The Power of Mindful Awareness - Coursework Example

Advanced Theory and Practice in Somatic Psychology SM600 Alyssa Santa Barbara Graduate Institute Dr. The Power of ‘mindful awareness’ Awareness is a powerful and essential component for the transformational process of therapy. Awareness itself is a broad topic. One can be aware of a lot of things like objects, thoughts, sensations, emotions, movements or awareness itself. In particular, there are different strategies for using awareness as a therapeutic intervention so that therapists can support their clients in deepening in awareness. For each of the above types of awareness, it can be used as a therapeutic intervention so that the clients become more aware of their experience either by slowing down, enhancing what is already going on by exaggerating or repeating a word or movement, or we can raise awareness by using touch. In Gestalt psychology, there is a term called Zones of Awareness, which points towards three types of awareness: inner, middle and outer (Internet of the Mind, 2010). As a therapist, there are techniques to support clients to move through these different levels of awareness in service to support a fuller experience of being aware of what is going on for clients in a way they might not have already been aware of. These are all valid parts to work with awareness therapeutically but for the purposes of this paper, I will be focusing on a type of awareness that is called ‘mindful awareness’ and will explain the simplicity of transformation that can unfold a mindful state of awareness. Mindfulness has elements of “acceptance, patience, non-attachment, contentment, and present moment neutral observation” (Scientific Computing, 2011). It is defined as non-evaluative and sustained awareness of mental states and processes. This includes physical sensations, perceptions, affective states, thoughts, and imagery. Mindfulness is not thinking about, comparing or evaluating what is going on in the present experience. It is a form of neutral observation (Wikipedia, 2011). My intention for this paper is to demonstrate the healing power of ‘mindful awareness’ by taking you, as the reader, through each one of David Kolb’s four cycles of the “Experiential Learning Theory” (Scientific Computing, 2011). The premise of Kolb’s work is that there are four intertwined stages that make learning possible: “first concrete experience, second observation and reflection, third conceptualization and lastly active experimentation” (Scientific Computing, 2011). (Scientific Computing, 2011) Throughout all these stages, awareness is the key point because it is what is needed to start the cycle (Scientific Computing, 2011). Throughout this paper, I will define what each stage is about, display how awareness is used in the stage, share examples both from a personal and theoretical context, as well as share some limitations and benefits to using it therapeutically. Briefly, the Experience Stage is simply defined as the actual experience that you have or have had. As a way to have you as the reader experientially get involved, I have a poem for you to read. I invite you to take a moment to get comfortable, take a deep breath and pay attention to your body as you read this; nothing is right or wrong, we’re just noticing what we notice: “This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes As an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if theyre a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond” (Rumi, n.d) The Reflection and Observing Stage is about being aware and observe, “What am I sensing right now” (Scientific Computing, 2011)? It is the first step therapeutically of this cycle. While considering this poem to demonstrate the power of ‘mindful awareness’ through the observational stage of Kolb’s cycle, there come few questions. What were you internally aware of while reading Rumi’s poem? Did you feel any sensations in your body present? Did anything shift in your experience? The mindfulness piece of awareness is when you observe what is happening, without any inner resistance. Before going in detail, it will be encouraging to look at other perspectives as well. Other practitioners in the field of awareness studies have been using ‘mindful awareness’ in different ways. Alan Fogel’s (2009) work is rich and dynamic and primarily emphasizes embodied self-awareness. He encourages people to let their experience take up the entire field of awareness. For example, instead of a third person of “me” who is separate from the body, he invites people to fully become the body and from there we are in a subjective emotional presence, fully alive (Fogel, 2009). Frank’s (2001) work in Body of Awareness, highlights the fascinating concept of how the connection between being present in the body in a mindful state, one came unlock a wisdom that is in the body by just staying with the sensations that are present (Frank, 2001). Looking at the power of awareness in the context of the larger field of therapy, let’s observe what other people are saying and how they might be using it. “Jon Kabat-Zinn is the developer of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which is a program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School” (Wikipedia, 2011). It has its roots in Buddhism but it is not religious, so it is available to anyone interested. This is one area that people are using ‘mindful awareness’ as a complementary medicine program that supports therapeutic work. It is said to be “an approach that focuses on alleviating pain and on improving physical and emotional well-being for individuals suffering from a variety of diseases and disorders” (Wikipedia, 2011). Arnold Beisser’s (1970) article, “The Paradoxical Theory of Change, believes change does not take place by ‘trying,’ coercion, or persuasion, or by insight, interpretation, or any other such means. Rather, change can occur when the patient abandons, at least for the moment, what he would like to become and attempts to be what he is” (Beisser, 1970). It is in this way of being with and aware of what is, without an agenda, Beisser claims change happens. In Parlett’s Field Theory (1991), he talks about becoming more aware of how the “self” organizes its experience and that in being fully present to our experiences, either by oneself or amongst the field between two, that a powerful presence becomes transformational in and of itself. I interpret this to mean that it is actually a shift in awareness that is healing and this witnessing presence does not see anything wrong or in need of healing because it see’s everything as whole already (Parlett, 1991). The third stage is the Conceptualization Stage (Parlett, 1991), which is about distilling an experience to a concept that is grounded and can be used across other experiences. For example, if having gone through the other stages reading Rumi’s poem, helped me become aware that I was tensing my shoulders prior to reading it because I was stressed, then just in becoming aware and being with my direct experience mindfully could allow me to relax. The concept then that I could make is that ‘mindful awareness’ in and of itself is healing. In this way, we now have something tangible that we can apply to other areas of life. I have a personal experience