation, 00:00:20.798 --> 00:00:23.888 as well as provide some practical tips and tricks on the practice. 00:00:24.338 --> 00:00:27.788 I'm pleased to introduce today's speaker, Jovanna Pena, a clinician here at 00:00:27.788 --> 00:00:29.648 Jefferson Center with our wellness team. 00:00:30.278 --> 00:00:34.208 Before I hand over the mic to Jovanna, I have a few housekeeping items 00:00:34.208 --> 00:00:35.798 to cover about this presentation. 00:00:36.158 --> 00:00:39.818 First, I wanna thank our webinar sponsor, the Rotary Club of Golden. 00:00:40.088 --> 00:00:42.488 Thank you for your commitment to mental health in the community. 00:00:42.968 --> 00:00:46.448 Next, this webinar will be available on demand after the live session, and 00:00:46.448 --> 00:00:49.838 we'll email that out to you along with additional resources and the slide deck. 00:00:50.633 --> 00:00:54.703 I would also encourage you to visit our website at jcmh.org where you'll 00:00:54.703 --> 00:00:57.763 find out more information about how you could get started if you're 00:00:57.763 --> 00:00:59.563 interested in talking with a therapist. 00:00:59.863 --> 00:01:02.443 As well as blog posts and information about upcoming webinars 00:01:02.443 --> 00:01:03.823 on other mental health topics. 00:01:04.453 --> 00:01:07.003 Please keep your microphones muted and turn off your video 00:01:07.003 --> 00:01:08.233 during the presentation. 00:01:08.533 --> 00:01:11.083 You'll also wanna change your zoom view to speaker mode for 00:01:11.083 --> 00:01:12.433 the best viewing experience. 00:01:13.063 --> 00:01:16.243 Next, we'd love to hear from you during today's presentation. 00:01:16.303 --> 00:01:19.273 If you have a question for our speaker, please feel free to send it through 00:01:19.273 --> 00:01:20.833 the chat at the bottom of your player. 00:01:21.193 --> 00:01:23.173 We'll be answering questions at the end of the session. 00:01:23.233 --> 00:01:25.633 If we don't get to your question during today's webinar, we'll 00:01:25.633 --> 00:01:27.103 be sure to follow up afterward. 00:01:27.553 --> 00:01:30.793 And last, we'd like to encourage you to follow us on our social networks and 00:01:30.793 --> 00:01:34.031 share the recording of this webinar and other information with Jefferson Center. 00:01:34.691 --> 00:01:37.631 So without further ado, Jovanna, I'll turn it over to you. 00:01:38.921 --> 00:01:39.431 Jovahna Pena: All right. 00:01:39.461 --> 00:01:40.601 Thank you so much. 00:01:41.291 --> 00:01:45.621 So let's go ahead and get started here on our presentation today. 00:01:45.621 --> 00:01:46.431 Here we go. 00:01:46.431 --> 00:01:50.450 We have some images that are associated with this topic of 00:01:50.450 --> 00:01:51.965 mindfulness and meditation. 00:01:52.705 --> 00:01:54.002 It's a hot topic. 00:01:54.152 --> 00:01:58.052 There's some numbers there that point to about 30 million Americans have either 00:01:58.052 --> 00:02:00.572 tried it or they practice it regularly. 00:02:01.242 --> 00:02:06.872 In the last couple of years it's been on the cover story of Time Magazine 00:02:07.302 --> 00:02:12.392 and Scientific America and there's also been 60 minute specials on it. 00:02:13.245 --> 00:02:16.230 Public figures such as Oprah, NFL players. 00:02:16.680 --> 00:02:21.200 They are doing it, talking about it, influencing it a great deal. 00:02:21.330 --> 00:02:24.434 It's becoming more widely spread in practice. 00:02:25.154 --> 00:02:29.317 I also wanna mention it's being integrated into schools, prisons. 00:02:29.317 --> 00:02:33.217 There's a lot of prison programs where meditation teachers actually come in. 00:02:33.817 --> 00:02:35.347 Also mental health. 00:02:35.347 --> 00:02:38.567 That's a big one here where it applies to Jefferson Center and 00:02:38.567 --> 00:02:42.311 some of the services we do offer, which I'll talk about at the end. 00:02:43.201 --> 00:02:47.213 That is a definite insertion there with the realm of mental health. 00:02:48.383 --> 00:02:50.993 So what is it? 00:02:51.873 --> 00:02:57.447 Mindfulness is a means of paying attention in a particular way on purpose in the 00:02:57.447 --> 00:03:00.297 present moment and non-judgmentally. 00:03:00.787 --> 00:03:06.857 This is a pretty basic definition from John Kabat-Zinn, who is the founder 00:03:06.857 --> 00:03:09.107 of mindfulness based stress reduction. 00:03:09.477 --> 00:03:11.151 Also known as MBSR. 00:03:12.031 --> 00:03:16.984 A person who did a lot of studies about the benefits of mindfulness. 00:03:17.704 --> 00:03:19.947 We have those key components there. 00:03:20.787 --> 00:03:22.599 Really present moment focus. 00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:28.029 There's an intentionality with that word on purpose and the concept 00:03:28.029 --> 00:03:30.313 of non-judgmental awareness. 00:03:30.873 --> 00:03:34.380 Moving beyond kind of the dualistic thinking system that's really in 00:03:34.380 --> 00:03:36.387 place of right, wrong, good, bad. 00:03:36.837 --> 00:03:40.602 There's this sense of just being with what is. 00:03:41.212 --> 00:03:43.612 We're gonna talk a little bit more upon that, but there's a 00:03:43.732 --> 00:03:45.952 very basic definition for you. 00:03:46.652 --> 00:03:52.252 Practice cultivates three core skills to encapsulate and focus upon 00:03:52.302 --> 00:03:55.292 these skills that it emphasizes. 