The Mindfulness Code

The Mindfulness Code:

Keys for Overcoming Stress, Anxiety, Fear, and Unhappiness*

Donald Altman

THREE EXCERPTS

Do One Joyful Thing Right Now

Dawn has barely broken this morning when I step out of the house with a solitary goal in mind: to get The Oregonian, deposited each morning in an oblong, yellow container that stands next to the mailbox. This morning I am in a hurry, and my mind churns with I-centric thoughts of future time. What should I eat for breakfast? I need to return those calls from yesterday. What handouts do I need to print for that next class? I wonder how many clients I am seeing today. I'm running late, so I'd better hurry....

Halfway down the long driveway, a jolting awareness suddenly breaks into this stream of thoughts. I stop in my tracks. The message is clear and direct: I'm not really here, not really present. It's true. Like the characters in the television series Lost, I am marooned and separated from what I most long for: a connection to what is true, real, and meaningful. I have drifted off to planning and musing about the next thing. This is a time- and outcome-based approach, one driven, at least to some extent, by the desire to determine and control the future. But where does it get me when I'm walking to pick up the newspaper? Does it really add anything?

And so, instead of walking to get the morning newspaper, I walk simply in order to walk. The effect is rather like being blind one moment and then looking through a telescope that magnifies not only sight but also sound and all other senses. In the blink of an eye, it all changes, and I am no longer alone. Walking to walk, I notice the towering fir trees, the chilly morning air, the brown pinecones on the ground, the warble of a red-headed finch darting across my path, the gurgling of a fountain, my own pulsing body, muscles contracting and loosening in my legs and arms with each small step. All catapult me into the undeniable aliveness of the moment. As I walk simply to walk, each breath fills my lungs with crisp, invigorating air. The demands of time and things not yet done have fallen away, and this is what remains. I've suddenly returned to the present, where time is endless and everlasting.

It probably takes me a good ten minutes to get the paper and return to the house (so much for being in a hurry!). But there is a new view in my eyes, my mind, and my heart. For a few moments, I have simply followed the path described by Abraham Joshua Heschel in his book The Sabbath, in which he describes the Sabbath as a sacred time that occurs when one stops being the artist, painter, and creator of the world's canvas, pausing instead to put the easel aside and simply be in the world. Heschel says, "To observe the Sabbath is to celebrate the coronation of a day in the spiritual wonderland of time."1 Each of us has the capability to enter this holy wonderland by fully entering the present. Many paradigm shifts have been written about, but perhaps none is more attainable and nourishing than shifting from endless mind-tripping to doing one thing -- walking, eating, sitting, standing, reading -- with total presence, ease, and joy.

Many retail stores now utilize what are known as performance monitoring systems to speed up the checkout process by timing each transaction. Some cashiers who work under such systems are actually afraid to do anything that might slow them down, such as smiling or talking with customers. If you also feel as though you are a slave to time and efficiency, you can always enter the present moment -- which is beyond time -- by making use of the strategy that follows.

When was the last time you completely dedicated and devoted yourself to the experience you were having with another person? Bring your full attention to deeply notice another person today -- the color of his eyes or the gentle curvature of her forehead, the way the hair falls, the unique sound and tone of the voice, the shape of the hand and fingers, and even the deeper need for well-being and happiness. Know that this person is the most important person in your life in this moment, for as Tolstoy writes in his short story "Three Questions": "The most necessary [individual] is he with whom you are, for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else." This practice not only brings you into the present but also honors the uniqueness that exists in each being. Let this meeting with another be the most important thing in your life, just for the few moments or minutes that it lasts. Could you live each moment of your day this way? How beautiful!

*Excerpted from the book The Mindfulness Code: Keys for Overcoming Stress, Anxiety, Fear, and Unhappiness COPYRIGHT C 2010 by Donald Altman. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com

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Invite the Power and Peace of Intention

How strong a force is intention? Does setting an intention really work? If you're not sure about the power of intention, think for a moment about all the items in your household and in your life at this moment. None of this just appeared out of nowhere. An intention preceded the wanting, the buying, the getting that relationship, and more. Every action or deed begins with an intention, whether that intention is conscious or unconscious. Advertisers know this, and they set the intention to get us to buy their products. If we're not paying attention, the intentions of others can become our intentions.

