Mindfulness and Focus
The Key to Facing Challenges
“Mindfulness is changing how you relate to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations
Paying attention to them in the present moment
Without judging them as good or bad
Just letting them be as they are
Approaching them with curiosity and compassion
Letting them move through us as they will
Breathing
Without having to do anything about them
But taking skillful and intentional action when called for”
Cassandra Vieten – Mindful Motherhood
What is Mindfulness?
Jon Kabat-Zin (see Resources) popularized the term “mindfulness” and describes it as
“the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non judgmentally”
Most of us spend the majority of our time in a “robot” like state on autopilot, reacting to situations, becoming stressed, tired, and sometimes feeling a victim of life. We are often thinking about the past or the future and rarely about what we are actually doing!
Since research shows that we are actually happiest when in the present then it makes sense to learn a practice that helps us be “in the moment”.
Mindfulness is a practice, that whilst it came out of ancient traditions and spiritual practices can be done by anyone regardless of religion or beliefs.
It is a simple practice, though not always an easy one, to become more present with ourselves, more “in the moment”, and able to “respond” to situations rather than automatically “react”. It helps in times of transformation and change and there is often no bigger change to our lives than having a baby!
How does Mindfulness work?
Its recent popularity has seen it introduced into many different areas of life such as workplaces and schools. With modern science, it has now been possible to actually track the difference regular mindfulness practice makes to our brains such as:
- Increased neuroplasticity of the brain – the ability to learn, grow and develop new healthy habits
- Decreased activity in the amygdala (the brain’s fight/flight centre) and, therefore, the ability to have more control over thoughts and emotions
- Creation of new neural pathways to promote a more positive mental state (neurons that fire together, wire together)
- increased awareness in the body so that we can more easily notice when a stressful mind creates a stressed body.
The Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness has been well researched and some of the benefits include:
- Improved immune system
- Reduction in stress, fatigue, and hypertension
- A decrease in anxiety, irritability, and depression
- Improved memory and mental stamina
- Improved mood and sense of control
- Better sleep
During pregnancy practicing mindfulness can:
- Help you to accept the changes in your body and be with any discomforts – both physical and emotional
- Develop self-compassion and kindness and help you to nurture and love your changing self
- Improve the connection with and awareness of your growing baby
- Develop an inner sense of calm and trust – increasing your patience as you wait for your baby to be born
- De-stress your system and benefit your baby with your more relaxed state
- Initiate a routine of practice to continue after your baby is born
- Help you to be aware of unhelpful thoughts and beliefs about labour and birth and give you the choice of following them or letting them go. Research shows that we can retrain our brain and lay down new neural pathways with regular meditation/mindfulness practice
- Allow you to be with difficult or challenging emotions
- Promotes sleep – Research shows that women who have severely disrupted sleep or sleep less than six hours a night have significantly longer labours and are more likely to have a cesarean (Kathryn Lee, “Sleep in Late Pregnancy Predicts Length of labour and Type of Delivery – American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 191, no 6 (Dec 2004: 2014-46)
- Make it more likely that you will be able to use mindfulness during your labour and birth
Mindfulness for Labour
Mindfulness is a fabulous skill for labour. Regular practice during pregnancy (and prior) will develop a different way of approaching labour:
- Mindful awareness of the breath will help to bring you into a calmer place during labour and always have a simple practice to come back to if you feel your anxiety or stress levels rise.
- Mindful awareness of physical sensations in your body – can help you to accept the powerful forces working during labour and lessen the likelihood of reacting against them, not judging contractions as “good” or “bad” but just a necessary process to bring your baby into the world. Research shows that naming a sensation – such as “tightening” or “stretching” lessens the emotional reaction to it (in the limbic brain) therefore helping develop a sense of acceptance and surrender during labour, as well as reducing pain
- Mindful awareness of thoughts helps you to notice and accept the thoughts that may arise during labour and give you the option to “re-frame” them. For example “I can’t do this anymore” to “I am strong, I can do this”. Sometimes that reassurance and reminder come from the outside – a loving partner or support person.
- Mindful awareness of emotions and feelings helps you to accept the wide spectrum of feelings that may arise during labour and be compassionate towards them. Allowing them all and knowing, just like thoughts, they will come and go.
- Mindful awareness of sounds or focusing on an external object can also be a way of staying present for some women. This may include listening to a relaxation, some music you love, or affirmations.
Any of the mindfulness practices will support you in staying out of or minimizing the “fight/flight/freeze” response and the consequent release of adrenalin in your system (and therefore, reduction of oxytocin) This reduces pain.
Being mindful and present will help you to connect with what your body needs to do to bring your baby into your arms – how to move, breathe, manage the pain – bringing out your instinctual behavior and inner wisdom
Since labour is unpredictable mindfulness helps you to accept whatever unfolds and to go in a new direction. This can reduce feelings of disappointment and frustration
Mindfulness after your baby is born
If you have practiced regularly then you will have an increased awareness of how you feel – both physically and emotionally – with your new baby. It can help you to:
- Be more connected to your baby by staying present and focused on him or her and not on your reaction and thoughts about what is happening. For example when your baby cries it is easy to have thoughts such as “What am I doing wrong?” “I must be a bad mother as I can’t stop my baby crying”, “I don’t know what to do”. Bringing yourself back to noticing your breath, the warmth of your baby’s body or a physical sensation in your body will bring you into the present.It will enable you to just “be” with your child and help you to respond rather than react
- Develop compassion for yourself – to notice when you need a rest, a break, some food and act on that
Reflections:
- How often are you aware of your body during the day? Of your breath? Of your thoughts?
- Are you judgmental or hard on yourself? Could you develop more self-compassion and kindness towards yourself and develop nurturing practices? What would they be?
Practices:
- Work through listening to the different mindfulness practices in each section then you may choose to stay with the Core Practice in Session 6 – listen to it every day if possible
- Use mindfulness in different ways
- In a more formal way – listening to the audios (ideally daily)
- During your yoga practice – being aware of your breath, how your body feels, how you feel
- During the day – noticing whatever you are doing for a few moments, the feel of the shower against your back, the touch of the steering wheel under your hands, your breath flowing in and out, sensations in your body, and naming them
- See if you can notice your thoughts sometimes – being nonjudgmental and kind to yourself! You may choose to re-frame some straight away or note them down for later. See PDF on “Re-Framing Beliefs” in Session 6 where we look at Birth Beliefs more deeply
Labour Practice for Session 3
Practice the half squat against the wall with mindfulness:
- Vary the focus you have either during 1 minute or when you practice at different times
- For 1 minute – let your focus move to the physical sensations of your body, fairly soon this is likely to be your thighs! Be curious about the sensation, how far does it extend? How would you describe it (search for words other than “pain”, eg achy, tight etc. Be curious about whether the sensation changes as you watch it, does the area get smaller or larger? You may even want to focus on a sensation in a different area of the body for a break if you find it too challenging, then come back to the thighs. Give them a good rub at the end or stretch out your quads.
- At another time use mindful awareness of the breath for one minute, simply observing the breath without changing it in any way
- Another mindfulness practice in the half squat may be observing sounds around you