PSY3120 - Week 8

Social media and emotional intelligence

*A field experiment examined whether increasing opportunities for face-to-face interaction while eliminating the use of screen-based media and communication tools improved nonverbal emotion cue recognition in pressens. *Preteens spent five days at a nature camp where TVs, computers and mobile phones were not allowed, compared with school-based matched controls that retained usual media practices. *The nature camp preteens' recognition of nonverbal emotion cues improved significantly, but not the control group. *So, preteens were able to recognize and respond to emotional cues much better after detoxing from technology on the camp (natural consequence).

The comma

*A punctuation mark in the day that allows us to consciously come to rest and be present/ pay attention. *This one can be practiced for 15 seconds-20 minutes as many times a day as one remembers.

The full stop

*A punctuation mark in the day that allows us to consciously come to rest and be present/ pay attention. *This one can be practiced from 5-30 minutes twice a day.

Relaxation response and genes

*A study provides the first compelling evidence that the RR elicits specific gene expression changes in short-term and long-term mindfulness practitioners. The results suggest that consistent and constitutive changes in gene expression resulting from RR may relate to long term physiological effects.

Mobile phone study

*A study showed that within 5 minutes of using a mobile phone, the risk of a motor véhicule accident is over 400% higher. *Texting / emailing / internet while driving also increased the risk 164-fold. *And carrying to or more passeners made drivers twice as likely to crash.

Falling attention spans/ overloaded circuits

*According to a Microsoft Canada report, the average human's attention span is below that of a goldfish (8 sec vs. 9 sec). *These days, 30,000 external communications clog managers' inboxes annually. So, the internet might be giving the illusion of control, when it is in fact be robbing managers of control.

A wandering mind

*According to a study from Harvard University, people report being happiest while their mind is not wandering from what they are doing (not when their mind was wandering to pleasant topics). *This is because mind-wandering could lead to catastrophising/ over-complicating things, and missing your life because you're not paying attention to it. *This can then lead to disappointment (if you had high expectations).

Mindfulness and survivors of child abuse

*Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse participated in an 8-week mindfulness MBSR program, as well as 3 refresher classes at final follow-up at 24 weeks. *At 8 weeks, depressive symptoms had reduced by 65%. *Statistically significant improvements observed in all outcomes (mood, anxiety, PTSD) post-MBSR. *Improvements were largely sustained until 24 weeks. *Of three PTSD symptom criteria, symptoms of avoidance / numbing most greatly reduced. *Moreover, compliance, attendance, home practice and acceptability were also high.

Meditation and sleep

*Although meditation is about cultivating restful awareness, it can help to significantly improve sleep - better sleep quality, being able to go to sleep more easily, a longer sleep duration and less use of sleep medications. *These benefits may be responsible for also reducing depression in those with chronic insomnia.

Default brain explanation

*An example of this is if we don't register the page that e're reading, or if we realise that we haven't listened to the person talking to us. *The default brain flourishes in various forms of psychopathology, and is associated with: stress, anxiety, depression, ADHD, schizophrenia, autisme, Alzheimer's, criminal recidivism, and reduced performance. *Interestingly, brain regions active in 'default states' in young adults also show the early changes found in the elderly with Alzheimer's Disease (because of the wear-and-tear of default activity). So inattention is like physical inactivity of the body; it's not healthy for the brain.

Training attention

*Attention, like any other skill, can be trained. When we first start formal meditation practice we tend to find that we are on automatic pilot much of the time and are unaware of moment-to moment experience. *Development of attention is gradual, progressive and requires regular practice. *Impatience for progress is a distraction and an impediment to progress in itself, so it's best to be patient and gentle on ourselves and allow benefits to come in their own time. *The benefits do not come without effort, but unhelpful habits do not take any effort to reinforce (they take effort to be combatted). *Mindfulness is a mental discipline involving training attention, and tuning in - hence people perform better when they are most mindful, sometimes called 'the zone' or a 'flow state'. *The anxious, stressed or depressed state of mind is the distracted state, hence the negative impact upon performance. *Mindfulness is not primarily a relaxation exercise. although relaxation is a common 'side-effect'.

Informal practice of mindfulness

*Being mindful while engaged in daily activities and work (the quality of attention we bring to things when we're going about our daily lives).

Extreme multitasking

*Children who are doing 5 or 6 things (or more) at once are bad at multitasking. *They get distracted constantly, and their memory is very disorganised. *They're worse at analytic reasoning.

