Mindfulness Under Attack, Part 3: Presence, Verhaeghen 2017
Nov 24, 2019 13:25:48 GMT -5
vetspa4ever likes this
Post by Admin on Nov 24, 2019 13:25:48 GMT -5
Mindfulness Under Attack, Part 3 Review:
Presence: How Mindfulness and Meditation Shape Your Brain, Mind, and Life, 1st Edition, 2017
by Paul Verhaeghen (Author)
Verhaeghen is described in the book summary on Amazon.com as “…a professor in Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he mainly studies attention, memory, aging, and their interfaces, as well as the link between rumination, depression, and creativity. He is also a long-term meditator and occasional mindfulness teacher.” Verhaeghen is not, however, a neuroscientist Mindfulness research ‘insider’. His aim was to examine the current research with a critical eye, as well as to summarize specific findings of mindfulness science as of 2017. Both Goleman / Davidson (Review part 1) and Verhaeghen revisit what has been learned so far in the neuroscience into mindfulness – Though Verhaeghen dives much more deeply into the research than the former. Presence was, after all, used as a textbook for an undergraduate course at the University of Delaware, so it was no surprise to see all the research ‘lingo’. So even if terms like, “short-term dose-response”, “0.49 SD” or, “fusiform gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus” make your eyes glaze over and might lead to slamming the book shut, it is well enough written that much can be gleaned from this textbook by the non-academic reader skipping over the more technical sections.
OVERVIEW:
I found the Amazon summary of the book excellent so share it here to give a nice summary of the ground covered by the author:
REVIEW & DISCUSSION:
The first book reviewed here (part 2), Altered Traits(AT), is written in broad brush, a big-picture look at the evolution of the mindfulness movement and research. This book, however, differs substantially from the first (AT) in that Presence uses a laser focus, exploring in much greater detail a sizable amount of mindfulness research, doing so by diving into meta-studies – studies of studies. At the same time, as the chapters unfold, it is helpful that the author likes to meta-comment on whether or not the paper(s) in question adhere to higher modern research standards. Throughout the book, when discussing any particular study, therefore, he often includes an informal ‘rating’ (my term) as to the quality of the research being discussed, thus influencing how we might weigh the particular study’s conclusions.
Synopsis:
1. Mind The Hype theme* continued: Verhaeghen adds his voice to the chorus urging mindfulness teachers, researchers and the media who cover them to avoid hype and hyperbole; warning against mindfulness advocates’ claims (some baseless and exaggerated) that mindfulness is a be-all, end-all panacea, even that Mindfulness is the dawn of a new era. Perhaps in fifty years scholars may look back and say that indeed this mindfulness explosion in early 21st century was indeed a major cultural paradigm shift. But for now, the recommendation is to always keep in mind that the research has only just begun. Throughout the book, Verhaeghen gives many examples of things about mindfulness which are backed by the evidence – and others which are not so much. As a result, in each of the subtopics he treats, he makes it clear what the research says mindfulness practice can – or cannot – do.
* Mind the Hype Discussions previously on mindfulvets.net:
mindfulvetsdel.freeforums.net/thread/270/critique-mindfulness-research-backlash-overdue
mindfulvetsdel.freeforums.net/thread/287/another-mcmindfulness-article-feb2018-neoliberals
2. Mindfulness Defined: Chapters 1 and 2 are excellent examinations of how the study of mindfulness is currently being refined and defined. Furthermore, the research-based explanations of what happens to (or in) the meditating Brain-body are most helpful. Research shows that having a meditation practice affects one’s attention, body awareness and also the sense of self (internally, externally and in space & time). There is strong support showing that how much-- and how long -- one meditates are central factors to determine whether someone’s mindfulness states become mindfulness traits. Also, in these earlier sections he discusses the fact that this thing called ‘meditation’ is not a monolith; rather, a great deal depends on the type of meditation studied, dose-response relationship, context and setting; and, importantly, he examines the various iterations which followed MBSR, namely, MBCT, DBT, ACT and others (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy).