00:03:55.712 --> 00:03:57.992 The first one we have is concentration. 00:03:58.122 --> 00:04:02.112 This is more or less the ability to focus and stabilize one's attention. 00:04:03.052 --> 00:04:06.452 Oftentimes it will be something like the breath. 00:04:06.582 --> 00:04:10.332 That's a very common one is focusing on tracking the breath. 00:04:11.112 --> 00:04:14.172 Another one might be bodily sensations. 00:04:14.222 --> 00:04:21.202 Noticing what's going on as you focus internally tracking internal sensations. 00:04:23.442 --> 00:04:27.822 Then we've got the second core skill of sensory clarity. 00:04:27.822 --> 00:04:31.362 This is the ability to keep track of the components of sensory 00:04:31.362 --> 00:04:35.592 experience as they arise in various combinations moment by moment. 00:04:36.102 --> 00:04:40.292 What I was just talking about with tracking sensation as one form. 00:04:40.602 --> 00:04:45.212 Really that emphasis on moment to moment, noticing what's happening, 00:04:45.572 --> 00:04:47.972 tracking it through sensation. 00:04:49.067 --> 00:04:53.457 Equanimity, the ability to be with the experience with an attitude 00:04:53.457 --> 00:04:55.737 of gentle matter of factness. 00:04:55.787 --> 00:04:59.637 This kind of goes back into that sense of cultivating a 00:04:59.637 --> 00:05:01.857 non-judgmental sense of awareness. 00:05:03.377 --> 00:05:09.277 Again being with whatever the experience is, even if it means that there might be 00:05:09.527 --> 00:05:14.117 pain associated, physical pain, chronic pain specifically, something like that. 00:05:14.117 --> 00:05:18.207 It's actually the idea is to be with the experience. 00:05:18.237 --> 00:05:22.762 It seems counterintuitive as if you experience pain in some way it's almost 00:05:22.762 --> 00:05:28.722 like an automatic reaction to not want to experience the pain to actually rather go 00:05:28.752 --> 00:05:30.912 out of the experience, out of the pain. 00:05:30.942 --> 00:05:36.762 This would actually emphasize going into the experience, feeling the 00:05:36.762 --> 00:05:41.652 sensations and a lot of research is really being shown, especially in the 00:05:41.652 --> 00:05:45.872 realm of things like chronic pain, that this is the way into managing 00:05:45.872 --> 00:05:48.032 chronic pain, really moving through it. 00:05:48.252 --> 00:05:52.282 That sense of being with is a big one as a core skill. 00:05:52.312 --> 00:05:53.092 That third one. 00:05:54.082 --> 00:05:57.142 So let's go ahead and look on here. 00:05:57.842 --> 00:06:01.025 Here are some of the mindfulness training techniques. 00:06:01.685 --> 00:06:03.516 There's a lot of techniques. 00:06:04.136 --> 00:06:09.300 There's a lot of different kinds of lineages, teachers, and when we 00:06:09.300 --> 00:06:14.160 talk about mindfulness, it's coming from the meditative traditions. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:17.160 So they are quite vast. 00:06:17.710 --> 00:06:20.848 Underneath that I have their restrictive or open intention. 00:06:20.848 --> 00:06:24.938 This means more or less depending on are you a beginner? 00:06:24.938 --> 00:06:27.112 Are you an intermediate practitioner? 00:06:27.862 --> 00:06:32.817 You can start restrictive and then move into more of open attention. 00:06:33.627 --> 00:06:38.022 There you'll see the beginning practices often have more of a restrictive focus. 00:06:38.022 --> 00:06:42.932 So meaning something like tracking the breath through meditation. 00:06:42.932 --> 00:06:47.516 It is actually feeling the sensations of breath come through your nose. 00:06:48.276 --> 00:06:49.325 That would be a focus. 00:06:50.330 --> 00:06:54.460 Another one, an option would be feeling the breath rising and falling of your 00:06:54.460 --> 00:06:57.700 chest or your abdomen as you breathe. 00:06:57.700 --> 00:07:05.450 This emphasizes that development of those core skills of concentration, the clarity 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:07.845 and equanimity that we just spoke about. 00:07:09.630 --> 00:07:14.510 When you get to more intermediate advanced practices then there becomes that 00:07:14.510 --> 00:07:17.360 open attention, open awareness option. 00:07:17.410 --> 00:07:21.475 Increasing amount of sensory experience such as choiceless awareness. 00:07:21.820 --> 00:07:26.840 What that might look like is say you cultivate this concentrative practice 00:07:26.840 --> 00:07:28.340 where you're focusing on the breath. 00:07:28.760 --> 00:07:33.860 Then you might expand into a practice where you're just sitting 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:38.480 and you're becoming aware of body sensations, tracking moment by 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:40.640 moment what arises and thought. 00:07:41.340 --> 00:07:46.205 That is a little bit more of that open awareness practice that's also 00:07:46.235 --> 00:07:48.185 a technique to mindfulness training. 00:07:49.095 --> 00:07:51.705 Then again, formal and informal practices. 