How to decrease default activity

*Default activity decreases or is deactivated when one is paying attention (e.g. in experienced mindfulness practitioners). *In these practitioners, even when the default mode network is active, brain regions associated with self-monitoring and cognitive control are co-activated; reducing vulnerability to default thinking.

Mindfulness and psychosis

*Eight RCTs comparing mindfulness-based acceptance- based interventions to treatment as usual or attention control. *Moderate evidence was found for mindfulness eliciting short-term effects on total psychotic symptoms, positive symptoms, hospitalization rates, duration of hospitalization, and long-term effects on total psychotic symptoms and duration of hospitalization. *No serious adverse events reported *Thus, mindfulness-and acceptance-based interventions can be recommended as an additional treatment for patients with psychoses. *Caution: If delivering mindfulness interventions in such a context then need to be very experienced with mindfulness and mental illness.

Neuroplasticity

*For better or for worse, how we consistently think and behave will 'wire' itself into the brain. The brain is constantly rewiring itself right throughout our lives. *From a therapeutic perspective, we can 'unwire' unhelpful patterns of thought and behaviour and wire in helpful ones. This has significant implications for the development and management of anxiety and depression. *Brain scans measuring the thickness of the 'grey matter' in long-term mindfulness meditators indicates that it is thicker particularly in the areas associated with the senses, memory and executive functioning. This may be slowing down the ageing of the brain and reversing the negative effects of long term stress and depression.

Default setting and leisure activities

*Having leisure activities where we don't pay attention (principally watching television) seems to be associated with an unhealthy brain and a lifelong risk of Alzheimer's. *According to one of a number of studies, those who have less than average diversity in leisure activities, spend less time on them, and practice more passive leisure activities were nearly 4x as likely to develop dementia over a 40-year follow-up compared to those who rate higher than average on these parameters. *So the most mindful leisure activities include reading, playing board games, playing musical instruments, and dancing, which are associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

Meditation, genes and immunity

*In a study on the effect of meditation on genetic expression, 68 genes were found to be differentially expressed (19 up- regulated, 49 down-regulated). *Up-regulated genes included immunoglobulin-related genes - better resistance. *Down-regulated genes included pro-inflammatory cytokines - less inflammation.

Apathy (Yerkes-Dodson)

*Low stress/ low performance on the Yerkes-Dodson stress-performance curve. *Relaxation without awarness or engagement; inertia.

Mindfulness and craving

*Meditation can be very helpful in making healthy lifestyle changes. *Eg: stopping smoking is not easy, and one has to learn to deal with cravings. The normal way is to suppress them but this comes at a cost as far as our mental health is concerned. *A study looked at the effectiveness of suppression compared to mindfulness for coping with cigarette cravings. *Both groups reported a significantly reduced amount of smoking and increased effectiveness in coping with smoking urges but only participants in the mindfulness group demonstrated reductions in negative affect (mood) and dépressive symptoms as well.

Mindfulness and cellular aging

*Meditation may slow genetic ageing and enhance genetic repair. *Some forms of meditation may have salutary effects on telomere length by reducing cognitive stress and stress arousal and increasing positive states of mind and hormonal factors that may promote telomere maintenance.

Mindfulness and attention regulation

*Mindfulness involves attention and attitude (how we way attention). *This action has 3 aspects: 1. Know where our attention is. 2. Prioritise where the attention needs to be. 3. Have a mindful attitude (openness, curiosty, acceptance, and self-compassion).

Mindfulness and eating disorders

*Mindfulness looks to be a promising approach for helping in the management of binge-eating disorders. *It possibly does this by increasing awareness of the behaviour and physical cues, helping to deal with self-criticism and negative self-image, and assisting with managing eating impulses and difficult emotions.

Formal practice of mindfulness

*Mindfulness meditation (sitting in a chair, just practicing paying attention).

Chronic pain

*Mindfulness meditation has been found to be associated with a significant reduction in pain, fatigue, and sleeplessness, as well as improved functioning, mood and general health for people with chronic pain syndromes.