3. The Brain’s Meditation Networks: I found the treatment of the structure and functions of the brain parts – also seen as multiple inter-connected brain networks -- to be very helpful. Admittedly, the nerd in me enjoyed the explanations of just three of these human brain networks: Default Mode Network, Executive Network & Salience Network – or, the ‘non-focused mind-wandering’ network, the ’task completion’ network & the ‘noticing change and what needs attention’ network. Surely, weeks from reading I’ve surely forgotten most of the anatomical names for parts of the brain, but his detailed explanation of how the brain works through these networks helped me better understand what is going on in the active brain when meditating.
4. From Monkey Mind to Monk’s Mind: This is where the author delves into the nitty-gritty of the science explaining mindfulness practice and attention, as well as references to its Buddhist roots. This section of the book is one which I wish that mindfulness critics Ron Purser and Tom Joiner (2 books to be reviewed here later) had studied before penning their works. Jon Kabat-Zinn uses the term ‘non-judgmental’ in defining Mindfulness a la MBSR, and in this reader’s opinion this concept has been grossly misunderstood and condemned by both these authors (Purser, Joiner) as meaning some sort of passive, self-absorbed, value-less exercise in acceptance when being ‘non-judgmental’. Verhaeghen breaks it down, however, with his clear explanations of what ‘nonjudgmental’ means as to attention, perception, bodily, spatial and temporal awareness in meditation. He also looks briefly at ADHD and working memory effects of meditation.
5. Effects of Meditation: The major portion of the last third of the book looks at research on the effects of meditation. Here are the types of effects of meditation and mindfulness (MM) he treats: MM Effects the following – Stress, Health. Physiology, Sleep, Emotional, Pain, Personal & Interpersonal domains, Quality of Life, Emotional Regulation, Empathy capacity, Rumination & Personality; Also, he briefly touches on the question of what are effects of mindfulness and meditation in special populations such as Schools, Prisons & Work environments?
6. Mindfulness as Medicine: As is well known, MBSR started by Jon Kabat-Zinn in a medical setting, as a way of helping folks with chronic conditions or terminal illness using complementary methods. But if you look carefully at some of the UMass Center for Mindfulness(CFM) early teacher-training documents, MBSR was not originally ‘packaged’ as a cure or ‘fix’ for anything. In the beginning, MBSR was not intended to ‘fix’ patients, but more to serve as a complementary engagement in holistic (and Buddhist-sourced) mental and physical activities (attending the breath for example). In fact, the early CFM mindfulness teachers’ guidelines caution against having active mental health patients when screening for MBSR cohorts.
But fast forward to the last decade’s research topics and even a cursory look at the various databases and publications in research reveals deep interest in studying whether Mindfulness & Meditation (MM) can be used clinically by all manner of medical and helping professions.
7. What Works & What Doesn’t?
Below is a graph of the effects of mindful meditation in healthy and clinical populations (fig.4, p. 160):
(fig.4)
A. FINDINGS ON MINDFULNESS IN HEALTHY ADULTS:
Three Discoveries about effects of mindfulness training in healthy adults (paraphrasing author):
1. The first is statistical significance. In healthy adults, we have data on 22 different aspects of attention, stress, and well-being; 20 of those effects are larger than zero. The ones that are problematic are resting cortisol and emotional stability, but mindfulness/meditation has significant and beneficial effects on control over attention, attentional blink, sustained attention, proprioception for sexual arousal, working memory, perceived stress, immune functioning, general well-being, state anxiety, trait anxiety, depressed mood, negative emotions, positive emotions, emotion regulation, rumination, negative personality traits, trait mindfulness, self-concept, empathy, and compassion. (Yes, I realize you can read this from the graph, but isn’t it very satisfying to just go through this list?) In sum, the effects of meditation are almost uniformly positive….
2. Second, mindfulness/meditation works just as well as standard psychological, educational, and behavioral interventions do, with a few exceptions.