00:07:51.705 --> 00:07:55.925 Formal would be more of these breath work practices. 00:07:55.975 --> 00:08:00.015 Perhaps there's a certain lineage or tradition that teaches a certain way. 00:08:00.315 --> 00:08:02.085 There's also informal practices. 00:08:02.085 --> 00:08:06.535 Mindfulness can look like something like for example, you're driving in 00:08:06.535 --> 00:08:12.780 your car, you're in your car, and you're just focusing on driving and 00:08:12.780 --> 00:08:18.300 being as mindful, attentive, meaning that you are paying attention in the 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:22.580 moment and you don't have the radio on, you're tracking and noticing. 00:08:22.770 --> 00:08:25.860 If you're having different thoughts, it can look a lot of different ways. 00:08:25.860 --> 00:08:27.570 It can be very informal as well. 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:32.935 I also want to say too that mindfulness and meditations in many of the world's 00:08:32.935 --> 00:08:36.855 traditions beyond Buddhist, a lot of times there's this notion it comes 00:08:36.855 --> 00:08:40.665 from Buddhism, but also I wanna mention too, you find it in Christianity, 00:08:40.665 --> 00:08:44.655 Judaism, a lot of different world religions and spiritual traditions. 00:08:46.765 --> 00:08:48.690 I got a nice little visual there. 00:08:48.690 --> 00:08:54.290 Mindful, so he has the image of the person walking their dog and thinking 00:08:54.290 --> 00:08:56.580 about all these different things. 00:08:56.580 --> 00:08:59.445 The mind is literally full of thought. 00:08:59.515 --> 00:09:04.195 Things going into the future, maybe thinking about the past, but often not 00:09:04.195 --> 00:09:05.785 a lot of times in the present moment. 00:09:05.785 --> 00:09:09.103 We have a that little image of the dog who's just looking at the trees 00:09:09.103 --> 00:09:11.773 and the sun and being in the moment. 00:09:12.341 --> 00:09:13.061 All right. 00:09:13.061 --> 00:09:15.101 So where does it come from? 00:09:15.151 --> 00:09:20.141 In the 19th century, mindfulness was used to translate the Pali word Sati. 00:09:20.711 --> 00:09:25.981 We do find some of the lineages, certainly coming from Buddhism 00:09:25.981 --> 00:09:27.271 found in Southeast Asia. 00:09:28.181 --> 00:09:31.481 Here the primary practice of Theravada Buddhism, which 00:09:31.481 --> 00:09:33.251 is establishing mindfulness. 00:09:33.891 --> 00:09:38.271 This is said to lead to insight into the true nature of self and reality. 00:09:38.331 --> 00:09:39.921 There's a sense of impermanence. 00:09:39.921 --> 00:09:44.555 Suffering of conditional existence and non-self definitely becomes very 00:09:44.555 --> 00:09:46.635 expansive as practice mindfulness. 00:09:47.365 --> 00:09:49.955 It could lead into some more of this lineages or knowledge 00:09:49.955 --> 00:09:51.385 that certainly come before it. 00:09:52.394 --> 00:09:54.164 So how did it get to the West? 00:09:54.164 --> 00:09:55.844 Like how did it get here? 00:09:56.204 --> 00:10:02.399 We have three images of teachers from the west who went to Southeast Asia in 00:10:02.404 --> 00:10:06.704 the sixties and seventies and brought back these practices and began to teach 00:10:06.704 --> 00:10:08.684 them within the framework of Buddhism. 00:10:09.474 --> 00:10:12.684 In the eighties and nineties it was discovered that those practices 00:10:12.684 --> 00:10:16.794 could be extracted from Buddhism and the cultural matrix of Asia 00:10:16.794 --> 00:10:19.159 and used within a secular context. 00:10:20.674 --> 00:10:23.014 We've got Jack Kornfield who's written many books. 00:10:24.054 --> 00:10:26.724 Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein. 00:10:27.317 --> 00:10:31.246 Joseph Goldstein's been influential in the psychology field in particular, how 00:10:31.246 --> 00:10:33.796 he has integrated that into mental health. 00:10:34.936 --> 00:10:37.096 Let's look at the secular mindfulness. 00:10:37.096 --> 00:10:41.746 So mindfulness awareness practices started to be used within a secular context 00:10:41.746 --> 00:10:44.146 to develop useful attentional skills. 00:10:44.846 --> 00:10:49.406 These practices became ever more prevalent in clinical settings for pain management, 00:10:49.496 --> 00:10:55.256 addiction recovery, stress, rejection, and as an adjunct to psychotherapy. 00:10:56.148 --> 00:11:00.138 One of the main reasons mindfulness is entering the mainstream more 00:11:00.138 --> 00:11:04.478 and more is because of all the research coming out on the benefits. 00:11:04.538 --> 00:11:08.488 Going back to the John  Kabat-Zinn at the very beginning, his definition of 00:11:08.488 --> 00:11:14.618 mindfulness, he's done a significant amount of empirical research that has 00:11:14.618 --> 00:11:16.928 been pointing to these actual benefits. 00:11:17.668 --> 00:11:21.391 That's where it becomes in the clinical settings within 00:11:21.391 --> 00:11:24.271 healthcare, mental health, schools. 00:11:24.728 --> 00:11:27.228 The research is really backing up this. 00:11:27.258 --> 00:11:29.186 Let's look at mindfulness in healthcare. 