PSK4U Introductory Kinesiology

Journal

Week 1

The week 1 start my Mindful Meditation Practise from 6:00-6:30 pm evening. I have selected a secluded spot in my terrace with a positive ambience and practise the meditation sitting on the ground using my yoga mat

Day 1

I take 4- 5 deep breaths and try to relax my breathing and shift my focus on breathing. I concentrate on the inhalation and exhalation pattern. I find my mind wandering a lot and i repeatedly endeavour to shift my focus on the meditation.

Day 2

During the same period of time I try breathing exercise with my eyes shut and start with deep breaths. today I face the same problem with a flickering mind and finding it hard to focus

Day 3

I researched on meditation techniques and how to control my thoughts. I employ the counting technique today and count with each exhalation every time my mind wandered

Day 4

I explore more about meditation and mindfulness and discover other techniques like use of repetitive phrases. I am finding it easier to concentrate even though i had to employ the counting method to bring back focus. I was mindful on when my mind used to wander.

Day 5

I explored about the alternate breathing technique to help with better focus. In addition to counting technique I also tried the alternate breathing techniques. Slowly I have started feeling calm and found the practise fulfilling even though I still could not concentrate on keeping my focus intact for longer period of time.

Day 6

Today I was tempted to skip the practise but on contemplating the progress I was making I decided to continue. Today I noticed I could concentrate with more ease. with every breathing movement I felt tranquil and calm and the day's tiredness seemed to lessen.

Day 7

I started practises at the same time today. And the focus was good and I noticed I was sleeping better

Week 2

Day 1

Today I noticed my interaction and dealing with other have become more patient and mindful. I could contemplate the useless thoughts and actively try to ward it off through breathing calmly.

Day 2

The attention and focus grew and i keep looking forward to the practise

Day 3

I experience a general feeling of positiveness and wellbeing. The practise was improving and the benefits have become more prominent.

Day 4

Today I had a busy schedule and there was a lot of anxiety. after practise I was able to calm my mind and sleep well

Day 5

I noticed that I am not very drained off and tired of over thinking. I feel energised to perform my tasks and was able to approach activities with more presence and attention.

Day 6

It is becoming easier to focus on the breathing and i practised a little longer upto 40 minutes.

Day 7

My attention was fixed for longer period of time and counting method and alternate breathing technique helped in regulating the thought when attention decreased.

Reflection

Introduction

Mindfulness based Meditation is a way of focusing on one's present self and using breathing movements to anchor oneself to the present. Mindfulness practise is derived from Buddhism as a way to accept and be aware on the present and accepting the present with an aim of detaching oneself from the past and the future. The mind can be a chaotic place and often times the uncontrolled thoughts and emotions can impact us in a negative way. Anxiety, depression and restlessness can be a result of uncontrolled thoughts (Tang, Hölzel, and Posner, 2015). Focusing on Mindfulness through meditation is an excellent way to regulate the train of thoughts and calm unsupervised thought. It can be achieved through dedicating a certain amount of time on the practises of repetitive breathing movement and concentrating on the inhalation and exhalation. Letting the breathing flow freely along with the thoughts that flow with it and slowly silencing the thoughts o concentrate on the breathing technique. Like with skill practise the attention, focus and concentration develop with regular practise and the meditation improves in quality (Pepping et al. 2016). A dedicated practise every day helps achieve calmness and be present in the moment and this practise gradually extends over the other activities of life to help acknowledge the situation in the present state and focussing on the task in hand without fleeting.

Discussion

The Mindful Meditation can be practiced through a variety of way like focusing on breathing movements, repetitive sounds or word phrase. For the period of 15 days I have practised Mindful Meditation by focusing on breathing movements. For the practise I set aside a total of 30 minutes every day in the evening from 6:00pm to 6:30pm. I selected a calm spot in my terrace and got a yoga mat and some cushions to sit comfortably in the upright position. and focused my mind on breathing. I tried concentrating on the breathing movements y slowly trying to withdraw my mind from the though actions of the day and the other train of thoughts to draw the attention on inhalation and exhalation alone. On losing attention I tried the counting method from ten to one to focus my mind back on the breathing. In the following section I shall jot down reflection on the process and the results that I could experience from practising the technique.

In this section I shall discuss he struggles I had with concentrating and how I managed it. During the first few days I had increasing trouble in keeping my mind still and found my thoughts wandering from one thought to another. In the starting of the meditation I started by taking deep breaths for 5 to 6 times a slowly trying to relax he breathing to normal while trying to anchor my attention to the natural breathing process. At times I did feel urged to skip the routine but I did remember the feeling of calm and relaxation and a general feeling of positiveness and hence tried to be regular in my practise. During my difficulties in concentration I tried to research on the mindfulness meditation techniques and discovered a lot of techniques that can help with focus and attention. An interesting discovery was a sect of Vaishnavism based meditation technique to create mindfulness through repetitive repetition of auspicious word phrase and using beads to keep an count of the train of thoughts. Similarly to these there were other meditation techniques which used repeated word like ''Ohm'' a Sanskrit word which also helped to keep the train of thoughts in check. The breathing based meditation techniques that I discovered were pranayama and dhyana which I could resonate and use. During the initial phases the problem with my concentration revealed how much I dwelled on thoughts that are necessary and act as a barrier to function properly and stay calm. I found myself thinking about the rest of the day and the subsequent days. I found myself reminiscing on the past events which were at times hurtful and had no significance in the present condition. On researching on difficulties with meditation I learned that it was a common occurrence and happened more in the beginning. To counter these difficulties I employed the counting technique with every exhalation from 10 to 1 and then tried refocusing on keeping the mind fixed on breathing. Another technique I employed was using the technique to close one nostril and breathing through the other and alternating. It is a form of hatha yoga and meditation known as Pranayama technique of breathing (Lotfalian et al. 2020). This helped me revert my mind back to meditation. Slowly with practise over a week I could focus and control my mind better and attain more relaxation through the breathing meditation.

