Mindfulness is one of the fastest expanding fields of research and practice within psychology. Within academic circles mindfulness is often described as non-judgmentally paying attention to the present moment on purpose. People often focus is on being present, or “in the moment” and the other components of mindfulness are neglected. The reason for this is that people often think that worrying is thinking about the future and rumination is thinking about the past. Therefore, if we are in the present we do not experience worry or rumination. This seems simple and easy! However, being attuned to the present moment in and of itself is not always a positive experience. For example, a core feature of a panic attack is acute internal awareness of current bodily sensations (e.g., pounding heart, difficulty breathing). The dreaded thought, “oh my god I’m having a panic attack”, is not referring to the future or the past. It is referring to what is going on right now. Chronic pain is another example of a condition which causes tremendous mental suffering whilst the core symptom of pain, is a present-moment sensation in the body. Depression and anxiety disorders are both named after the present-moment emotion that these clusters of symptoms produce. Whilst finding ways to reduce worry and rumination are genuinely helpful for many people, this is only part of the picture. As the human mind can cause itself a lot of grief without ever leaving the present moment.
This is where another component is important to consider – being non-judgemental. In order to understand the concept of non-judgement best, it is helpful to first explore the concept of judgement within a mindfulness context. All animals, right down to insects, can be observed to react to experiences in one of three ways “want”, “do not want” and “don’t care”. They go towards things they want (e.g., food), they avoid things they don’t want (e.g., predators) and they don’t pay much attention to things they don’t care about. More cognitively advanced animals are believed to have more complex emotions, such as anxiety, anger, and sadness. However, this “want/do not want” system is still functional and is inherent within these emotions. For example, fear functions as a more advanced way of saying I do not want to be around something which I am fearful of.
There is a term in psychology called “secondary emotions” which occur when you feel emotions about other emotions. Small children are unable to do this but as our brains develop, we gain this ability. An example of a secondary emotion is when we can be angry (primary emotion), and then immediately feel guilty (secondary emotion) about being angry. A panic attack generally occurs when an individual’s “want/do not want” system turns towards an internal experience. We then perceive the internal experience of anxiety as a threat rather than perceiving something outside us as a threat. When we experience a threat (in this case anxiety), it creates more anxiety (secondary emotion), creating a feedback loop of rapidly growing anxiety. This loop can lead to a panic attack. The “want/do not want” system is termed “judgement” within the mindfulness world. This is because we are making a judgement about whether we like something or not, and this is what creates secondary emotions.
Non-judgement is the opposite of judgement. It is experiencing something without wishing it to be different. This makes the emotional experience much less uncomfortable, but perhaps just as importantly, it prevents secondary emotions from occurring. When we feel comfortable experiencing anxiety, anger, depression we don’t get hit with another wave of feelings about having these feelings. This layering of feelings can be a common cause of large mood swings that seem to come out of nowhere. In many cases something small can go wrong and an onslaught of emotions follow.
Now I can say, “just be less judgemental about your feelings”, but that’s a little bit like saying “just think positive”. Both these are easier said than done. How do you actually become comfortable with your inner world? There are a lot of different ways, but for this article I will focus on one which ties into judgement. Often when we experience an uncomfortable negative emotion, we will try to avoid it by using distraction or thinking about something else. This is similar to how a fly might react when it spots a spider – it goes in the other direction. Unfortunately for us that memory lives inside the very brain that is trying to avoid it. It’s a bit like if, much to the fly’s dismay, it looked down to see that the spider had attached itself by a tiny piece of web, no matter how far it flies it will still carry the spider with it. If a therapist was seeing someone for a fear of spiders, the go-to treatment would be exposure therapy (a fancy term for facing your fears). An exposure therapist might start by showing them pictures of spiders, then maybe going to a pet shop to look at them through a window before finally bringing a non-poisonous spider in to crawl all over them! We are biologically wired to dislike spiders – but we can learn to be comfortable with them (or in some cases even love them).
Mindfulness is about trying to cultivate a similar level of comfort in our emotions. This involves learning to sit with anxiety without bolting out the door. Like with a fear of spiders, this is something that can be done in baby steps. It can be finding just one aspect of one emotion to attempt to be non-judgemental towards, for example, sweaty palms. Rather than focusing on the unpleasantness of the sweaty palms, however, the aim is to focus on the present-moment, objective qualities of the sweaty palms. One helpful way of doing this might be to imagine describing your sweaty palms to someone who had never had sweaty palms before. For example, we may scan our attention across the palm to notice if we can detect where the sweatiness ends and the dryness starts, or notice how hot it feels, or what the feeling of wetness is like. This requires us to really be present with the experience and is part of the reason why being in the present is an integral part of mindfulness. Putting together non-judgement with a present-moment focus allows us to be intimate with experiences we would typically avoid and prevents problematic secondary emotions that might arise if we begin to worry about them. Over time, much like with the spider, we may start to learn in our body that sweaty palms are not as bad as we first thought they were. This process can be a bit like going to the gym, we may only be able to hold a small amount of just one aspect of anxiety at first, but over time, with practice we can build up the strength to hold more and more. In many situations we even find that more pleasant secondary emotions like curiosity arise when we feel anxious. As humans we often instinctively want to change every moment in life that we cannot accept. However, mindfulness is about changing our way of being so that we can accept every moment in life with open arms.
I am currently completing research into mindfulness and I enjoy working with clients to help them to become more mindful. The research indicates that mindfulness skills can be taught via telehealth. Researchers found that a brief telehealth intervention which introduced mindfulness skills was effective in increasing levels of mindfulness. More recent research found that telehealth mindfulness meditation improved cognitive performance in adults who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Other research examined the use of a telehealth parent-mediated mindfulness-based health and wellness intervention for adolescents and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They found that this program helped these clients achieve their desired weight goals and importantly the participants said they would recommend the program to their peers indicating satisfaction with the program. If you think you would benefit from seeing me to learn more about mindfulness or one of the other PsychHelp Psychologists, then please contact PsychHelp to arrange an appointment today.