00:11:29.556 --> 00:11:30.546 I'll talk a little about that. 00:11:30.546 --> 00:11:32.736 There's John Kabat-Zinn, who I mentioned. 00:11:33.256 --> 00:11:36.726 He created the mindfulness based stress reduction at the University 00:11:36.726 --> 00:11:40.476 of Massachusetts Medical School to treat chronically ill patients. 00:11:41.976 --> 00:11:45.036 Subsequently a number of other psychotherapeutic modalities 00:11:45.036 --> 00:11:47.606 centering around mindfulness were developed, which includes 00:11:47.606 --> 00:11:49.256 acceptance and commitment therapy. 00:11:49.620 --> 00:11:54.660 You'll often see that within a lot of practitioners, clinicians, 00:11:54.660 --> 00:11:57.974 counselors, have been trained in ACT. 00:11:58.784 --> 00:12:00.062 That's a very common one. 00:12:00.062 --> 00:12:04.892 We also see it in mindfulness based cognitive therapy, the MBCT, and 00:12:04.892 --> 00:12:06.986 also dialectical behavioral therapy. 00:12:07.512 --> 00:12:12.226 There's a big core component of mindfulness in DBT. 00:12:12.566 --> 00:12:19.146 That's a lot of how it's been more widely spreading since his studies 00:12:19.236 --> 00:12:20.766 in the clinical research realm. 00:12:21.596 --> 00:12:25.040 I'd love to talk a little bit about the benefits of mindfulness. 00:12:25.620 --> 00:12:29.580 Mindfulness truly changes the brain in positive ways. 00:12:29.610 --> 00:12:34.010 There is research to back this up that we are seeing more and more of. 00:12:34.800 --> 00:12:38.590 We have an image here of how it works, the science of meditation. 00:12:39.277 --> 00:12:43.302 Mindfulness involves six neurophysiological processes that 00:12:43.302 --> 00:12:47.142 lead to a person's meditative state of self-awareness. 00:12:47.742 --> 00:12:51.432 We can go around maybe in a circular, clockwise way. 00:12:51.432 --> 00:12:53.832 We have attention regulation. 00:12:54.582 --> 00:12:58.377 The prefrontal cortex area, which I'll go into a little bit of the neuroscience, but 00:12:58.377 --> 00:13:03.561 it really works in regulating attention, helping to be able to focus better. 00:13:04.528 --> 00:13:06.172 Pro-social behavior as well. 00:13:06.512 --> 00:13:08.972 Cultivating a sense of empathy for others. 00:13:09.889 --> 00:13:16.992 We've got emotion regulation down there, extinction and reconsolidation has been 00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:20.669 shown to change behaviors or attitudes. 00:13:22.544 --> 00:13:26.352 Then we've got in the upper left corner, non-attachment and decentering. 00:13:27.182 --> 00:13:30.301 This is the idea of letting go of the ego. 00:13:31.861 --> 00:13:36.501 At the center of the brain intention and motivation to achieve mindfulness. 00:13:36.501 --> 00:13:40.321 There's all of these different things that have been researched 00:13:40.371 --> 00:13:42.721 that have proven these benefits. 00:13:44.395 --> 00:13:48.450 I'm gonna just go back for a minute 'cause I do wanna mention some specific research. 00:13:48.450 --> 00:13:54.050 For example University of Wisconsin Madison, there was a lab there that's 00:13:54.050 --> 00:13:59.730 shown that meditators are better able to monitor emotions and thoughts and let 00:13:59.730 --> 00:14:01.980 go of those that might cause distress. 00:14:02.030 --> 00:14:04.820 That's more or less of what I mentioned about the non-attachment 00:14:04.820 --> 00:14:06.590 and decentering idea. 00:14:07.630 --> 00:14:10.344 There's another study in the University of North Carolina. 00:14:10.891 --> 00:14:14.880 Psychologist found mindfulness trained participants showed significant 00:14:14.885 --> 00:14:19.915 improvement in their critical cognitive skills and perform significantly 00:14:19.915 --> 00:14:25.685 higher in cognitive tests than in a control group, after only four days of 00:14:25.685 --> 00:14:27.965 training for only 20 minutes per day. 00:14:28.755 --> 00:14:32.385 These are the kind of studies that are coming out on this. 00:14:34.365 --> 00:14:37.815 All right, let's look at overcoming fear and anger. 00:14:37.915 --> 00:14:40.975 The old brain versus the new brain. 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:47.030 Neuroplasticity, this is really cutting edge research and neuroscience 00:14:47.030 --> 00:14:50.690 that is showing that we have the power to influence our brains. 00:14:51.180 --> 00:14:54.270 When we think certain thoughts, it actually strengthens 00:14:54.270 --> 00:14:55.620 those neural circuits. 00:14:56.170 --> 00:14:59.140 Mental states become neural traits. 00:14:59.450 --> 00:15:01.280 It's the idea of use it or lose it. 00:15:01.800 --> 00:15:05.743 What you put your attention on the energy grows in that direction. 00:15:06.223 --> 00:15:09.628 We have a lot of power with this. 00:15:09.678 --> 00:15:12.138 Here we got the self-directed neuroplasticity. 00:15:12.588 --> 00:15:16.818 This equals nurture positive states of mind to strengthen 00:15:16.818 --> 00:15:18.678 and build those neural networks. 00:15:18.678 --> 00:15:23.148 This is the emphasis that the brain is like a muscle that we can 00:15:23.148 --> 00:15:25.218 build through practicing skills. 