Working in Movement

Today's NPR story on mindfulness covered some old ground, but also cleared up a couple of points. Folks reluctant to delve into any sort of mindful practice might find the story particularly interesting and useful.

The most important point, to me, is how the story presents the benefits of mindful practice, in this case in a medical setting. I think this a pretty important (and maybe even ironic) point. Lots of people afflicted with one or the other somatic-complaint condition usually only seek some sort of mindfulness practice when nothing else helps. "Nothing else has worked, I'm still suffering, so might as well try this," they might think. But mindful practices aren't really medical interventions. Instead, any benefits gained from their practice often come as a surprise:

"I think the concept of who does it work for... depends on what exactly we're measuring," Magyari says.

Take for example, a small research study with 63 rheumatoid arthritis patients. After two months of mindfulness training, the patients' physical symptoms did not disappear, but they reported feeling better. Scores of psychological distress dropped 30 percent.

Symptoms don't get addressed directly, but somehow the ability to cope with them changes, often for the better. And sometimes ....

I also liked the story's "explanation" of how mindfulness works:

"The point of it is to train our mind where we want it to go," Magyari says, instead of letting the mind wander into worry or be held hostage by the panic of pain.

It's not always easy to focus attention on the body, especially for prolonged periods of time. And I think it's not just due to short attention spans or a multitude of distractions seemingly always available. When you're not trained to do so, It's hard to notice things that aren't changing very much.

But if you can introduce a little bit of gentle movement, changes in how the body contacts its supporting surface can be easier to detect. That's one of the ways the Feldenkrais Method works in a mindful way.

Definitely a good story from NPR that might be useful to those who might be reluctant to tackle mindfulness.