Intentions can be harmful, beneficial, or neutral. Intentions are the seeds you plant to produce the eventual yield of your life. When an intention is repeated time and time again, the groove created by that intention becomes a habit or sometimes an addiction. Habit then shapes one's brain, one's character, and one's life. Problems occur when intentions are unconscious or unheeded, when we are not the master of our intentions. Intention also has a broader meaning and application that author Wayne Dyer describes as reconnecting with source and uncovering purpose. Intentions are critical because they can morph directly into our worldly actions. To identify intention is to touch the heart of mindfulness: fully awakening to the moment, unencumbered from delusion and ignorance, and affirming deepest purpose.

When I first meet Patrick, a married man in his late thirties, he tells me he is depressed because his wife wants a divorce. I ask what has led to this situation, and Patrick describes his troubling obsession with sex and the Internet. He wrings his hands as he recounts how his behavior escalated from viewing pornography to arranging meetings for sex in riskier and riskier situations.

"My wife found out, and now she wants to leave me," he says, hanging his head. "I want to keep the marriage together, but I don't know how." When I tell Patrick that his behavior reveals sexual addiction, he is shocked. After some initial denial, Patrick realizes how his actions have hurt others, and he begins to accept and work with his addiction, his habitual and unconscious intentions. This willingness to accept is itself an intention to move in a new direction, in terms of both brain pathways and life pathways.

The vigorous and ongoing scientific debate about the nature of intention has spurred brain researchers to identify an area in the prefrontal cortex of the brain that activates before we make a conscious choice to perform a task. Research shows that not all intentions are conscious. Benjamin Libet, a researcher in the fields of physiology and human consciousness and author of Mind Time, posits that there is a brief period of time -- about one-third of a second -- during which anyone can veto even an unconscious intention.

One thing is certain: The more mindful and aware we can become of our intentions, the more free will we possess to cultivate conscious intentions and subsequent actions. An ongoing mindfulness practice can awaken even the subtlest intentions. You might think of these as mind whispers -- those intentions that are so gentle and quiet, like a whisper, that they are usually overlooked. Once you start to pay closer attention, you will begin to notice how intentions precede almost everything you do, from generating the smallest movements and everyday behavior to creating a hurricane of violent emotions.

So important is intention in Buddhism that Right Intention -- sometimes called Right Thought -- is one of the wisdom trainings in the Noble Eightfold Path. Through this training, the mind becomes clear, pure, and directed toward kindness and love. Harsh or harmful thoughts and intentions eventually cease because they can be eliminated almost as soon as they appear on the mind's radar screen. To know whether an intention or thought is harmful or beneficial is vital. Buddha observed: "The thought manifests as the word. The word manifests as the deed. The deed develops into habit. And habit hardens into character. So watch the thought and its way with care, and let it spring from love born out of concern for all beings."

A soft breeze will barely move a leaf on a tree. A tornado will uproot the entire tree. Similarly, everything that happens around you makes its imprint or impression on you, sometimes barely moving the mind while at other times uprooting it. Only by observing the body and the mind can we identify the breeze or tornado that produces our intentions. What impressions are creating those mind whispers? Begin to notice the exact moment when you get a feeling or a sense that you want to indulge in an action or a habit. When it happens, pause and ask yourself, What thought, intention, or action just preceded this sense or feeling? If you want to change your life's direction, you need to direct your intention, which means first being honest about the thoughts, rationalizations, intentions, and attitudes you already have.

Even if you can't identify the root cause of a thought, a body sensation, or an intention, you can always introduce another, more beneficial intention in any given moment. The more you pause to notice your feelings and intentions throughout the day, the more awareness of this moment you will enjoy. Over time, you begin to notice thoughts early on, and you can intercept the thoughts you don't want, before they manifest as actions with negative consequences.

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Breathe Consciously and Mindfully

How many breaths do you take in a day? Close your eyes and count your breaths for the next minute. If you do the math, you will discover that we take approximately twenty thousand breaths a day. And yet, how many of those breaths are we consciously aware of? This is exactly how we unlock mindfulness -- by taking what is unconscious and shining the light of consciousness on it. By intentionally taking a diaphragmatic breath (aka belly breath), we turn on the body's innate relaxation system and thermostat.

What is more, to notice the breath is to appreciate our own precious being and to contact the essence of our presence. With the breath, we peer behind the veil at how we come into this world needing and gasping for the breath of life. Holding onto the breath leads to suffocation. Living requires a constant letting go. This in itself is a powerful lesson in nonattachment. Each breath teaches us that holding on too long to anything creates pain and suffering. Letting go is nature's way, and this is no small thing.