MBCT and depression

*Mindfulness reduces depressive symptoms, as well as the reactivity of the amygdalae (which tends to be very overactive in people with depression). *In adolescents, mindfulness reduced symp- toms of anxiety, depression, and somatic distress, and increased self-esteem and sleep quality. *Study: investigated mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on the relapse in depression/ quality of life. *Results: relapse/recurrence significantly reduced, and the time until first relapse increased when participants received MBCT as well as usual treatment. *They also showed a significant reduction in both short and longer-term depressive mood, better mood states, and better quality of life. They developed the ability to be aware of their negative thoughts and to control them.

Mindfulnes and emotional intelligence

*Mindfulness relates to aspects of personality and mental healthy. *Low: neuroticism, psychological symptoms, experiential avoidance, dissociation, self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skill. *High: emotional intelligence, absorption.

Mindfulness and the brain

*Mindfulness training improves functioning in areas related to executive functioning, attentional control, self-regulation, sensory processing, memory and regulation of the stress response. *It produces a thickening of the cortex in regions associated with attention, self-awareness and sensory processing thicker in meditators. *The regular practice of meditation may have neuroprotective effects and reduce the cognitive decline associated with normal aging.

Mindfulness, exercise and the cold

*Mindfulness was shown to be just as effective as exercise in reducing days of illness, half as effective as exercise for reducing symptom severity, and half as effective as exercise in reducing days taken off work for illness.

Mindfulness for breast cancer

*Mindfulness-based cancer recovery (MBCR) and supportive expressive group therapy (SET) are two well-validated psychosocial interventions. *Comparative RCT study measured effects of MBCR and SET for 1 year after in 252 distressed Stage I-III breast cancer survivors. *MBCR reported greater reduction in mood disturbance (primarily fatigue, anxiety and confusion) and stress symptoms including tension, sympathetic arousal and cognitive symptoms, increased emotional and functional quality of life, emotional, affective and positive social support, spirituality (feelings of peace and meaning in life) and post-traumatic growth (appreciation for life and ability to see new possibilities) relative to SET. *SET also improved, to a lesser degree, on many outcomes.

Mindfulness, adolescents and mental health

*Mindfulness-based stress reduction was used for 14-18 year olds with heterogeneous diagnoses in an outpatient psychiatric facilite. *Relative to treatment-as-usual control participants, participats receiving MBSR self-reported reduced symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatic distress, and increased self-esteem and sleep quality.

Stressful events and heart attacks

*Monday mornings: consistently found that Monday mornings are peak period for heart attacks only among the working population. *This is because when we stress about things, the body incorrect turns this into a fight-or-flight response, which becomes anxiety, and can lead to heart attacks. *Football: on days of matches involving the German World Cup team, the incidence of cardiac emergencies was higher than usual. *But it is important to note that it's not the event but what we project onto the event that is dangerous. So, if we're not mindful, it is easy to project things onto situations that are not helpful. *Major catastrophes like earthquakes produce a large but short-lived spike on the incidence of fatal heart attacks (but only occurs in people who are susceptible). *So the interesting thing is that, in an earthquake situation, more people die from heart attacks than for the earthquake itself.

Cognitive practices of mindfulness

*Perception *Letting go (non-attachment) *Acceptance *Presence of mind

Mindfulness and job stress

*Study evaluated the effectiveness of 8-week mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) on mental illness risks and job strain for 144 employees with poor mental health. *The MBI group scored significantly lower on psychological distress, prolonged fatigue, and perceived stress (not job strain). *Interventions for enhancing workplace resilience for individuals should not be divorced from the need to create work environments and systems sympathetic to wellbeing and being mindful.

Mindfulness and healthcare quality

*Study of clinicians. *Clinicians with the highest mindfulness scores had: Patient-centered pattern of communication. More rapport building and discussion of psychosocial issues. More positive emotional tone with patients. Patients more likely to give high ratings on clinician communication and to report high overall satisfaction.

Smartphone and cognitive performance

*Study: 520 college students performed tasks requiring focus, attention, and problem-solving skills. Some were asked to leave smartphones in another room, others to keep them in their pocket or purse, and others to put phones on the desk next to them. *The scores were highest when the smartphones were in the next room. *The scores were lowest when the phone was on the des. *The impact of the smartphone's location was most dramatic among those most reliant on their phones. *So smartphones come at a cognitive cost, they're a "brain drain".

Burnout/ psychiatric morbidity in new medical graduates

*Study: 8 months into their internship, 75% of medical interns had burnout. *73% met the criteria for psychiatric morbidity on at least one occasion.

