Do people who meditate feel less lonely?

Aside from anxiety, probably the thing we hear people talk about the most in our practice is loneliness. For all our technological interconnectedness, many of us feel cut off and isolated.

According to Dr J. David Creswell from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, loneliness in seniors is a risk factor for illness and death that is on par with smoking. “It’s a big problem,” Creswell notes. “Lots of researchers have tried to find ways, like social networks created through community centers, to reduce loneliness in older adults, but none of the approaches really works well.”

Creswell and researchers out of UCLA set out to study the impact of mindfulness meditation on a group of 40 healthy adults aged 55 to 85. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their loneliness and provided blood samples, which revealed that a greater sense of loneliness was associated with up-regulated expression of pro-inflammatory genes (or greater inflammation in the body). They were then randomized to a mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) group or no treatment.

The study, published last month in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity presented some very interesting findings. According to the researchers, participating in the meditation program reduced the older adults’ perceptions of lonelinesscompared with those of members of the control group, who experienced small increases in loneliness.

Creswell’s study shows that meditation may be a powerful strategy for addressing loneliness. There is evidence to suggest that the effect was attributable to the meditation practice and not to the fellowship of a group or of going away on a retreat. The researchers cite trials that found that even when meditation is taught on an individual basis, participants experience reductions in stress symptoms and improvements in physical health markers.

Loneliness, notes Creswell, is not necessarily about our objective number of social contacts, but our subjective perception of feeling disconnected.

“It’s about the distress underlying your social relationships,” he said. “Meditation helps people not 
get caught up in the spiral of distress. 
It provides a break wherein people recognize that though they feel disconnected, the loneliness doesn’t have to define who they are.”

Can meditation increase our sense of connection and capacity for joy?

Certain concentration meditation practices are designed for us to tune in to our interconnectedness. According to author and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, these practices help to decrease fear and isolation and increase well-being and capacity for joy.

Salzberg was here in Vancouver this summer and spoke of how “positive emotion frees us from collapse.” Many of us feel overwhelmed and isolated by self-hatred and fear. Yet, when we deliberately cultivate caring and compassion for ourselves and others, we increase the likelihood that these positive emotions will spontaneously arise. And when we are feeling them, we feel good.

Neuroscientist and author Rick Hansen notes that even imagined companionship activates the brain’s attachment and social group circuitry. When we activate a felt sense of closeness, such as in lovingkindness or compassion meditation, we feel an increase in our sense of safety which brings ease to the body.

In next week’s grad course, Lovingkindness, Wholeness & Connection, we will practice meditations to help cultivate:

• equanimity, an unshakable balance of the mind
• sympathetic joy, delighting in the good fortune of another
• compassion, being touched by our own pain, or that of another
• lovingkindness, opening our heart to ourselves and others

These practices are not easy and it is normal for most of us to feel some degree of resistance to them! But they can be incredibly powerful. Richard Davidson’s research has shown how these practices can increase our happiness, well-being and even our immunity.

To learn more about our grad courses, please see the Course Description and Register pages!

Thanks and be well,
Marian & Brett

Finally — Spring!

Last week while preparing for a co-op radio interview, I came across some interesting research on how meditation affects the amygdala. Nothing like a deadline to have me cramming at the last minute… and priming my own amygdala! (The amygdala is that part of the lower brain that is always scanning for danger and is hyperactive when we are under stressed conditions.)

When Brett and I arrived at the radio station, we were energetically greeted by one of the hosts. However, we were soon thrown when we realized his sole purpose was to “debunk” mindfulness meditation. After all, this was a show about critical thinking and scientific skepticism and, as far as he could see, there was no sound research to back meditation practice. As he was unfamiliar with mindfulness meditation, he lumped us in with all forms of meditation, including something called “yogic flying.” He warned us that he would be ”hostile(!)” during the interview, but fortunately appeared to soften somewhat once we went on the air and realized that we were not so far out there after all. The cohost was familiar with the research and had actually participated in one of our MBSR programs. He said that he himself found the program beneficial, but that his wife loved it when he meditated as he was so relaxed! All in all, it was a wonderful learning experience for us.

