You Don’t Need an App to be Mindful
I was reading an email today from my health care provider and it contained a link to an article on stress management. Since this topic is of interest to just about everyone these days, I thought I would read it. About half way through the article the topic of deep breathing was mentioned as a coping strategy for addressing stressful moments and situations. Deep breathing, also known as diaphragmatic breathing has been around for a long time and is a tried and true method for slowing down a racing heart or calming the nerves. What followed caught me by surprise……
”There are many great apps on the internet that can be used for deep breathing.”
It would have never occurred to me until recently that we would have to go to the Internet to find an app that could teach us deep breathing. This seems so counterintuitive to me. You can breathe deeply without an app or a device. Learning how to breathe deeply may require some information or practice, but relying on a device and an app to do so makes you psychologically dependent on technology to help you manage your stress. When someone is struggling with stressful emotions or feeling agitated, we want to teach them adaptive coping strategies to help them regulate their attention and emotions. We can do that by having them focus their attention on their breathing and to observe thoughts without reacting to them. This can be done “in the present moment” without the aid of technology. It is called “Mindfulness.” The mindfulness-based coping strategy that focuses our attention on our breath is called “mindful breathing”.
Mindfulness has been studied extensively as a “present centered” form of self awareness that is based on observing in a non elaborative and non judgmental state of being. Mindfulness has shown success in reducing negative affectivity and increasing overall psychological well being. It does not attempt to change the emotions that are present or being observed in the present moment, but draws awareness to those emotions. Thus, the process of engaging in mindfulness enhances our self awareness and attention of emotions without engagement or reactivity. The emotions are simply viewed as “mental events”. What seems to emerge from the research are several identifiable factors linking mindfulness to increased emotional regulation, the reduction of rumination, enhanced attention and the ability to sustain attention, increased positive affect and decreased levels of anxiety.
As an intervention for stress and anxiety, mindfulness offers a strategy that enhances self regulation through a process of building self awareness. It engages us in cognitive monitoring, attention and emotional regulation, and self appraisal. It begins with developing self awareness, by learning how to be present without being reactive to thoughts and emotions and facilitates breath awareness and self control. Mindfulness also teaches us to be self compassionate and to refrain from judgment of the present experience while promoting acceptance. As previously stated, engaging in mindfulness requires the ability to monitor cognition, regulate attention and emotions and refrain from self judgment allowing for the experience of being present. Using a breathing technique called “diaphragmatic breathing” we can increase awareness and learn how to slow down and breathe more efficiently. This is accomplished by learning how to refocus our attention on our breathing and to observe the relationship that exists between our mind and our breaths. Mindfulness of breathing increases resilience to stressful situations and helps regulate responses to them.
Mindful breathing is learned and practiced over a period of sessions, usually daily for six to eight weeks. Through practice and rehearsal, we become more aware of the relationship between breath control, attention and emotional reactivity. Once we have learned the strategy we can also reflect on the observations we made while engaged in mindful breathing, further enhancing our self knowledge and self awareness of attention, feelings of self control and our ability to reduce rumination and anxiety.
Enhancing our emotional awareness through the observation of emotions, thoughts, moods, and changes in feelings can result in changes in physical states of being. Simply put, focusing our attention inward to observe without reactivity is a life skill. It makes coping with stressful situations easier. Using technology to manage your moods and emotions may be helpful for some, but for those without devices and apps, mindfulness is a starting point for becoming more self aware and improving your mental wellness. Give it a try….with or without the device.
If you want to learn more about mindful breathing, you can use a device and go to www.mindfulbreathing.net or @MindfulBreathi1
Dr. Don Matthews