00:15:26.488 --> 00:15:29.848 I mentioned before again that diagram, one of the benefits pro-social 00:15:29.848 --> 00:15:35.598 behavior leading to impulse regulation, emotional awareness, compassion 00:15:35.598 --> 00:15:37.878 and empathy, and also forgiveness. 00:15:39.727 --> 00:15:43.652 All right, let's look at this stress response image here. 00:15:43.702 --> 00:15:49.322 We've got a little image of the brain, and you can see that in a stress response, the 00:15:49.322 --> 00:15:55.052 amygdala sends a signal off and there's a loss of the prefrontal regulation. 00:15:55.052 --> 00:16:00.192 Prefrontal cortex in the brain is associated with higher level thinking. 00:16:00.432 --> 00:16:04.942 This is associated with speaking clearly, being able to think. 00:16:05.678 --> 00:16:09.518 Oftentimes this part of the brain goes offline. 00:16:09.858 --> 00:16:12.438 Your, pretty much in overdrive with the amygdala. 00:16:12.438 --> 00:16:14.358 You have these emotional associations. 00:16:14.358 --> 00:16:17.718 You have the spinal cord, creates emotional reflexes. 00:16:18.348 --> 00:16:21.558 This draws a person into more of a fight or flight response and 00:16:21.558 --> 00:16:23.418 it goes into emotional habits. 00:16:23.878 --> 00:16:28.362 More or less, when you think about it, you lose that ability to think clearly. 00:16:29.302 --> 00:16:33.308 Here, we have a more categorized demonstration of what happens. 00:16:33.308 --> 00:16:36.566 Things that are common you experience that you can relate to in that way. 00:16:36.836 --> 00:16:42.716 Our perception is narrowed, memory goes course, imprecise, learning is blocked. 00:16:42.746 --> 00:16:45.806 There's often a defense conditioning that comes in. 00:16:46.386 --> 00:16:50.546 A tendency to regress or perseverate, a fight or flight tone. 00:16:51.066 --> 00:16:53.616 This is all the autonomic nervous system. 00:16:53.656 --> 00:16:55.356 Heart starts to race. 00:16:55.356 --> 00:16:56.706 We have sweaty palms. 00:16:56.736 --> 00:16:58.206 Our blood pressure goes up. 00:16:58.206 --> 00:17:01.806 It's basically all the blood in our body is rushing to our fingers, 00:17:02.226 --> 00:17:04.176 to our feet to fight or flight. 00:17:04.456 --> 00:17:09.046 The muscular system, we've got tension, jaws are clenching, ready for action, so 00:17:09.046 --> 00:17:10.846 we have that stress response that happens. 00:17:11.851 --> 00:17:15.241 Then we've got the relaxation response. 00:17:15.291 --> 00:17:19.671 The prefrontal regulation during alert non-stress conditions. 00:17:19.721 --> 00:17:24.421 This is where we have the DMFC. 00:17:25.001 --> 00:17:26.981 Reality testing, error monitoring. 00:17:26.981 --> 00:17:29.281 We're questioning is this what's really happening? 00:17:29.281 --> 00:17:30.691 Do I really need to be afraid? 00:17:30.931 --> 00:17:33.361 A top down, guidance of attention and thoughts. 00:17:33.371 --> 00:17:37.261 Again, you were able to think and to draw your attention clearly. 00:17:37.651 --> 00:17:39.931 An inhibition of inappropriate actions. 00:17:40.384 --> 00:17:45.034 We have that emotion regulation that's in comparison to that stress response. 00:17:45.414 --> 00:17:49.314 The relaxation response is a physical state of deep rest, and that changes 00:17:49.314 --> 00:17:52.914 the physical and emotional responses to stress, and the opposite of 00:17:52.914 --> 00:17:55.284 that fight or flight response. 00:17:56.274 --> 00:18:01.234 Here we have all of the positive benefits and the relaxation response. 00:18:02.329 --> 00:18:06.749 I bring this up because the newest part of the brain evolutionary that prefrontal 00:18:06.749 --> 00:18:10.979 cortex that I was mentioning, and specifically the anterior single light. 00:18:11.459 --> 00:18:15.659 This is responsible for higher thinking and processing faculty, such as 00:18:15.659 --> 00:18:18.149 intuition, empathy, and social awareness. 00:18:18.509 --> 00:18:22.019 These all get strengthened through meditative practices. 00:18:22.839 --> 00:18:27.999 The oldest part of the brain I had just showed you in that stress response. 00:18:28.569 --> 00:18:33.659 The hind brain back here, this is more of the primitive survival brain. 00:18:34.419 --> 00:18:38.364 This governs instinctual behavioral reflexes driven by fear and anger. 00:18:39.086 --> 00:18:44.556 This gets suppressed and controlled through meditative practices. 00:18:44.936 --> 00:18:49.586 Meditative practices strengthen higher functioning parts of the brain, 00:18:49.586 --> 00:18:54.266 which I showed right here, that are associated to the relaxation response. 00:18:55.659 --> 00:18:59.319 So mindfulness improves self-regulation. 00:19:00.199 --> 00:19:04.844 Self-regulation being emotions, thoughts, actions. 00:19:06.239 --> 00:19:07.564 Increases that level of awareness. 00:19:09.161 --> 00:19:12.851 We have here a image, mindfulness, the resilient zone. 00:19:13.371 --> 00:19:18.006 In our resilience zone, we have the best capacity for flexibility and 00:19:18.056 --> 00:19:21.476 adaptability in mind, body, and spirit. 00:19:22.092 --> 00:19:26.412 More or less, that means that there's a charge, maybe a stressful situation, 00:19:26.962 --> 00:19:29.602 builds up into release and goes back down. 00:19:30.622 --> 00:19:31.702 It's regulated. 