From the physical perspective, it only takes three conscious diaphragmatic breaths to reduce our blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiration rate; to cleanse the blood of lactate; and to generate alpha brain waves, which put us in "the zone."

Diaphragmatic breathing also releases serotonin, the mood-stabilizing neurotransmitter, into our bloodstream. Perhaps most astonishing of all is that belly breathing can accomplish this in only twenty seconds.

Physiologically, breathing into the deepest part of our lungs pushes on the diaphragmatic wall, the muscle that separates the chest and abdominal cavities. The downward movement of the diaphragm compresses the abdomen and forces it outward. This in turn causes the gut to press on the vagus nerve (a bundle of cranial nerves running down the inside of the spine), which triggers the relaxation response and releases serotonin from the gut into the bloodstream to take to the brain.

When we breathe shallowly, or high in the chest, we don't get these benefits. In fact, chest breathing makes us vulnerable to the body's alert-and-alarm system, the fight-or-flight syndrome that floods the body and brain with the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. After just three to four days of this, your body enters a chronic stress state, which Bernard's story shows us is debilitating. It adversely affects our sleep, creates cravings for high-fat foods and sugar, and inhibits our immune system, even destroying T cells and NK (natural killer) cells, which the body uses to defend itself from sickness. Breathing mindfully and consciously to de-stress the body is a form of self-healing. It's also worth mentioning that conscious breathing trumps the stress response because both of these systems cannot operate at the same time. The brain-body wants to cool itself down from stress, and it could use assistance.

Now, let's try this for real. Forget anything you may have previously heard about counting and holding your breath, and don't worry about whether to breathe through your nose or mouth. Just do what comes naturally, as long as you are getting air into the deeper part of your lungs. To begin, observe whether you are breathing into your chest or your belly. You can do this by placing the palm of one hand directly on your chest and the other on your belly as you breathe normally. If the hand over your chest is moving or both hands are moving, you are taking shallow breaths. Only when your lower hand is moving are you breathing fully into the belly. (If you feel lightheaded or dizzy, then you may be taking too deep of a breath.) Taking a breath is like pouring water into a glass: the bottom fills up first, and if you keep pouring, the upper half gets full. The point of conscious breathing is to move air to the lower lungs with a normal breath. And if you are still not sure which hand is moving, look in the mirror as you breathe.

If you are a chest breather, don't worry. We are all born to breathe diaphragmatically. Look at any baby and you will notice its little belly rising and falling with each breath. We are designed to belly breathe. Our ribs are interlaced with muscles called the intercostals; the intercostals hinge the ribs open so we can take a deeper breath. With conscious breathing, we are relearning to breathe the way nature intends. Stretching the intercostals is easy to do. Clasp your hands behind your back. (If you are sitting in a chair, you may want to scoot forward to do this.) Notice that this is the same arm position soldiers use when they assume the "at ease" stance. Observe your breath. Do you notice your abdomen rising or expanding more now that you are opening your rib cage? (If you are a woman who feels uncomfortable about your stomach moving outward because of cultural conditioning around the shape of women's bellies, practice in private.) Are your stomach muscles relaxed? They need to be for diaphragmatic breathing, so soften the abdominal muscles whenever you practice.

Another position that opens the rib cage and makes belly breathing easier has us place our hands behind our head, elbows out to the side. This is the same posture athletes often take to get a deeper breath after exerting themselves. Again, observe where the air is going with each breath. Which position -- hands behind the back or hands behind the head -- works best for you? You can also belly breathe effectively while standing up.

It is important to integrate conscious breathing into our lifestyle. You may experience a sense of calm after breathing like this. You may even want to laugh. Let your body experience whatever feeling occurs.

With practice, you will invite the joy of conscious breathing into all parts of your day, and over time, you will start to notice whether your breath is shallow or deep. By bringing breath into your field of awareness, you will retrain your body to use its natural thermostat to manage stress.

To order THE MINDFULNESS CODE from Amazon.com, click here!

About the Author

Donald Altman is the author of The Mindfulness Code and Meal by Meal. He is an adjunct professor at Lewis and Clark College Graduate School, teaches at Portland State University, and conducts mindful living and eating workshops nationally. A member of the Dzogchen Foundation and the Burma Buddhist Monastery Association, he lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit him online at http://www.mindfulnesscode.com.