The Science of Mindfulness
Last week I packed a bag and headed over to the Mind + Life Institute’s 20th Summer Research Institute. The Institute is an annual gathering of neuroscientists, researchers and people from organizations like CMP who offer contemplative practices in community or clinical settings. Almost 200 of us from 17 countries on 6 continents came together to learn from each other.
I’m a neuroscience fan girl, so I jumped at the chance to spend a week learning from people who share a passion for mindfulness and have studied its effects on people’s brains and health. The week was full of discussions and presentations on topics such as how contemplative practices have been shown to offset the effects of stress and trauma, improve relationships, boost educational outcomes, and help people live with grief.
As much as I’m fascinated by what science can show us about the effects of meditation and mindfulness on the brain and body, I also find awe in the fact that people have engaged in contemplative practices for millennia, long before machines and double blind studies told us it helped us lead healthier, more fulfilling and easeful lives.
Before functional MRI machines and other technology existed, contemplative practices were shared from generation to generation across faith traditions and cultures because we felt their effects. My own practice started before the science could show us all that it’s showing us now. I started practicing out of curiosity. Twenty years later I’m still practicing because I’m happier and healthier when I do.
The greatest motivation for practicing and for sharing the practices comes from the experiments we do in the labs of our own minds each time we pay attention to what it feels like to breathe, what it feels like to be, and what happens to our sense of well-being when we extend loving kindness and compassion to ourselves and others.
At CMP, we want people to be aware that these portable, affordable and flexible tools for mental and physical well-being exist, we make sure that people have access to them, and then we honor and uphold the agency that people have to choose whether and how they engage in them. Our programming is evidence-based and supported by science, but the most compelling findings come from each person’s own exploration and experience.
May all beings be healthy and happy,
Your CMP family
P.S. A deep bow of gratitude to the Mind + Life Institute for hosting the SRI and for including me!
P.P.S. Some of the presenters at this year’s Summer Research Institute included Jon Kabat-Zinn, Amit Bernstein, Tish Jennings, Fadel Zeidan, sujatha baliga, Natalie Avalos, Ann Masten, Robin Nusslock and Lonnie and Sandy Phillips, as well as lots of incredible graduate students doing fascinating research on contemplative practices.