Work stress and aging

*Study: In the Finnish working-age population, individuals with severe exhaustion had leukocyte telomeres on average 0.043 units shorter than people with no exhaustion. *This suggests that work-related exhaustion is related to the acceleration of the rate of biological aging.

Mindfulness and gambling

*Study: a systematic review of 13 mindfulness-based interventions for gambling behavior and symptoms, urges, and financial outcomes was conducted. *There were moderate to large effects for gambling behaviors / symptoms, gambling urges, and financial outcomes. *The findings provide support for mindfulness-based interventions in the treatment of disordered gambling.

Mindfulness and infertility

*Study: for infertile women subjected to their first IVF treatment, post-intervention and at 6-month follow-up MBI revealed: 1. A significant increase in mindfulness, self-compassion, meaning-based coping and all FertiQoL domains. 2. A significant decrease in emotion regulation difficulties, active- and passive-avoidance coping. *No change in control group

Mindfulness in mundane activities

*Study: investigated whether washing dishes could be used as an informal contemplative practice, promoting the state of mindfulness, emotional wellbeing. *Results: mindful dishwashers had greater state of mindfulness, more enjoyment, increase in positive affect (i.e., inspiration), decrease in negative affect (i.e., nervousness), and overestimations of time they had actually spent dishwashing.

Mindfulness-based relapse prevention for substance abuse

*Study: long-term efficacy of MBRP in reducing relapse compared with regular relapse prevent and treatment as usual during 1yr follow-up. *Participants assigned to MBRP and RP reported significantly lower risk of relapse to substance use and heavy drinking, and significantly fewer days of substance use and heavy drinking at the 6-month follow-up. *Cognitive-behavioural RP showed an advantage over MBRP in time to first drug use, but at 12-month follow-up, MBRP showed significantly fewer days of substance use and decreased heavy drinking.

Electronic media and wellbeing

*Study: males playing more video games had significantly greater odds of conduct and emotional problems for each additional hour of weekly use. *2.58-fold greater odds of emotional problems if the child played on average 14 hrs/week. *TV viewing was associated with 1.7 times greater odds of ADHD for male children, who watch 14 hours a week. *Interestingly, there were no significant relationships for females and no clear link between computer use and emotional and behavioural issues.

Mindfulness and burnout

*Study: participants completed questionnaires assessing burnout, work engagement, empathy, and mindfulness skills, before and at the end of the MBSR training/waiting period. *Compared with the control group, MBSR group reported: Decrease in depersonalisation Increase in dedication Mindfulness skills increased Work engagement increased *MBSR course increased GP wellbeing and compassion towards themselves and others, including their patients.

Social media use and depression

*Study: participants in the highest quartile of social media use had significantly increased odds of depression (AOR = 1.66) after controlling for all covariates. *So those who were using social media the most were about 3x more depressed than those who were using it the least.

Compassion, stress and inflammation

*The ability to feel compassion and empathy is increased by mindfulness as well as reducing 'carer- fatigue' or 'carer burnout'. *This makes sense when one considers that paying more attention to who is in front of us will help us to be in touch with them and what is going on for them. *Compassion may be a natural side-effect of attention and a lack of compassion a side-effect of inattention. . *Study: participants who received compassion meditation exhibited lower levels of distress/ inflammation when exposed to a standardized laboratory stressor than controls.

Active tasks

*The default setting for tasks associated with paying attention is focus and attentiveness, when the brain is efficient and quiet.

Mindfulness explanation

*The most scientifically investigated form of méditation. *Subject of a huge growth of interest in clinical and scientific circles in recent years. *All about learning to pay attention, which is "the very root of judgment, character, and will". *Teaches us how to trainattention, use the mind diffierently, and focus on the things that are most useful and helpful in our lives (to help us live more consciously and fully).

Applications of mindfulness - neuroscience

*The structural and functional changes in the brain that come from mindfulness. *These include: stimulation of neurogenesis, possible prevention of dementia and cognitive decline, down-regulating the amygdala, improved executive functioning and working memory, reduced default mental activity, improved self-monitoring and cognitive control, improved perception of sensory input.

Applications of mindfulness - mental health

*The therapeutic applications of mindfulness as they relate to: depression, anxiety, panic disorder, stress, emotional regulation, addiction, sleep problems, eating disorders, psychosis, ADHD, autism, reduced burnout, greater resilience.