00:19:33.085 --> 00:19:35.845 This would be in comparison from the previous slide we saw that 00:19:35.845 --> 00:19:38.315 nice up in that resilient zone. 00:19:38.585 --> 00:19:43.005 This is outside of the resilient zone where we have a stressful, traumatic 00:19:43.005 --> 00:19:46.845 event, or stressful, traumatic triggers happen, and it goes up and 00:19:46.845 --> 00:19:51.675 down, and then a lot of times getting stuck on that high hyper arousal, 00:19:51.895 --> 00:19:56.675 hyperactivity, hyper vigilance, mania, anxiety and panic, rage, pain. 00:19:57.645 --> 00:20:01.125 Also the opposite of coming down into depression, disconnection, 00:20:01.125 --> 00:20:02.775 exhaustion, fatigue, numbness. 00:20:04.530 --> 00:20:08.510 A lot of times you could be stuck on high hyper arousal 00:20:08.510 --> 00:20:10.710 or on the low arousal states. 00:20:12.790 --> 00:20:18.043 I'd love to do a little bit of a practice here as we come to the end. 00:20:18.093 --> 00:20:21.113 This is gonna be a breath focused meditation. 00:20:21.373 --> 00:20:25.763 Really training the mind to settle, letting go of mental clutter and 00:20:25.763 --> 00:20:27.503 focusing on the present moment. 00:20:29.268 --> 00:20:33.928 I'm gonna invite you to find a comfortable position. 00:20:33.928 --> 00:20:37.168 You might shift a little bit in your seat. 00:20:37.708 --> 00:20:41.788 You want your spine to be erect so you upright but not rigid. 00:20:42.235 --> 00:20:47.739 Find that nice balance of comfortability with uprightness in your spine. 00:20:48.569 --> 00:20:51.473 I wanna invite you if it feels safe for where you're at. 00:20:51.473 --> 00:20:52.433 You can close your eyes. 00:20:52.433 --> 00:20:55.233 A lot of times when you close your eyes, it can really help 00:20:55.233 --> 00:20:56.973 you to draw your senses within. 00:20:58.316 --> 00:21:03.496 As you settle in and you close your eyes and you find your upright spine. 00:21:03.496 --> 00:21:10.426 I'm gonna invite you to take two slow, soft, steady breaths 00:21:10.426 --> 00:21:11.896 in and out of the nose. 00:21:12.086 --> 00:21:15.776 If you need to breathe through your mouth, that's okay, but see if 00:21:15.776 --> 00:21:17.246 you can breathe through your nose. 00:21:19.496 --> 00:21:25.166 So on an inhale, feel the breath enter into your lungs. 00:21:30.356 --> 00:21:35.696 And getting all the way up to the top, slow, soft, steady, exhale. 00:21:35.696 --> 00:21:37.406 Release the breath. 00:21:45.206 --> 00:21:47.006 And again, let's do two more like that. 00:21:47.006 --> 00:21:49.376 So slow, soft, steady breath. 00:21:49.886 --> 00:21:50.666 Inhale. 00:21:57.716 --> 00:22:00.176 Slow, soft, steady breath. 00:22:00.476 --> 00:22:01.166 Exhale. 00:22:01.166 --> 00:22:01.676 And 00:22:10.851 --> 00:22:11.576 once more. 00:22:12.386 --> 00:22:14.216 Slow, soft, steady. 00:22:14.221 --> 00:22:14.541 Inhale. 00:22:20.471 --> 00:22:23.021 Slow, soft, steady exhale. 00:22:26.811 --> 00:22:30.471 Release that breath to just come back to your natural breath. 00:22:32.571 --> 00:22:36.141 Take a moment and I'm gonna invite you to scan the body. 00:22:36.141 --> 00:22:41.311 Meaning you could start at your feet, moving your awareness from your feet 00:22:41.741 --> 00:22:51.338 into your ankles, your calves up into your knees, and drawing your awareness of 00:22:52.028 --> 00:22:56.288 just see if you can keep your attention focused on both legs at one time. 00:22:56.288 --> 00:22:58.208 So up your thighs. 00:22:58.823 --> 00:23:06.666 Tops of the thighs, the bottom sides of the thighs into your pelvis, 00:23:07.749 --> 00:23:12.399 feeling the sensations of making contact with where you're seated. 00:23:12.399 --> 00:23:14.559 So noticing sensations as you sit, 00:23:16.689 --> 00:23:21.789 making contact maybe with the chair underneath you, feeling the 00:23:21.789 --> 00:23:24.639 chair behind you into your back. 00:23:26.091 --> 00:23:28.821 Feeling all the way up your spine. 00:23:31.341 --> 00:23:33.801 At any time the mind is wandering into thought. 00:23:33.801 --> 00:23:38.564 Just bring it back to the sensation and into your midsection. 00:23:38.564 --> 00:23:42.104 So feeling your stomach up into your heart 00:23:45.014 --> 00:23:50.069 and up into your shoulders and down your arms, feeling the upper 00:23:50.069 --> 00:24:00.719 arms to your elbows, forearms into your wrist and hands. 00:24:00.719 --> 00:24:05.979 Feeling your fingers just noticing the sensation of where your hands may rest in 00:24:05.979 --> 00:24:08.584 your lap or on your chair or your desk. 00:24:11.349 --> 00:24:12.309 And then scanning. 00:24:12.309 --> 00:24:17.229 Just noticing the sensations in your head, noticing any places of tension. 00:24:18.849 --> 00:24:23.889 It's bringing your attention to those places, seeing if you can 00:24:23.889 --> 00:24:28.239 perhaps soften as you bring your attention to places of tension. 00:24:30.189 --> 00:24:34.984 On your eyes and your mouth, backside of your neck. 00:24:38.944 --> 00:24:43.864 As you scan the body a bit from toe to head. 00:24:44.104 --> 00:24:48.754 This last part of our mindfulness meditation practice, I'm gonna 00:24:48.754 --> 00:24:50.824 guide you back to that breath again. 