In this section I shall discuss some research studies I explored on Mindfulness based Meditation. Anālayo, 2019  in an exploration of the research paper noticed that in order to focus on mindfulness through breathing there is a necessity to include other modalities to increase the focus and mindfulness around breathing. The technique used were a 16 step breakdown to help with the focus and meditation and finally concentrating on the breathing alone. The use of counting technique was also employed. In order to meditate through focus on breath focus generation was the most important element that enhanced the experience and benefit of the mindfulness training. I found the same factor that it was harder to focus initially but by employing counting technique and alternate breathing method the drawing of attention to the normal breathing became easier with time.

Decker  et al. 2019 studied the effect of mindfulness based meditation and breathing exercise on the social work interns in its affectivity to bring down stress and as a part of self care. The students were introduced to the meditation and breathing techniques through several educational and training videos and made to practise in group. The results obtained showed that the students were benefitted in terms of having greater control on the autonomic nervous system and decrease of anxiety (Daudén, Roquet and Sas 2018). I can corroborate with the findings and shall discuss the changes that I acquired in the subsequent sections.

Samuel, 2020 investigated the evidence based relaxation techniques in Nursing Students and found that mindfulness and breathing techniques helped achieve relaxation in the students. There was a significant reduction of stress and anxiety despite the high demanding career obligation of the nurses. Similarly, Van Der Zwan, 2015 conducted a randomized trials with 126 patient over a period of 5 weeks with daily reminder for conducting physical exercises and breathing techniques for mindfulness and the evaluation consisted of a set of questionnaire that examined the state of mind before and after the test schedule . The results revealed that mindful breathing meditation was as effective as other physical exercises in alleviating stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms and instilling a general wellbeing in the individual.

In this section I shall recount my experience after and before practising the mindful meditation techniques. Though initially I found it hard to concentrate and carry out the meditation properly with some techniques and constant practise I developed more focus and attention to breathing. I was immediately feeling calm and relaxed and all the stressors and chaos of the day seemed to have less impact on me in terms of feeling drained and stressed. I also experienced that I could be present in the moment and slowly an approach of calm to handle my day to day task emerged. Simultaneously I also observed that there was a general upliftment of mood and feeling of well-being which improved my dealing with others mindful and positive. I was better prepared on the next day to conduct my day to day work with calmness, greater focus and attention without drifting off to other tasks and train of thoughts. I noticed that my welling on negative thoughts decreased and thus it helped with my depression. The practise also helped me obtain more rest and better sleep at night preventing the feeling of being drained off (Hunt, et al. 2020). As the period was quite limited and hence the results obtained were not that drastic but the positive change I experienced convinced me that practising in the longer period of time shall benefit me to a great deal in terms of being mindful, positive though train, decreasing depressive thoughts , being mindful about myself and others, increasing y positive outlook and reducing my uncontrolled chain of thoughts.

Conclusion

It was an enriching experience to practise mediation through breathing to create mindfulness. I explored the various benefits it offered me through analysis of published literature and corroborating the studies with my personal experiences. Though initially I failed to focus with attention but with practise ,counting technique and alternate breathing method i could gradually improve the quality of my meditation and concentrate on the normal inhalation and exhalation with greater ease and calmness. I experienced positive effect over the time period in terms of being less stressed and drained and an increase of positive feeling and mindfulness. This experience extended to my daily routine and also helped my interaction with other better. personal care helped me control my unwanted thoughts and induce better sleep. To conclude Mindful Meditation through breathing is beneficial and a positive experience on my part and I plan on continuing the practise.

References:

Anālayo, B., 2019. Meditation on the breath: mindfulness and focused attention. Mindfulness, 10(8), pp.1684-1691.

Daudén Roquet, C. and Sas, C., 2018, April. Evaluating mindfulness meditation apps. In Extended Abstracts of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6).

Decker, J.T., Brown, J.L.C., Ashley, W. and Lipscomb, A.E., 2019. Mindfulness, meditation, and breathing exercises: Reduced anxiety for clients and self-care for social work interns. Social Work 

Hunt, C.A., Hoffman, M.A., Mohr, J.J. and Williams, A.L., 2020. Assessing perceived barriers to meditation: the determinants of meditation practice inventory-revised (DMPI-R). Mindfulness, pp.1-11.

Lotfalian, S., Spears, C.A. and Juliano, L.M., 2020. The effects of mindfulness-based yogic breathing on craving, affect, and smoking behavior. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 34(2), p.351.

Pepping, C.A., Walters, B., Davis, P.J. and O’Donovan, A., 2016. Why do people practice mindfulness? An investigation into reasons for practicing mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness, 7(2), pp.542-547.

Samuel, D., 2020. Effects of Evidence-Based Relaxation Techniques on Nurse-Patient Communication (Doctoral dissertation, Grand Canyon University). withGroups, 42(4), pp.308-322.

Tang, Y.Y., Hölzel, B.K. and Posner, M.I., 2015. The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), pp.213-225.

Van Der Zwan, J.E., De Vente, W., Huizink, A.C., Bögels, S.M. and De Bruin, E.I., 2015. Physical activity, mindfulness meditation, or heart rate variability biofeedback for stress reduction: a randomized controlled trial. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, 40(4), pp.257-268.

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