Clinical applications of mindfulness

*The therapeutic applications of mindfulness for pain management, including: symptom control, coping with chronic illness (e.g. cancer and MS), metabolic and hormonal benefits (e.g. reduced allostatic load, cortisol), facilitating lifestyle change (e.g. weight management, smoking cessation), improved immunity (e.g. improved resistance, reduced inflammation), improved genetic function and repair, slower ageing as measured by telomeres.

Applications of mindfulness - relationships

*The therapeutic applications of mindfulness in relation to interpersonal connections, including: greater emotional intelligence and empathy, improved communication, reduced vicarious stress and carer burnout.

Applications of mindfulness - education

*The therapeutic applications of mindfulness in relation to learning, including: improved problem-solving, executive functioning and working memory, better focus, less behavioural problems, fostering growth mindsets.

Applications of mindfulness - performance

*The therapeutic applications of mindfulness in relation to performance, including sport, academia, leadership qualities, mental flexibility and problem solving, decision-making, sunk-cost bias.

Applications of mindfulness - spiritual

*The therapeutic applications of mindfulness in relation to spirituality (new applications for skills that are actually very old, originate from thousands of years ago).

Attentional blink

*There is a lag time of about 200-500 milliseconds when shifting our attention. *This lag time is increased by stress. *Eg: it takes an average of 64 seconds to recover our train of thought after checking our email. *So staying in the flow of an activity makes us more productive!

Telomeres

*These are the little caps on the end of chromosomes that stop DNA from unraveling. *They are longest/ healthiest when we are born. *The shooter they are, the older we are, and the bigger the risks of developing illnessess associated with aging. *The greater the level of mind wandering, the greater the level of telomere shortening (a marker of biological age). (When our mind is wandering, we often stress about little things). *People with low telomeres have the lowest tendency of mind-wandering.

Depersonalisation and mindfulness

*These feelings of an escape from reality are linked with maltreatment in childhood. *Study: strong inverse corrélation between these feelings and mindfulness. *So, there were significant correlations between emotional maltreatment on the one hand and depersonalisation severity (high)/ mindfulness (low) on the other.

Hassed/ mindfulness stress-performance curve

*This curve tells us that it is not stress, but focus that takes us to the highest level of performance. *When you're performing at your peak, your mind is clear, and your attention is really engaged with what you're doing. *When you're so much in the moment, there is no anxiety/ fear about what is going on; so you are inwardly calm but totally engaged.

Yerkes-Dodson stress-performance curve

*This curve tells us that the relation between performance and stress. Example: *You have an assignment due in two months, so you don't care about it. *This is the time of low stress/ low performance. *Them, two days before the assignment, it becomes high stress/ high performance (the time pressure makes you get the work done). *So in this case, stress is positive. *But if the stress keeps going up, performance goes down (high stress/ low performance).

Symptoms of depression

*This disorder can be understood as a disorder of attention. *The constant default mode is depressive rumination. *The person is not in the present; they feel a foreboding about anticipating the future and reliving the past. *They are distracted, which leads to poor function. *They experience anhedonia, reactivity, and a high allostatic load (poor physical health).

Default-mode network (DMN)/ default state

*This is a major resting-state network that supports most of the baseline brain activity. *At this time, the mind is inattentive, distracted, idle; recalling the past or daydreaming.

Attention deficit trait explanation

*This is a newly recognised neurological phenomenon. *Response to a hyperkinetic environment. *When one is trying to deal with too much input (complex multi-task), the results are: 1. Black and white thinking (no more shades of grey). 2. Difficulty in staying organised, setting priorities and time management. 3. Constant low level of panic and guilt.

Allostatic load explanation

*This is seen in chronic depression and anxiety, and overall accelerates the ageing process. *This leads to: 1. Immune dysregulation. 2. Hardening of the arteries (cardiovascular disease). 3. Metabolic syndrome. 4. Thinning of bones (osteoporosis). 5. Loss of brain cells, particualrly in hippocampus (learning/memory) and prefrontal cortex (working memory/executive function); causing a predisposition to Alzheimer's. 6. Amygdala growth. *Eg: if you're a uni student stressed with exams, and you're exposed to a virus, you're twice as likely to get a clinical infection than you would be if you were exposed to the same virus when not stressed. *Luckily, these effects can be reverser over time through the regular practice of meditation (because focusing attention on the here and now helps us to see which stressors are actually present and which ones are only in our imagination).

