Neuroscience

  • 4 Ways Mindfulness Can Ease Anxiety & Depression

     

    Anxiety and depression affect nearly one in four of us in the UK. So if that includes you too, you are not alone.

     

    Though their root causes are varied and complex, we do know that anxiety and depression are exacerbated by our fast-paced, plugged-in world, which leaves us little time to connect with ourselves.

    Mindfulness may not be an overnight fix, but it does offer us an arsenal of tools and techniques to ease the weight of anxiety and depression and prevent recurrence.

    And its effects are cumulative – which means that what we practice only grows stronger.

    Find out just a few of the ways it can help…

     

    1. Mindfulness Soothes the Nervous System

    On a simple level, mindfulness meditation soothes the nervous system and promotes a sense of calm which reduces anxiety. Being attentive to physical sensations and breathing mindfully activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which induces a state of peace and relaxation in the body.

    This is backed by recent scientific studies, which have revealed that levels of cortisol – the hormone that’s triggered in response to stress – are dramatically reduced in those who practice mindful awareness.

     

    2. Mindfulness Teaches Us to Accept Difficulty

    When the blues strike, it’s common to want to hide what we feel and detach from our emotions. Sweeping pain under the metaphorical rug stops us from connecting with it, which can simply make it worse. As the old adage goes: ‘what you resist, persists’.

    The idea of turning towards emotional pain may seem counterintuitive, but when we gently open the door and invite it in, our relationship with it can be transformed.

    By cultivating acceptance of painful thoughts and feelings in the present moment and holding space to simply ‘be’ with them, we may find they loosen their grip on our lives dramatically. This space can bring a sense of clarity and allow us to accept things as they are.

    As a side note, this space can also allow us to explore what we are willing and able to accept, and where we might act with self-compassion to better support our needs. 

     

    3. Mindfulness Opens Us to Self-Compassion

    We all have an inner critic – it’s a voice that often comes from the past: a parent, teacher or boss. When we find ourselves stuck in a rut, feeling anxious or depressed, that judgmental voice can make things ten times harder.

    If we’re not careful, we can live by the stories it tells us about ourselves and let it shape the direction of our lives.

    Becoming aware of our inner critic is the first step towards disengaging with it, and mindfulness empowers us to do this. By training the brain to spot its negative internal commentaries, we can choose to respond to life’s difficulties with self-compassion instead of self-criticism.

    In this way, we chart new neural pathways that support and nurture us when we’re feeling low. Making self-care a part of our day can be a useful way to improve our overall well-being. 

     

     

    4. Mindfulness Helps Us to Break Negative Thinking

    Negative and ruminative loops of thinking are characteristic of depressive and anxious moods. They can throw us into a black hole of self-doubt that colours our response to everything. Happily, mindfulness can help us to break this cycle.

    With mindful awareness, we train the mind to recognise negative thought patterns and learn the skills to interrupt and respond to them in a way that makes us more resilient.

    Science has also shown that mindfulness works to disarm the mind’s ‘stress centre’ – the amygdala – which is the seat of our fearful and anxious emotions. This boosts activity in the more thoughtful area of the brain – the pre-frontal cortex. As a result, we are less overwhelmed by negative and ruminative thoughts, and more able to access practical thinking and positive emotions.

     

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    * Statistics from mental health charity, Mind.

     

  • Why Uncertainty is Good for the Brain

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    When it comes to world events, family disputes, office politics, etc., we are often quick to take a side, and sometimes very passionately. Once we have taken a side in such an argument it's usually difficult for our minds to reassess, even when presented with new information; our emotional stance can make it difficult to assess (or even want to assess) the situation with objectivity.

    But what is the apparent safety of such decided opinions? Why do our minds so easily choose a side, and why do we have an adversity to uncertainty? Cognitive neuroscience may provide some insight.

    Different Types of Uncertainty

    Decision making is crucial to our survival; it’s important that we judge correctly whether it’s safe to cross the road, if this fish is still good to eat, or if we can trust that person.  According to Hsu et al. (2005), there are roughly two types of uncertain events that we are regularly faced with: risky and ambiguous.

    Risky decisions tend to be when the odds are known, and the probability of outcome may be assessed and estimated, e.g. I know I have 10 red cards and 10 blue cards in a deck, so I can roughly guess my chances of picking a blue card.

    Conversely, in ambiguous decisions, the uncertainty of the odds creates a difficulty in analysis, e.g. I have 20 cards, but I have no idea what proportion is red, and what proportion is blue, hence picking a blue card feels more down to chance.

     

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    How Uncertainty Affects the Brain

    Hsu et al. (2005) found that in the face of uncertain events, in both hemispheres the amygdala (raw emotional responses) and prefrontal cortex (executive function) increase in multimodal sensory stimulation as ambiguity of a situation also increases. Like a pressure cooker, the missing information in a decision that creates uncertainty effectively puts pressure on our mind to seek out more information to inform our decision.

    Brand et al. (2006) also suggests that unlike risky decisions, ambiguous decisions often rely less on previous rational feedback from past choices, as well as being more susceptible to emotional responses associated with comparable situations.

    This could explain why we tend to repeat the same kinds of arguments with people we have history with: it’s difficult for our minds to view each new situation mindfully due to our past emotional responses.

    In ambiguous situations, our minds may choose to seek a definitive answer to alleviate this pressure that we sense building. Our mind attempts to balance the discomfort experienced when no clear path is right or wrong, and we are faced with a choice that doesn't involve a binary option.

    Watching How Our Minds Seek Answers

    A great way to explore this tendency of the mind is to delve into that part of the internet that we seem to love and loathe in equal measure: the comments section! News stories are particularly good places to try, and the more complex the matter the better.

    Not only will you find a multitude of arguments and counterarguments, but you’ll also be more likely to already have an opinion of your own too. As you read through the opinions, watch what your mind does. Notice any tension that builds when you read an argument you disagree with, or if you find yourself feeling torn between two (or more) different points of view.

    The point of this exercise is not to decide which individual is correct in the argument, but to simply become aware of the reactions and pressure our mind presents us with in the face of allowing ourselves to sit in uncertainty. Try to ‘surf’ the urge to settle on just one point of view. In other words, notice the urge to ‘know’ what’s true, but see if you can ride it out.

    Being aware of this rising inner conflict has in fact been shown to strengthen the brain structures associated with executive functioning, and our ability to navigate beliefs loosely, and with more freedom. This ability is a key element to living a more mindful life.

    Our ability to form opinions and make decisions is definitely a useful evolutionary tool that helps us navigate our day-to-day environment which can often be highly ambiguous. However, the persistent need to find an answer can indeed produce a fragile perception of reality and impede our navigation of complicated dilemmas.

     

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