SAN DIEGO — For many, improving physical and emotional well-being are at the top of the list when it comes to New Year’s resolutions.
Aside from joining a gym, cutting back on sugar and meal prepping, an expert at UC San Diego is encouraging increased efforts to maximize mindfulness.
According to the Mayo Clinic, practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind in an effort to reduce stress.
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Dr. Cassandra Vieten, a clinical professor and director of the Center for Mindfulness at UC San Diego, said mindfulness is a psychological skill that has been linked to physical and emotional well-being in thousands of scientific studies.
“Some people are surprised that it’s not exactly relaxation, it’s more like learning how to meet the moment as it is, with less resistance, which in the end does cause less stress and more peace,” Dr. Vieten explained. “It’s kind of like, instead of trying to stop the waves of emotions or reactions, instead learning how how to surf.”
UC San Diego’s mindfulness expert went on to explain that this type of meditation takes practice. She said it also requires individuals to really pay close attention to their experience moment to moment as it’s happening — all while having less judgment and more curiosity and compassion.
“It also keeps us in the present moment, instead of getting stuck in the past or worrying about the future,” Dr. Vieten continued. “A lot of our mental attention focuses on the past and the future. But if we bring more of it to the present, which is really the only time we can do anything about, we start to live in reality, in more flow, instead of our stories about reality.”
In a synopsis, this clinical professor points to mindfulness as a way to help reduce stress “not by changing what is happening, but by changing how we relate to what is happening.”
How does one practice mindfulness? Dr. Vieten listed the following steps in the process:
1. Be aware of breathing. Just follow each breath in and out, and if your mind begins to wander, gently return it to paying attention to breathing.
2. Be aware of what is happening in your body by scanning it from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. Instead of telling stories about it, judging it, liking it or not, just notice it and breathe.
3. An easy one is five, four, three, two one: notice five things you see; notice four things you hear; notice three things you are touching; notice two things you smell; and notice one thing you taste.
For those interested in learning more about mindfulness, you can join the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness community for a daylong retreat on Saturday, Jan 6, 2024. Guests will be shown guided practices and then attend a workshop led by Dr. Vieten to chart the course for the upcoming year.
The Mayo Clinic notes that overall evidence supports the effectiveness of this meditation for various conditions such as stress, anxiety, pain, depression, insomnia, among others.
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