Attention regulation

*This is the #1 executive function. *It is the ability to focus, engage, sustain and prioritise attention (choose our responses). *All other functions depend on it.

Mindfulness and executive function

*This skill occurs in the frontal lobes (prefrontal cortex), the limbic system (emotion centre) and the mesolimbic reward system (appetites). *Functions: Short-term memory, processing information, attention regulation, self awareness, decision making, emotion regulation, appetite regulation, impulse control, and prioritisaiton. *So, mindfulness enhances these functions because it stabilises the prefrontal cortex (executive functions) to help it function. Makes the frontal lobes/ limbic system/ mesolimbic reward system work much better.

Stress and performance

*This state is often valued as a way of increasing performance, while being too relaxed is often associated with poor performance and lack of motivation. *To that extent, this state is good for being productive; hence driven people often avoid meditation because they see it as being counterproductive. *However, the relaxation associated with apathy and lack of focus should not be mistaken for the relaxation associated with the inner calm and focus as a result of meditation. *Furthermore, too much stress is associated with lack of focus, poor performance and an increased number of mistakes. *Eg: depressed and stressed hospital doctors make more than six times as many clinical and prescribing errors compared to non-depressed and stressed doctors doing the same job. *Thus, it is not stress but awareness and an appropriate level of arousal (a relaxed body/ a calm but perceptive mind) that is necessary for peak performance. Inner calmness is not apathy.

Mindful practice

*This term was coined by Prof. Ron Epstein in 1999, in the context of medical practice. *It refers to a clinician's ability to be mindful while actively engaged in their work. *It is conscious and intentional attentiveness to the present situation - the raw sensations, thoughts, and emotions as well as the interpretations, judgments and heuristics that one applies to a particular situation. *It is essential underpinning for self-monitoring, and avoiding auto-pilot.

Mindfulness and academic performance

*When we are distracted, stressed, depressed or anxious, we function far less effectively. *This is because the regions of the brain that gather and process information are working poorly at such times. *This is primarily a problem with attention, but we don't have to be stressed to notice that much of the time we are not focused on the things we need to be focused on. *Eg: studying at our desk and our attention is out the window. *Thus, learning mindfulness not only helps us to function better under pressure, but also helps us to utilise our time better, to focus, and to foster a growth mindset which is more conducive to learning in general.

Predicted diseases in 2030

1. Dépression. 2. IHD. 3. Dementia. 4. Alcool abuse. 5. Cardiovascular disease. 6. Hearing loss. 7. Lung cancer. 8. Osteo-arthritis. 9. COPD. *Depression will be the #1 disease in the world by 2030!

Applications of mindfulness

1. Mental health. 2. Neurosciences. 3. Clinical. 4. Performance. 5. Education. 6. Relationships. 7. Spirituality.

Mindfulness assumptions

1. People generally operate on automatic pilot, and are unaware of moment-to-moment experience. 2. But, we are capable of developing sustained attention. 3. Development of this ability is gradual, progressive and requires practice. 4. Awareness makes life richer and more vivid, and replaces unconsciousn reactiveness. 5. Mindfulness gives rise to accuracy of perceptions. 6. Awareness enhances perceptiveness, effective action, and control (eg: you can experience fear, but not be controlled by it). *Mindfulness is about choosing what we pay attention to. *It doesn't mean that there acn't be anything in our environment (sounds, thoughts, stimuli); it just means we acknowledge them and then choose whether to focus on them or not. *You don't have to block out thoughts/ feelings, you just change your attitude towards them.

Issues of inattention/ loss of focus when multitasking

1. When our mind wanders, we are not paying attention to what we are doing. This results in more mistakes, less efficience and less enjoyment. 2. When we are not paying attention, we might be wishing to experience happiness resulting from the imagination, but it really only gives us a very superficiel experience of the life we are actually leading/ does not lead us to a stable and deeply satisfying level of wellbeing. 3. The constant desire to be somewhere else can produce a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the here and now. 4. When we don't pay attention, our mind starts to worry at ruminante; which is at the very heart ruminate anxiety and depression. 5. When we don't paying attention we often make mountains out of mole-hills and perceive stressors that don't even exist, except in our imaginations. This amplifies our level of stress enormously which takes a toll on our mental and physical health.