3. Third, the effects are amazingly broad. If you were disappointed to find that meditation works “only” as well as standard psychological interventions, consider that such interventions are usually targeted to a specific problem within a specific group. That is, marital counseling tries to make marriages work; Head Start hopes to improve toddlers’ school readiness; relaxation therapy aims at making people feel less stressed; and so on. Essentially, typical psychological, behavioral, and educational interventions are one-trick ponies….
B. Findings on Mindfulness as Medicine:
List of things he wishes to know more about Meditation than we do presently (I’m paraphrasing his conclusions here):
1. We still know relatively little about what effects to expect from what types of meditation.
2. We know that there is a cascade where meditation promotes mindfulness, which in turn promotes well-being, we do not know if the cascade is really an automatic, mechanistic process…it is unclear whether meditation by necessity ( and in all people) leads to lower levels of stress, a better emotional life, and greater interpersonal happiness.
3. …it seems indeed as if attention training brings about changes in mindfulness, we still know very little about how that actually works.
4. We know a lot about long-term meditators, and we likewise know a lot about short-term interventions, but we have almost no data on what happens in between these two extremes –(from 50 hours to a few thousand hours of practice…)
5. There is -- at present -- no recipe for meditation, no cookbook…we need research to answer questions such as: Is more always better? Or, is there an optimal duration? Might there be a flowchart, or recipe which takes into account individual differences.
6. And for those who simply do not like or want to meditate, are there alternative ways to boost mindfulness (some mentioned in the book)?
Reviewer’s Comments:
When I turn the last page and put down a book on mindfulness I tend to judge it as to whether it helps, hinders, or moves me to alter my present practice of meditation and mindfulness in daily life. But I also write these reviews with an eye towards readers who may just be considering mindfulness for the first time, or are merely curious if it’s something they might try; or also for those who seek to change or improve their present practice. I also judge books by whether or not I feel the author(s) are fair-minded and objective and whether they tend to use evidence-based information and language. Given that there are now SO many books out there on mindfulness, I hope to make it a bit easier deciding which books to choose, which to avoid.
Takeaways: Filtering through the amazing amount of data and detail of this book, my biggest takeaways from Presence --as far as personal applications go -- are fairly simple:
1. DO practice (mindful meditation); The research is still not at a point where one can – based on this research review – have simple cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all prescriptions about the practice of meditation, it is clear that any inclusion of mindful meditation into one’s life can be beneficial, with potential for being transformative.
2. The more often -- and the longer -- one meditates determine the long-term effects for the individual.
3. RELAX: At the simple level of experiencing meditation in the moment, Verhaeghen says to aim for engaging your parasympathetic response; He recommends shooting for six seconds per breath as this rate helps synchronize the breathing rate to the heart rate (which deepens the quality of the relaxation state).
4. And, adding to Verhaeghen’s ‘relax’ advice, I’d like to add something from my own frames of reference, drawing from the Taoist tradition: I suggest looking into the term wu-wei, ‘ effortless doing’ (View nice explanation of wu-wei in first paragraph HERE) . . It might also be helpful to consider “doing” mindful meditation as you would “do” other activities such as dancing, singing and making love – let the body lead the way.
Verhaeghen closes the book with this:
End Part Three, Discussion of book, Presence, by Paul Verhaeghen
Dana Kenneth Lewis
Mindful Veterans Connection
www.mindfulvets.net
Review, Part One
Review, Part Two
Review, Part Three
Book Discussed:
Presence: How Mindfulness and Meditation Shape Your Brain, Mind, and Life, 1st Edition, 2017
by Paul Verhaeghen (Author)
Presence: How Mindfulness and Meditation Shape Your Brain, Mind, and Life, 1st Edition, 2017
by Paul Verhaeghen (Author)
Verhaeghen is described in the book summary on Amazon.com as “…a professor in Psychology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he mainly studies attention, memory, aging, and their interfaces, as well as the link between rumination, depression, and creativity. He is also a long-term meditator and occasional mindfulness teacher.” Verhaeghen is not, however, a neuroscientist Mindfulness research ‘insider’. His aim was to examine the current research with a critical eye, as well as to summarize specific findings of mindfulness science as of 2017. Both Goleman / Davidson (Review part 1) and Verhaeghen revisit what has been learned so far in the neuroscience into mindfulness – Though Verhaeghen dives much more deeply into the research than the former. Presence was, after all, used as a textbook for an undergraduate course at the University of Delaware, so it was no surprise to see all the research ‘lingo’. So even if terms like, “short-term dose-response”, “0.49 SD” or, “fusiform gyrus and inferior temporal gyrus” make your eyes glaze over and might lead to slamming the book shut, it is well enough written that much can be gleaned from this textbook by the non-academic reader skipping over the more technical sections.