00:24:51.034 --> 00:24:58.504 So tuning back to noticing your breath as you naturally breathe, and just focus your 00:24:58.504 --> 00:25:00.514 attention on the feeling of the breath. 00:25:00.514 --> 00:25:03.584 Coming in, and going out. 00:25:07.298 --> 00:25:07.358 So 00:25:09.398 --> 00:25:15.068 when your mind may start to wander, you can simply notice 00:25:15.068 --> 00:25:19.491 it and see if you can bring that sense of non-judgmental awareness. 00:25:20.164 --> 00:25:23.794 Just notice it and gently guide your attention back to the breath. 00:25:25.664 --> 00:25:29.294 This may be over and over again, especially if you're new to it. 00:25:29.294 --> 00:25:33.044 It might be this concept of, I'm not doing this right, or it's 00:25:33.044 --> 00:25:35.454 really hard to focus on the breath. 00:25:35.454 --> 00:25:36.704 That's very normal. 00:25:37.604 --> 00:25:42.914 So the practice is in of itself to notice when your attention goes 00:25:42.914 --> 00:25:44.204 somewhere other than the breath. 00:25:46.334 --> 00:25:50.514 So we'll stay here for a few more minutes. 00:25:53.754 --> 00:25:57.024 Again, focusing on the feel of the breath. 00:26:00.153 --> 00:26:07.123 Just very gently, kindly, bringing your attention back if the mind starts to go. 00:26:14.178 --> 00:26:18.278 We're going to do a transition as we come to the end of the 00:26:18.668 --> 00:26:20.978 practice today, I would invite you. 00:26:22.013 --> 00:26:30.623 To again take two conscious, slow, soft, inhale and exhale breaths here at the end. 00:26:31.497 --> 00:26:35.427 So deep breath, feeling the lungs, feeling the chest, 00:26:40.317 --> 00:26:42.567 and then slow, soft, steady. 00:26:42.567 --> 00:26:44.517 Exhale, release the breath. 00:26:50.937 --> 00:26:51.747 One more time. 00:26:51.747 --> 00:26:55.647 Slow, soft, inhale, breath, all the way up to the top. 00:27:01.527 --> 00:27:03.087 Exhale, release the breath, 00:27:07.052 --> 00:27:09.742 As you're ready, you can open your eyes. 00:27:13.307 --> 00:27:17.732 And we'll, come back here together so you can see the framework 00:27:17.972 --> 00:27:22.242 that I led us through here, this breath focus meditation. 00:27:22.912 --> 00:27:25.432 Certainly again that emphasis around practice. 00:27:25.502 --> 00:27:28.262 As little as five minutes, you know, five minutes. 00:27:28.262 --> 00:27:31.622 I think that was more or less a little over five minutes that we practice here. 00:27:32.937 --> 00:27:36.932 It is really about the emphasis of building that muscle. 00:27:36.932 --> 00:27:41.612 Same way as if you were to go to a gym and start lifting weights or doing some 00:27:41.612 --> 00:27:47.192 cardio, our muscles are gonna grow as our tension is placed upon that cultivation. 00:27:47.622 --> 00:27:48.822 Same thing with our minds. 00:27:48.822 --> 00:27:52.657 This is really emphasis even, you know, five minutes, it makes a difference. 00:27:54.085 --> 00:27:56.649 There again, you can create mindful pauses throughout your day. 00:27:57.509 --> 00:28:01.899 Even one minute to practice slowing down, feeling the body, breathing 00:28:01.899 --> 00:28:05.649 more fully, letting go of thoughts, and just coming back to the present 00:28:05.649 --> 00:28:07.573 moment with gratitude and acceptance. 00:28:08.273 --> 00:28:12.226 It expands beyond just this kind of formal meditation breath work 00:28:12.226 --> 00:28:17.096 practice into yoga, art, or another mindful activity, even walking. 00:28:17.166 --> 00:28:17.986 Things like that. 00:28:18.846 --> 00:28:23.384 There's tons of phone apps, you can find a lot of great resources 00:28:23.384 --> 00:28:26.174 if you have a smartphone or even do a little Google search. 00:28:26.254 --> 00:28:29.374 There's just so many programs, especially now during COVID. 00:28:29.764 --> 00:28:33.708 You often find a lot of online offerings and meditation, 00:28:33.727 --> 00:28:35.481 mindfulness classes online. 00:28:37.431 --> 00:28:40.251 Alright, so there's my contact info. 00:28:40.251 --> 00:28:44.841 Again, my name is jovanna Pena, and I'm a wellness clinician and somatic 00:28:44.841 --> 00:28:48.776 psychotherapist here at Jefferson Center through the wellness department. 00:28:49.166 --> 00:28:53.576 Through wellness, we offer a lot of wellness classes and now that we are all 00:28:53.576 --> 00:28:55.556 virtual, we're doing everything on Zoom. 00:28:55.926 --> 00:28:57.936 We're offering a variety of wellness classes. 00:28:58.370 --> 00:29:01.220 If you're interested, certainly feel free to reach out to me. 00:29:01.220 --> 00:29:02.000 Email me. 00:29:02.050 --> 00:29:06.830 We are gonna be teaching an eight week mindfulness and yoga for 00:29:07.010 --> 00:29:10.610 depression and anxiety class that starts at the end of this month. 00:29:10.610 --> 00:29:13.610 So if you wanna join in on that, I would love to have you. 00:29:14.070 --> 00:29:15.660 Please feel free to reach out to me. 00:29:16.230 --> 00:29:17.940 Alright, thank you so much. 00:29:18.925 --> 00:29:19.915 Presenter: Thank you so much. 00:29:19.915 --> 00:29:21.415 That was wonderful. 