If you would like to listen to the podcast, you can find it here (link currently unavailable). The show is called “Think for Yourself” (March 22 episode). The first 18 min. is entertaining banter between the hosts. Our interview runs after that (from the 18 min. mark to the 60 minute mark.)

Once the interview was over, I found myself thinking about all the things I wished I had said or remembered to say (not unlike the feeling I had walking away from many a university exam!) But as many of us have experienced, when we are stressed, our capacity for higher thinking is inhibited. The mind goes blank and we are unable to take in and process new information as easily. Our thinking is not so much reflective as reflexive! Under the stress of being expected to prove something, on live radio yet, I couldn’t remember some of the information I had wanted to share…Such as what had initially attracted me to mindfulness meditation. I really appreciated that it didn’t require me to believe in anything. I was encouraged to be a scientist of sorts and see for myself what value, if any, the practice held for me. Meditation practice itself is a practice of inquiry toward a deeper understanding of one’s own experience and of the nature of reality.

Thankfully, not long after the interview ended, I think my amygdala returned to its usual dimension. (Which I fervently hope is not the size of a grapefruit.)

But what if we are living in a state of prolonged arousal?

If we are living in a state of prolonged arousal, a sense of vigilance can become chronic. This hypervigilance can manifest in a cycle of negative emotions and distorted perceptions and put us at risk for depression and anxiety disorders. Difficulty regulating emotion is thought to be an essential component of mood and anxiety disorders.

The good news is that several researchers (Ramel & team, 2004; Segal & team, 2000) have shown that participation in an MBSR program decreases the habitual tendency to emotionally react and ruminate about transient thoughts and physical sensations. They think that positive changes in the ability to regulate our emotions happen through the skillful use of attention.

Shrinking the amygdala, self-regulating emotion

A 2010 study out of Stanford (by Goldin & Gross) looked at the effects of MBSR on people with social anxiety disorder.Those who completed the program showed improvement in four areas, including in anxiety and depression symptoms as well as self-esteem. They had less emotional reactivity in response to negative self-beliefs and an fMRI showedreduced activity in the amygdala.

A 2009 study out of Massachusetts (by Holzel & others) actually showed that the amygdala gets smaller in size with mindfulness practice, even after only eight weeks. I was skeptical as to whether this change in the brain would actually translate into any noticeable change for the meditators. However, people’s self-report of decreased anxiety equated with the decreased size of their amygdala. Very cool! I find this research particularly motivating for keeping up the practice.

AFTER the MBSR…or MBCT: Working with Difficult Emotions

Despite experiencing positive effects from taking part in an MBSR or MBCT program, you may still find yourself being taken over at times by certain difficult emotions. This doesn’t mean that you are doing anything wrong or have “failed” in some way. A full range of emotion is part and parcel of life, for all of us. It’s a matter of having a range of tools for working with challenging emotions, especially when they threaten to overwhelm.

Just as a long-distance swimmer may alter her stroke and tack when confronted with very choppy water, as meditators, we benefit from having different strategies to call upon when caught in mental storms, to keep from being pulled under. Often it is hard to know whether to plunge into an emotional wave, surf it or head to shore!

For instance, dealing with a difficult emotion such as anger can be confusing. Many believe that we need to “get it out” because we’ve heard that keeping it in is unhealthy. But “keeping it in” versus “letting it out” is based on a false dichotomy. Modern research has shown that expressing anger can be as unhealthy as suppressing it. And the response perpetuates itself. The more frequently we raise our voice at someone, the more frequently we are likely to do so in the future.