OVERVIEW:
I found the Amazon summary of the book excellent so share it here to give a nice summary of the ground covered by the author:
Mindfulness and one of the roads to it, meditation, have become increasingly popular as a way to promote health and well-being. Meditation can create mindfulness in daily life, which becomes an ingrained habit if applied consistently-it can boost immune function; lower levels of stress, anxiety, or depression; lift affect; regulate emotion more easily; and make you happier.
Presence reviews how meditation calms the body and what goes on inside the brain during meditation-how it impacts control over attention, awareness of the body, and the experience of self. It examines how meditation leaves telltale lasting traces in brain structure, and how it impacts important areas of life such as well-being, stress, and health. In addition, it examines how mindfulness can be useful as therapy, alleviating depression, anxiety, worry, and pain. A final chapter provides advice on how to meditate and practice mindfulness in a scientifically sound way, based on what we know about how meditation works.
Over the last decade, research on these beneficial effects has boomed in the cognitive and behavioral psychology and neuroscience literature, and Presence provides an overview of this research that is thorough and accessible for the curious meditator, seasoned or beginner, as well as for students and practitioners of contemplative science and related fields.
Presence reviews how meditation calms the body and what goes on inside the brain during meditation-how it impacts control over attention, awareness of the body, and the experience of self. It examines how meditation leaves telltale lasting traces in brain structure, and how it impacts important areas of life such as well-being, stress, and health. In addition, it examines how mindfulness can be useful as therapy, alleviating depression, anxiety, worry, and pain. A final chapter provides advice on how to meditate and practice mindfulness in a scientifically sound way, based on what we know about how meditation works.
Over the last decade, research on these beneficial effects has boomed in the cognitive and behavioral psychology and neuroscience literature, and Presence provides an overview of this research that is thorough and accessible for the curious meditator, seasoned or beginner, as well as for students and practitioners of contemplative science and related fields.
REVIEW & DISCUSSION:
The first book reviewed here (part 2), Altered Traits(AT), is written in broad brush, a big-picture look at the evolution of the mindfulness movement and research. This book, however, differs substantially from the first (AT) in that Presence uses a laser focus, exploring in much greater detail a sizable amount of mindfulness research, doing so by diving into meta-studies – studies of studies. At the same time, as the chapters unfold, it is helpful that the author likes to meta-comment on whether or not the paper(s) in question adhere to higher modern research standards. Throughout the book, when discussing any particular study, therefore, he often includes an informal ‘rating’ (my term) as to the quality of the research being discussed, thus influencing how we might weigh the particular study’s conclusions.
Synopsis:
1. Mind The Hype theme* continued: Verhaeghen adds his voice to the chorus urging mindfulness teachers, researchers and the media who cover them to avoid hype and hyperbole; warning against mindfulness advocates’ claims (some baseless and exaggerated) that mindfulness is a be-all, end-all panacea, even that Mindfulness is the dawn of a new era. Perhaps in fifty years scholars may look back and say that indeed this mindfulness explosion in early 21st century was indeed a major cultural paradigm shift. But for now, the recommendation is to always keep in mind that the research has only just begun. Throughout the book, Verhaeghen gives many examples of things about mindfulness which are backed by the evidence – and others which are not so much. As a result, in each of the subtopics he treats, he makes it clear what the research says mindfulness practice can – or cannot – do.
