Welcome to Wonder Bowl.
How are you doing?
This is day 10 of our mindfulness in isolation course.
Stress has really become the epidemic of our age.
What was once a brilliant response to danger,
Able to instantly activate our fight or flight superpowers,
Is now out of control.
We're not powering up at the sight of a spreadsheet or an overloaded to-do list.
Even though stress is a very natural reaction to the kind of radical change we've experienced with the coronavirus,
Stress is not going to help us fight it.
We'll be much better off if we can cultivate calm.
Some of the earliest scientific studies on mindfulness were done around a technique called mindfulness-based stress reduction,
Which was developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.
He first used this eight-week program to help reduce the stress of people with chronic illness.
Since then,
Thousands of others have used the technique to reduce stress of all sorts.
So how does it work?
Mindfulness helps you focus on the present,
And stress generally lives in worries about the future or ruminations on the past.
Mindfulness gives your brain a break from the past and the future.
Studies have shown that mindfulness-based stress reduction can actually shrink the part of the brain called the amygdala,
Which is responsible for fear,
Anxiety,
And stress.
It is also shown to decrease activity in the default mode network,
Which is sometimes called the monkey mind.
It's the part of the brain that jumps from thought to thought when our mind is left to wander.
People with less activity here are generally happier.
Today we're going to try a meditation inspired by Jon Kabat-Zinn's mindfulness-based stress reduction program.
This is the mountain meditation.
Start by getting comfortable.
Wherever you are is fine.
Take a minute to notice your posture.
Feel the weight of your body.
Sit up straight,
But just let everything hang heavy.
Okay now we're going to focus in on the breath.
Feel it moving in and feel it moving out,
Just as it is.
Feel your body as a whole,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Okay now close your eyes and form a picture in your mind of a magnificent mountain.
It might be a real mountain or one you make up.
Create a sharp image of this mountain in your head.
Or if an image isn't coming,
Just see if you can create a sense of it,
A feeling.
Notice the size of this mountain,
How solid and unmoving it is.
Notice the shape of the peak,
The slope of its sides,
The size of its base.
Are there trees,
Snow,
Rocks,
Or maybe waterfalls?
Fill in all the details with your mind.
Now see if you can make the mountain part of you.
Sitting here so that you become this massive majestic structure,
Still and unmoving.
Your head is the peak,
Your shoulders and arms are the slopes.
Your base is rooted into wherever you are sitting.
You are centered and grounded and still.
Now imagine the sun traveling across the sky.
Lights and light and shadows move across the mountain,
But it remains still.
Streams flow,
Plants grow,
Wildlife moves,
But the mountain remains still.
Day becomes night,
Summer becomes winter,
The weather changes bringing storms and wind.
It's like a time lapse on a nature documentary.
Through it all,
The mountain stays the same.
We are like this mountain,
Our outer world is full of activity.
There is sometimes darkness and storms,
But inside we all have a place of stillness.
This exercise helps us tap into our own mountain of strength where we can observe the storms without getting carried away in them.
Thank yourself for giving this a go.
One day at a time.