00:29:21.685 --> 00:29:26.995 We have had a couple questions come in, so you've kind of addressed this, but 00:29:26.995 --> 00:29:31.045 the first one is, how long do I need to practice mindfulness for it to work? 00:29:31.785 --> 00:29:32.095 Jovahna Pena: Yeah. 00:29:32.975 --> 00:29:36.918 I Would go back to some of the research that's come out. 00:29:36.988 --> 00:29:41.218 Specifically the one that I mentioned about the one at the University of North 00:29:41.218 --> 00:29:43.261 Carolina when psychologists were studying. 00:29:44.101 --> 00:29:48.831 That participants showed an improvement in cognitive skills, performed higher 00:29:48.831 --> 00:29:53.745 in cognitive tests only after four days of training for only 20 minutes per day. 00:29:54.645 --> 00:29:58.313 I think you could do a little bit more Google research, but it's showing 00:29:58.313 --> 00:30:02.263 that it can happen quite rapidly through some focused attention. 00:30:03.233 --> 00:30:06.513 I would also recommend, if you want some more further information, doing 00:30:06.578 --> 00:30:09.068 some research on neuroplasticity. 00:30:09.118 --> 00:30:12.688 You can do a little Google research that's coming out with how the brain is actually 00:30:12.688 --> 00:30:14.968 being able to make these physical changes. 00:30:16.043 --> 00:30:16.553 Presenter: Awesome. 00:30:17.403 --> 00:30:20.673 The next one we have is, do you have any tips for how I can practice 00:30:20.733 --> 00:30:23.343 mindfulness and meditation with my kids? 00:30:24.213 --> 00:30:29.043 Jovahna Pena: Yeah, there's actually, I don't have it off the top of my 00:30:29.043 --> 00:30:33.648 head, but I have been referred to some specific, especially during 00:30:33.648 --> 00:30:39.578 COVID times, that there are some parent tested, approved mindfulness, 00:30:39.608 --> 00:30:43.358 classes, yoga classes that kids love. 00:30:43.358 --> 00:30:45.638 Feel free to reach out, like sending me email. 00:30:45.638 --> 00:30:46.988 I have those resources. 00:30:47.038 --> 00:30:51.748 But there are more and more that are coming out specifically guided for kids 00:30:51.748 --> 00:30:57.352 that are fun, so that make it on a kid level accessible, parent-child related. 00:30:58.212 --> 00:31:02.131 I'm certainly very happy to guide you more towards those specific ones. 00:31:03.006 --> 00:31:03.396 Presenter: Awesome. 00:31:03.396 --> 00:31:04.056 That's so awesome. 00:31:04.056 --> 00:31:06.696 They're making specific ones for kids. 00:31:06.846 --> 00:31:08.136 Jovahna Pena: Yeah, definitely. 00:31:08.836 --> 00:31:12.376 Presenter: The last question we have is, do you have any recommendations for apps I 00:31:12.376 --> 00:31:15.046 can use to practice meditation regularly? 00:31:16.036 --> 00:31:21.291 Jovahna Pena: Yeah, if you have the app, I'm gonna pull it up so I can give you. 00:31:22.736 --> 00:31:27.621 Some of them you'll see if you go to the app store, if you have a smartphone, a lot 00:31:27.621 --> 00:31:32.211 of times they'll have either they'll be free or they'll have like introductory, 00:31:32.211 --> 00:31:33.441 you can try it out and see it. 00:31:34.011 --> 00:31:36.502 One of the most common ones are Headspace. 00:31:36.502 --> 00:31:37.295 That's a big one. 00:31:38.205 --> 00:31:43.949 I know during COVID they were offering some discounted things for Headspace. 00:31:44.496 --> 00:31:46.236 There's also one called Calm. 00:31:46.786 --> 00:31:49.070 Insight Timer is another wonderful one. 00:31:49.940 --> 00:31:52.536 Those are the top ones that are out there. 00:31:53.026 --> 00:31:55.346 I would browse to see what's available. 00:31:55.814 --> 00:31:59.888 A lot of times I find ones that are free, that are just as good as the paid ones. 00:32:00.708 --> 00:32:03.868 Really you can get so specific these days that you can even do 00:32:03.868 --> 00:32:05.718 mindfulness apps for focusing. 00:32:05.718 --> 00:32:07.528 Mindfulness apps for children. 00:32:07.528 --> 00:32:08.998 Mindfulness apps for students. 00:32:09.048 --> 00:32:10.712 You can get quite specific. 00:32:11.662 --> 00:32:16.983 I really recommend go to the app store on your smartphone and 00:32:17.173 --> 00:32:19.753 take a look at what's out there, 'cause there's so many right now. 00:32:21.418 --> 00:32:21.688 Presenter: Great. 00:32:21.688 --> 00:32:23.968 Yeah, there are a lot of awesome resources. 00:32:24.728 --> 00:32:26.468 That has all the questions we have today. 00:32:26.468 --> 00:32:29.678 Just to wrap things up, no matter what you're facing in life, like if you're 00:32:29.678 --> 00:32:33.428 feeling overwhelmed, worried, or stressed, Jefferson Center is here for you. 00:32:33.848 --> 00:32:37.162 We're open and accepting new clients and accessing care is easier than 00:32:37.242 --> 00:32:38.881 ever with our virtual appointments. 00:32:39.181 --> 00:32:42.721 You can visit our website at jcmh.org or follow us on Facebook 00:32:42.721 --> 00:32:44.461 for more resources and information. 00:32:44.521 --> 00:32:50.161 You can also reach us by calling (303) 425-0300. 00:32:50.611 --> 00:32:52.921 Thanks so much and have a great day everyone.