that illustrates this process of conceptualization, which also highlights the power of mindful presence. This morning I became aware of this clenching in my belly that I now think I have had for at least the last few months. I can see that this arose from all the changes that have been happening in my life. Once I realized this grasping, I sat with it in a mindful state of presence and allowed it to be there. What came out of that experience was a realization that this somatic experience of clenching was the embodied feeling of fear holding on in my gut. In the recognition, I became aware that with all these changes happening in my life, some aspect of me was trying to take make sure that I was safe and was holding on to control. Simply being with that felt sense; there was a softening in my belly and a letting go. I did not try to let go, it was in the seeing of it, that compassion naturally came and in seeing it, some part of it let go of me. I stayed connected to the felt sense somatically and did not judge or blame this unconscious part. This was one experience recently where mindfully staying with the somatic sensations that were present, I believe helped to transform it. Adyashanti, a spiritual teacher of mine and one of the authors in Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, says “A lot of embodiment is simply remaining completely honest to our own experience in a very deep and authentic way, without necessarily trying to change it. Our conditioned tendencies are allowed to unfold into the field of awareness; it’s the spiritual alchemy that takes place almost by itself, if we can just get out of the way enough” (Fenner & Krystal, 2001, p. 61). Here he was able to distill the essence of a teaching into a concept that can be applied over a range of experiences. I have also had professional experiences using ‘mindful awareness’ as an intervention with clients, which have been both successful and unsuccessful. In my experience, every client responds to something different and depending on what they need at that particular time in their lives. I have this one client who responds very well somatic work and it is always a mystery to the both of us where things are going, since we just follow what arises moment to moment in awareness. Recently, as I was guiding her to stay with her experience she noticed a tension in her hands. She had come into my office with a nasal congestion that was leaving her feeling mentally foggy for about a week. I guided her to take her awareness into the sensations that were most predominate in her body and to just observe what happened without any resistance. After staying with this for about a minute and a half she opened her eyes with a smile, saying the fog had lifted and that she felt clearer and more alter. I wonder if she had had a minor level of resistance to this congestion and in meeting it with acceptance, somehow that was the alchemy Adyashanti speaks of. The last stage of the Kolb’s cycles of Experiential Learning is the Active Experimentation Stage (Scientific Computing, 2011). This stage is about trying a new behavior based off of any learning’s having gone through the previous stages of the process to see how your experience would be different. Therefore when you try a new behavior, it links you back to the initial stage of experience. Before moving forward, let me summarize the entire cycle for you. For example, as the reader of this paper, the experience stage was in reading the poem. The reflecting and observation stage would have been if you noticed your shoulders tense because of stress. Then in the conceptual stage, if you believed that being with what you were feeling, without judgment, is healing then next time you felt a tightening you would know what it was about. Lastly, as the active experiential stage you could try something new like breathing into or relaxing the tension around your shoulders and neutrally being with what you felt, which loops you back to the experiential stage. Looking at using ‘mindful awareness’ as an intervention in the larger context of therapy, I would like to first explore the limitations to it and then share some benefits. Like all things mindfully based awareness as an intervention also has their limitation. This is not an intervention that would be very helpful for someone that was not in a fairly normal to high range of functioning. This practice takes a level of attunement to reality that some populations are not grasping, such as schizophrenic, delusional or clients with Down syndrome. Some clients who have sever post traumatic stress disorder disassociate from their bodies and if they are not resourced enough, somatic work could be more harmful than helpful at this stage. On the other hand if they are resourced though, this could be exactly what supports their healing. ‘mindful awareness’ is also not helpful if one stays in an observatory process without completing the conceptualization and active experimentation stages because then they would continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results that could potentially be dangerous. In addition, ‘Mindful awareness’ also has its benefits and MBSR has proven it to be a good intervention for a broad range of chronic disorders as well as for all types of people with mental or physical sicknesses. The benefits have scientifically been proven and include, “an increase in the bodys immune systems, a shift from a disposition towards right prefrontal cortex, associated with anxiety, depression, and aversion, to the left prefrontal cortex, associated with happiness, flow, and enjoyment. Other benefits include a different and less invasive way of healing patients with chronic pain related illnesses, a reduction in debilitating stress and the hormones that come along with it, (such as cortisol) and an improvement in ones overall happiness and well-being in life” (Wikipedia, 2011). In trying a new active experimentation, we connect back to the cycle from the beginning to experience stage. In this way the process loops back to the initial stage and moves through the rest of the process creating a continuous cycle that never stops. I invite you to see how using ‘mindful awareness’ works for you through these stages, not only as a therapeutic intervention but also as a way of life. References Beisser, A. (1970). Paradoxical Theory of Change. Retrieved on November 01, 2011: http://www.gestalt.org/arnie.htm Fenner, P., Krystal, S. (2003). The Sacred Mirror. Paragon House. Fogel, A. (2009). The Psychophysiology of Self-Awareness. W. W. Norton. Frank, R. (2001). Body of Awareness. Gestalt Press. Internet of the Mind. (2010). Gestalt Psychology. Retrieved on November 01, 2011: http://www.internet-of-the-mind.com/gestalt_psychology.html Parlett, M. (1991). “Reflections on Field Theory.” British Gestalt Journal. Volume 1, pp. 68-91. Rumi. (n.d.). The Guest House. Retrieved on November 01, 2011: http://www.panhala.net/Archive/The_Guest_House.html Scientific Computing. (2011). Building Acceptance for ELN Implementation. Retrieved on November 01, 2011: http://www.scimag.com/articles-IN-Building-Acceptance-for-ELN-Implementation-081110.aspx Wikipedia. (2011). Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. 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