* Mind the Hype Discussions previously on mindfulvets.net:
mindfulvetsdel.freeforums.net/thread/270/critique-mindfulness-research-backlash-overdue
mindfulvetsdel.freeforums.net/thread/287/another-mcmindfulness-article-feb2018-neoliberals
2. Mindfulness Defined: Chapters 1 and 2 are excellent examinations of how the study of mindfulness is currently being refined and defined. Furthermore, the research-based explanations of what happens to (or in) the meditating Brain-body are most helpful. Research shows that having a meditation practice affects one’s attention, body awareness and also the sense of self (internally, externally and in space & time). There is strong support showing that how much-- and how long -- one meditates are central factors to determine whether someone’s mindfulness states become mindfulness traits. Also, in these earlier sections he discusses the fact that this thing called ‘meditation’ is not a monolith; rather, a great deal depends on the type of meditation studied, dose-response relationship, context and setting; and, importantly, he examines the various iterations which followed MBSR, namely, MBCT, DBT, ACT and others (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy).
3. The Brain’s Meditation Networks: I found the treatment of the structure and functions of the brain parts – also seen as multiple inter-connected brain networks -- to be very helpful. Admittedly, the nerd in me enjoyed the explanations of just three of these human brain networks: Default Mode Network, Executive Network & Salience Network – or, the ‘non-focused mind-wandering’ network, the ’task completion’ network & the ‘noticing change and what needs attention’ network. Surely, weeks from reading I’ve surely forgotten most of the anatomical names for parts of the brain, but his detailed explanation of how the brain works through these networks helped me better understand what is going on in the active brain when meditating.
4. From Monkey Mind to Monk’s Mind: This is where the author delves into the nitty-gritty of the science explaining mindfulness practice and attention, as well as references to its Buddhist roots. This section of the book is one which I wish that mindfulness critics Ron Purser and Tom Joiner (2 books to be reviewed here later) had studied before penning their works. Jon Kabat-Zinn uses the term ‘non-judgmental’ in defining Mindfulness a la MBSR, and in this reader’s opinion this concept has been grossly misunderstood and condemned by both these authors (Purser, Joiner) as meaning some sort of passive, self-absorbed, value-less exercise in acceptance when being ‘non-judgmental’. Verhaeghen breaks it down, however, with his clear explanations of what ‘nonjudgmental’ means as to attention, perception, bodily, spatial and temporal awareness in meditation. He also looks briefly at ADHD and working memory effects of meditation.
5. Effects of Meditation: The major portion of the last third of the book looks at research on the effects of meditation. Here are the types of effects of meditation and mindfulness (MM) he treats: MM Effects the following – Stress, Health. Physiology, Sleep, Emotional, Pain, Personal & Interpersonal domains, Quality of Life, Emotional Regulation, Empathy capacity, Rumination & Personality; Also, he briefly touches on the question of what are effects of mindfulness and meditation in special populations such as Schools, Prisons & Work environments?
6. Mindfulness as Medicine: As is well known, MBSR started by Jon Kabat-Zinn in a medical setting, as a way of helping folks with chronic conditions or terminal illness using complementary methods. But if you look carefully at some of the UMass Center for Mindfulness(CFM) early teacher-training documents, MBSR was not originally ‘packaged’ as a cure or ‘fix’ for anything. In the beginning, MBSR was not intended to ‘fix’ patients, but more to serve as a complementary engagement in holistic (and Buddhist-sourced) mental and physical activities (attending the breath for example). In fact, the early CFM mindfulness teachers’ guidelines caution against having active mental health patients when screening for MBSR cohorts.
But fast forward to the last decade’s research topics and even a cursory look at the various databases and publications in research reveals deep interest in studying whether Mindfulness & Meditation (MM) can be used clinically by all manner of medical and helping professions.