Precuneus

A brain region that becomes active when experiencing: *Consciousness. *Wakefulness. *Self-awareness. *Attention. *Episodic memory retrieval. *Working memory. *Conscious perception. *Visuospatial processing. It is impaired by default mental activity. It is larger in happy people. 6-week mindfulness program produces a significant grey matter increase within this area.

Mindfulness definition

A mental discipline that involves training attention. *Taking in that's happening to you, being in the moment, being in the flow of an activity we're engaged in.

Fight-or-flight response

A natural, necessary and appropriate response to a threatening situation based on a clearly perceived, actual, real-time, threat (eg: confronting a person-eating tiger). This turbo-charge of energy is coded into our systems by nature in order to preserve life. Effects: 1. Increased blood flow (élévation of blood pressure/ heart rate). 2. Diversion of blond-flow to muscles and away from gut/skin. 3. Increased metabolic rate. 4. Increased respiration and opened airways. 5. Mobilisation of energy stores. 6. Blood thickening to stop bleeding quickly. 7. Mobilisation of immune cells. 8. Mobilisation of inflammatory hormones for tissue repair. 9. Attention centres in the brain are activated. *Only turned on when it needs to be, turned off when it is no longer needed (not prolonged). *Activating it inappropriately results in anxiety. *So, when we get anxious about things that haven't happened yet, or are already over, we activate our fight-or-flight system inappropriately, which takes a toll over time.

Anchoring bias

A resistance to adapting appropriately to subsequent data that suggest alternative diagnoses.

Self-awareness

Ability to recognise and understand one's emotions, drives and effects

Mindfulness and the workplace

An 8-week mindfulness program for ANU staff caused: *Increased self-rated performance (ECDP) *Improved wellbeing (PANAS) *Improved eudaimonic wellbeing (meaningfulness) (PWB) *Increase in work engagement (vigour and dedication) (UWES) *Increased authenticity (self-awareness, authentic behaviour, open relationships) (AI3) *Increased satisfaction with life (SWLS) Improvements were sustained at 6 month follow-up.

Mindfulness and practitioner wellbeing

An 8-week mindfulness program for practitioners caused improvements on all measures of wellbeing including: *Mindfulness *Burnout *Empathy and responsiveness to psychosocial aspects *Total mood disturbance *Personality (conscientiousness; emotional stability) Moreover, improvements in mindfulness correlated with improvements on other scales.

Anhedonia

Lack of pleasure/ enjouement, not present in the moment (symptom of depression).

Mindfulness and mental flexibility

Mindfulness leads to: 1. Reduced cognitive rigidity by removing the tendency to be "blinded" by experience. 2. A reduced tendency to overlook novel and adaptive ways of responding, due to past experience, both in and out of the clinical setting.

MBCR

Mindfulness-based cancer recovery

MBCT

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. *This practice more than halves the relapse rate for people who have had depression in the past from 36-78%. *It does this by changing our relationships to negative thoughts and emotions (rather than changing our actual thoughts). *We don't have to control negative thoughts and emotions, but we don't have to be controlled by them either.

MBRP

Mindfulness-based relapse prevention

MBSR

Mindfulness-based stress reduction

Reactivity

Non-acceptance of state of thoughts and émotions (symptom of depression).

Motivation

Passion for work that goes beyond money or status; energy and persistence.

SET

Supportive expressive group therapy

Self-regulation

The ability to control or redirect disruptive impulses, and think before acting.

Social skill

The ability to manage relationships and build networks; can find common ground, rapport.

Empathy

The ability to understand emotions of others, skill in interacting with others.

Default brain definition

The distracted, inattentive, disengaged state of mind that we jump to when our mind is wandering.

Depersonalisation definition

The feelings of being detached from one's own mental processes or body (a form of mental escape from the full experience of reality).

Allostatic load definition

The long-term over-activation of the stress response. *Prolonged stress leads to wear-and-tear on the body (which is mediated through the sympathetic nervous system).

Confirmation bias

The pursuit of data that support a diagnosis over data that refute it.

Attention switching

We shift attention so fast that it appears that we are doing mutile things simultaneously, but we are really going from one thing to another.

Illusion of multitasking

When doing this, we miss chunks of information we're not even aware of missing.

Attention deficit trait definition

When people have shooter attention spans, and find it harder and harder to focus.

High performance (Hassed)

Zone flow: mindful, relaxed, but fully aware and engaged.