We seldom consider a third way. In a mindful approach, we neither suppress nor express anger, but clarify it. We bring anger into our meditation, sit or walk with it; watch our thoughts and feel the sensations in our bodies until we clearly see and feel what is underneath it: Fear–and pain. Thich Nhat Hanh calls this process “cooking potatoes.” Once we have clarified the anger, we can address the issue with the other person or take appropriate action. In this way, we relate from a centred and non-reactive position. We bring awareness to what is motivating us and relate to the other with compassion, or at least non-hatred.

In the poem, “The Guest House,” Rumi suggests we meet emotional difficulties at the door “laughing, and invite them in,” even though we would prefer to tell them to go away. But before we can realistically let them in for an extended stay, we may need some additional skills for relating. 
To paraphrase psychiatrist R.D. Laing, we need to know we can protect our heart before we can open it wide.

Thanks and be well,
Marian & Brett

Your Brain on Meditation: Motivation to keep on doing it!

Decreased activation of the “wandering thoughts” regions of the brain, © Yale University

One of our MBCT students sent us a podcast from a recent CBC Quirks and Quarks interview with the medical director of Yale Therapeutic Neuroscience. Dr. Judson Brewer was interested in exploring what goes on in the brain of meditators. To do this, he measured brain activity in people practicing meditation for the first time and compared it with that of experienced meditators. What he found has very positive implications for those of us who suffer from anxiety and/or depression.

According to the Yale research team, brain scans of experienced meditators showed a deactivation of the “default mode network” in the brain, an area responsible for mind wandering and self-referential processing (thinking about ourselves.) Previous recent research has shown that less day dreaming is associated with increased happiness levels, no matter what you’re daydreaming about!

Brewer notes that an activated default mode network is implicated in ADHD, Alzheimer’s and in “a host of psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety and addiction.” 
What I found fascinating is that even when this area of the brain isactivated, experienced meditators show a co-activation in areas of self-monitoring and cognitive control that is NOT found in the novices.

The researchers suggest that the experienced meditators may be constantly monitoring “me” thoughts or mind wandering in general, states that in pathological forms are linked to autism and schizophrenia. Interestingly, the meditators did this both while meditating and while at rest. Brewer suggests that meditators may have developed a “new” default mode in which there is more present-centered awareness and less self-centeredness.

“Meditation’s ability to help people stay in the moment has been part of philosophical and contemplative practices for thousands of years,” Brewer said. “Conversely, the hallmark of many forms of mental illness is a preoccupation with one’s own thoughts, a condition meditation seems to affect. This gives us some nice cues as to the neural mechanisms of how it might be working clinically.”

Brewer jokes that his own motivation to meditate was “to be less of a jerk.” And the student who e-mailed me this interview wrote, “It hasn’t cured me of anxiety, but I’m convinced it helps me a lot to quiet my mind, and deal with anxiety and disturbing thoughts.”

Taking your Practice to the Next Level:

MBSR II for Working with Difficult Mind States and Emotions

So, you have some practice with quieting the mind and with being able to bring yourself into the moment more than you used to. And aligning your attention with just this moment’s experience is what brings more spaciousness to the mind and ease to the body.

But what to do when our minds are stuck on that one thought, over and over? Or when we are feeling deeply hurt? How do we deal with the sadness we feel in the face of great loss? Or when our anger or fear threatens to overwhelm?

It’s so much easier to meditate when things are going the way we like them to be, or when we are in a peaceful environment! Yet anger, loneliness, anxiety, loss and pain are the stuff of life, and most of us have not had much instruction in handling these skillfully.

MBSR II is an eight-week course that addresses these challenging states in depth , encouraging a curious and compassionate stance toward ourselves as we explore the insistent visitors of mind and body. Of course, regular meditation practice is an essential part of the process. Nothing makes for more powerful motivation than experiencing, however briefly at first, moments free of emotional torment.

Current scientific research is reflecting what many have known for millennia. Meditation is powerful… and it can significantly improve your quality of life.

You can learn more about the MBSR II course on the Course Descriptions page.

Thanks & be well,

Marian & Brett