Mindfulness and mindfulness meditation can be especially beneficial for those affected by chronic or post-traumatic stress. In this episode of the First Responder Families Podcast, you’ll get an introduction to mindfulness meditation and related practices. Show host Ivona Bhadha, a trauma therapist who works with first responder couples and families, invited her listeners to explore the unique power of mindfulness and ways to experience it.
“Whether you are a regular meditator, or you’ve tried mindfulness meditation or other practices, maybe deep breathing,” Bhadha said at the outset, “this talk is to help you to see how much power lies in being able to bring yourself more into direct experience in the here and now and in the moment.”
What’s so powerful about mindfulness? Find out below.
What’s Powerful About Mindfulness
In recent years, mindfulness has become so popular as a concept that its meaning has been watered-down, its power taken for granted, and we’ve lost an appreciation for what it can really do. What can mindfulness and “a regular, preferably daily mindfulness practice” do? At least eight things, according to Bhadha:
- Mindfulness can “unlock our true authenticity” – “it can unleash your full human potential and you being the most authentic self; and you being your most authentic self is the greatest gift to you and to your families.”
- Mindfulness can help us “slow down and reduce those unwanted emotional experiences and symptoms of stress.”
- Mindfulness “helps to tame that emotional brain, or those emotional states like worry, anxiety, anger, frustration, impatience, self-doubt, insecurities” — those “big, big emotions that lead to nervous system dysregulation.”
- Mindfulness can help first responders cope with “unprocessed trauma and the symptoms of that.”
- Mindfulness can “bring online more joy, more flow, and more positivity.”
- Mindfulness “allows you to access more positive states of mind and also develop a kind and warm relationship to your thoughts, to your feelings, and ultimately to yourself.”
- Mindfulness “boosts our mental battery” (a.k.a. the prefrontal cortex) and “recharges it.”
- Mindfulness can support sobriety, by changing and strengthening the brain.
“Monkey Mind” and the Neuroscience of Mindfulness
Bhadha then described the neuroscience that supports mindfulness and its positive health effects. She began by describing the “monkey mind,” a Buddhist term that refers to the brain’s “constant chatter or constant voice.” This state of awareness is much like a monkey that keeps jumping from branch to branch. The mind is restless, agitated, unable to focus.
“This structure in the brain is always … telling us who we are, what to do, and also helps us to interpret situations,” Bhadha explained. And these “unique interpretations” can “lead to more emotions and more stressors, more experience of stress, especially if those interpretations are negative.”
When we’re stressed and depleted, this same monkey mind is responsible for automatic negative messages like “we don’t do a good-enough job, have lots of problems or not enough money.”
“And you can imagine that the monkey mind of the first responder can be very dominant and very negative because of the experiences they go through and suppress,” Bhadha said. “And on top of it, you have also the culture of first responders that accepts sometimes models, coping mechanisms like black humor, excessive drinking, or prescription drugs or avoidance.”
Mindfulness, over time, tames and calms the monkey mind and strengthens the prefrontal cortex and our executive functioning skills.
A Short Mindfulness Exercise
Mindfulness and a practice of mindfulness may seem intimidating at first. Bhadha offered a short and painless introduction:
- Find a comfortable position, whether sitting or lying down.
- Ensure that your back is straight.
- Take a few deep, slow breaths.
- “Settle your breath to its natural rhythm” and pay attention to the rise and fall of your breath as you inhale and exhale naturally.
- “If you notice any mental distraction, that you are no longer paying attention to your breath, you just noticed your monkey mind and you became mindful … And just guide your awareness back to your breath. Let your awareness meet your breath.”
- Whenever there’s a distraction, gently bring your mind back to “your anchor, which is your breath.”
What Do First Responders Say About Practicing Mindfulness?
Bhadha reached out to a few first responders who had tried mindfulness and benefitted from it. Tune in for their experiences.