An Aside about the state of neuroscience research:
As an example of how wide the net of mindfulness research has been cast of late, consider this: Just in the last month or two during my own scans of different databases, Google Scholar etc., I’ve seen MM being tested for efficacy in the following sub-specialties: post-breast cancer patients, Yoga & Anxiety, Hedonic Regulation in Addiction Treatment, Psoriasis, Virtual Reality Pain Management and Palliative Care COPD; these are in addition to hundreds of other papers parsing various aspects of using MM or MBI (mindfulness-based interventions) in treating Depression, PTSD and subtopics thereof.
In addition, much 21st century research is focusing not just on diagnoses targets but on various populations, such as: Schizophrenic Patients, Medical /Health Care Clinicians(keyword “burn-out”), Veterans, Educators, Psychotherapists, and Law Enforcement – trauma-based occupations. Verhaeghen’s look at Mindfulness as Medicine is most helpful and fairly succinct, considering the amount of information he covers.
As an example of how wide the net of mindfulness research has been cast of late, consider this: Just in the last month or two during my own scans of different databases, Google Scholar etc., I’ve seen MM being tested for efficacy in the following sub-specialties: post-breast cancer patients, Yoga & Anxiety, Hedonic Regulation in Addiction Treatment, Psoriasis, Virtual Reality Pain Management and Palliative Care COPD; these are in addition to hundreds of other papers parsing various aspects of using MM or MBI (mindfulness-based interventions) in treating Depression, PTSD and subtopics thereof.
In addition, much 21st century research is focusing not just on diagnoses targets but on various populations, such as: Schizophrenic Patients, Medical /Health Care Clinicians(keyword “burn-out”), Veterans, Educators, Psychotherapists, and Law Enforcement – trauma-based occupations. Verhaeghen’s look at Mindfulness as Medicine is most helpful and fairly succinct, considering the amount of information he covers.
7. What Works & What Doesn’t?
Below is a graph of the effects of mindful meditation in healthy and clinical populations (fig.4, p. 160):
(fig.4)
A. FINDINGS ON MINDFULNESS IN HEALTHY ADULTS:
Three Discoveries about effects of mindfulness training in healthy adults (paraphrasing author):
1. The first is statistical significance. In healthy adults, we have data on 22 different aspects of attention, stress, and well-being; 20 of those effects are larger than zero. The ones that are problematic are resting cortisol and emotional stability, but mindfulness/meditation has significant and beneficial effects on control over attention, attentional blink, sustained attention, proprioception for sexual arousal, working memory, perceived stress, immune functioning, general well-being, state anxiety, trait anxiety, depressed mood, negative emotions, positive emotions, emotion regulation, rumination, negative personality traits, trait mindfulness, self-concept, empathy, and compassion. (Yes, I realize you can read this from the graph, but isn’t it very satisfying to just go through this list?) In sum, the effects of meditation are almost uniformly positive….
2. Second, mindfulness/meditation works just as well as standard psychological, educational, and behavioral interventions do, with a few exceptions.
3. Third, the effects are amazingly broad. If you were disappointed to find that meditation works “only” as well as standard psychological interventions, consider that such interventions are usually targeted to a specific problem within a specific group. That is, marital counseling tries to make marriages work; Head Start hopes to improve toddlers’ school readiness; relaxation therapy aims at making people feel less stressed; and so on. Essentially, typical psychological, behavioral, and educational interventions are one-trick ponies….
Verhaeghen concludes about mindfulness and healthy adults:
In sum, meditation is a wonderful wellness tool, but it isn’t necessarily better than anything else, if you are interested in just one outcome. (For instance, relaxation therapy is just as good at preventing or lessening the harms of stress as mindfulness is.) What sets mindfulness apart is its broad-spectrum efficacy—I can’t think of any other intervention that has quite such a wide range of positive outcomes.
