Brief Mindfulness Exercises for the Busy Physician studies show gray matter increases in the areas of the brain associated with memory, empathy and emotional self-regulation following mindfulness training. In addition to the long term benefits of Imagine you are about to make an important case mindfulness training, there are immediate benefits presentation to your medical team. All the residents, including relaxation, reduced stress, and improved fellows, your attending, and other senior faculty emotional regulation. At UCSF, the Osher Center members are present. The room is across the hall for Integrative Medicine, teaches the full eightfrom a very noisy nursing station and the audio/ week MBSR class and has an active research visual systems are not working; you won’t be able program investigating applications of MBSR to a to use your Powerpoint presentation and you will wide variety of health conditions (http://www.osher. virtually have to yell to be heard in the back of the ucsf.edu/classes-and-lectures/meditation-androom. Suddenly, you feel your chest tighten, your mindfulness/). Participating in an MBSR class can palms begin to sweat, your heart is racing, and your be a life changing experience. During Residency, breath shallow. You begin thinking about how your however, it may be impossible to take a full class colleagues will judge you during the conference. due to its significant time commitment (8-weekly You feel light-headed and fear kicks in--you know 2-hour classes, 45-minutes of daily practice and a you are not well enough prepared! This thought full day retreat). Fortunately, there are many ways pumps up your worry and you remember an old you can begin to develop mindfulness. When the idea that you are a bad presenter. You begin to time is limited, short practices throughout the day recall how terribly you have presented in the past have beneficial effects. and in your mind, you screw up this presentation too. You will do a terrible job and end up humiliated Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as a way of “paying and criticized by your supervisors and colleagues. attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the You are now frozen in fear. In this mind/body present moment, and non judgmentally.” When state, it will be nearly impossible for you to deliver truly in the immediate moment our perception the presentation you have so well prepared. This is more accurate, and we respond simply and is an example of how easily our mind and its appropriately to the issue at hand by recognizing future-tripping habits can control us in the present. our feelings, thoughts or emotions and without Fortunately, we can learn to observe our thoughts identifying with them. This is very different from and feelings in the present moment without getting how we usually get caught up in our mental and caught up by them. This is called mindfulness. emotional reactions, which are based on a story we tell ourselves based on past experience. With In 1979, at the University of Massachusetts, Jon mindfulness training, we learn to recognize our Kabat-Zinn Ph.D., began to teach mindfulness stories and begin to free ourselves from their push meditation to chronic pain patients who had and pull on our mind. exhausted all other medical and surgical alternatives. He brought this 2500-year-old Re-imagine the presentation situation at the practice into the medical setting without the beginning of this article. This time, when you religious component of its origins and developed a notice your body tightening and heart racing, you curriculum, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction are able to acknowledge these feelings and the (MBSR), which is now taught and researched thought: “Here I go again – always screwing up in over 400 universities and medical centers presentations.” Instead of believing this thought as across the United States. Research studies have true, you take a deep breath, feel your feet on the demonstrated MBSR training reduces symptoms ground and notice how your body relaxes and your of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress; it has thoughts slow down. Simply observe the thoughts, been shown to help patients with GI distress, high sensations and feelings that arise without fighting blood pressure, cardio-vascular disease, sleep them, acting them out, or even judging them. problems and chronic pain. Recent neuroimaging This frees you from old ideas and bodily tensions and allows your energy and attention to re-focus Manuel Manotas, Psy.D. UCSF Faculty & Staff Assistance Program
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