In sum, meditation is a wonderful wellness tool, but it isn’t necessarily better than anything else, if you are interested in just one outcome. (For instance, relaxation therapy is just as good at preventing or lessening the harms of stress as mindfulness is.) What sets mindfulness apart is its broad-spectrum efficacy—I can’t think of any other intervention that has quite such a wide range of positive outcomes.
B. Findings on Mindfulness as Medicine:
The conclusion here is that mindfulness/meditation does not propel you into the stratosphere of mental health, but it does have larger effects than placebo treatment and the same effects as treatment-as-usual, leaving people who are struggling with mental health issues with one more viable option. Mindfulness has the added advantages that it has broad effects that last for at least six months and that it has no known negative side effects, at least in a clinical context.
List of things he wishes to know more about Meditation than we do presently (I’m paraphrasing his conclusions here):
1. We still know relatively little about what effects to expect from what types of meditation.
2. We know that there is a cascade where meditation promotes mindfulness, which in turn promotes well-being, we do not know if the cascade is really an automatic, mechanistic process…it is unclear whether meditation by necessity ( and in all people) leads to lower levels of stress, a better emotional life, and greater interpersonal happiness.
3. …it seems indeed as if attention training brings about changes in mindfulness, we still know very little about how that actually works.
4. We know a lot about long-term meditators, and we likewise know a lot about short-term interventions, but we have almost no data on what happens in between these two extremes –(from 50 hours to a few thousand hours of practice…)
5. There is -- at present -- no recipe for meditation, no cookbook…we need research to answer questions such as: Is more always better? Or, is there an optimal duration? Might there be a flowchart, or recipe which takes into account individual differences.
6. And for those who simply do not like or want to meditate, are there alternative ways to boost mindfulness (some mentioned in the book)?
Reviewer’s Comments:
When I turn the last page and put down a book on mindfulness I tend to judge it as to whether it helps, hinders, or moves me to alter my present practice of meditation and mindfulness in daily life. But I also write these reviews with an eye towards readers who may just be considering mindfulness for the first time, or are merely curious if it’s something they might try; or also for those who seek to change or improve their present practice. I also judge books by whether or not I feel the author(s) are fair-minded and objective and whether they tend to use evidence-based information and language. Given that there are now SO many books out there on mindfulness, I hope to make it a bit easier deciding which books to choose, which to avoid.
Takeaways: Filtering through the amazing amount of data and detail of this book, my biggest takeaways from Presence --as far as personal applications go -- are fairly simple:
1. DO practice (mindful meditation); The research is still not at a point where one can – based on this research review – have simple cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all prescriptions about the practice of meditation, it is clear that any inclusion of mindful meditation into one’s life can be beneficial, with potential for being transformative.
2. The more often -- and the longer -- one meditates determine the long-term effects for the individual.
3. RELAX: At the simple level of experiencing meditation in the moment, Verhaeghen says to aim for engaging your parasympathetic response; He recommends shooting for six seconds per breath as this rate helps synchronize the breathing rate to the heart rate (which deepens the quality of the relaxation state).
4. And, adding to Verhaeghen’s ‘relax’ advice, I’d like to add something from my own frames of reference, drawing from the Taoist tradition: I suggest looking into the term wu-wei, ‘ effortless doing’ (View nice explanation of wu-wei in first paragraph HERE) . . It might also be helpful to consider “doing” mindful meditation as you would “do” other activities such as dancing, singing and making love – let the body lead the way.
Verhaeghen closes the book with this:
…much more (research) work remains to be done, and that is fitting: The study of meditation is like meditation itself—a never-ending journey, and who knows where you will end up. Now, if you’ll excuse me: After writing all this, I feel a bit exhausted. A sit would be nice.
End Part Three, Discussion of book, Presence, by Paul Verhaeghen
Dana Kenneth Lewis
Mindful Veterans Connection
www.mindfulvets.net
Review, Part One
Review, Part Two
Review, Part Three
Book Discussed:
Presence: How Mindfulness and Meditation Shape Your Brain, Mind, and Life, 1st Edition, 2017
by Paul Verhaeghen (Author)
