by Carl Sherman, Ph.D.
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/1475.html

“Mindful awareness” sounds spiritual. Is it?
Mindful awareness, or mindfulness, is part of many religious traditions. For example, Buddhism features a form of mindfulness meditation known as vipassana.

But mindfulness is not necessarily religious or spiritual. It involves paying close attention to your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations; in other words, developing a greater awareness of what’s going on with you from moment to moment.

It can be used as a tool to foster wellness, especially psychological well-being. Similar techniques have been used to lower blood pressure and to manage chronic pain, anxiety, and depression.

How can mindfulness help people with AD/HD?
It improves your ability to control your attention. In other words, it teaches you to pay attention to paying attention. Mindful awareness can also make people more aware of their emotional state, so they won’t react impulsively. That's often a real problem for people with ADHD.

Researchers have talked about using mindfulness for ADHD for some time, but the question was always whether people with ADHD could really do it, especially if they're hyperactive.

How does your center teach the practice of mindful awareness?
We've tried to make the technique user-friendly. Our eight-week program consists of weekly two-and-a-half-hour training sessions, plus at-home practice. We start with five-minute, seated meditations at home each day, and gradually work up to 15 or 20 minutes. We also give the option to practice longer or to substitute mindful walking for the seated meditation.

We use visual aids, like a picture of a cloudy sky, to explain the basic concepts, because people with AD/HD tend to be visual learners. The blue sky represents the space of awareness, and the clouds represent all the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that pass by.

That's it? You do something for just a few minutes a day, and it makes your AD/HD better?
Not quite. The meditation sessions are important practice, but the key is to use mindfulness throughout your daily life, always being aware of where your attention is focused while you are engaged in routine activities. For example, you might notice while you drive that your attention wanders to an errand you must run later that day. Lots of people practice mindfulness while eating. Once you get used to checking in with yourself and your body, you can apply the technique anytime you start to feel overwhelmed.

Can I learn to practice mindfulness on my own?
Yes, the basic practice is very simple. Just sit down in a comfortable place where you won't be disturbed and spend five minutes focusing on the sensation of breathing in and breathing out—pay attention to how it feels when your stomach rises and falls. Soon, you may notice that you're thinking of something else—your job or some noise you just heard or your plans for later in the day. Label these thoughts as "thinking," and refocus your attention on your breath.

Do this daily. Every couple of weeks, increase the length of time you spend on the exercise—10 minutes, 15, up to 20 or more if you feel you can. Try the same thing throughout each day, focusing on your breath for a few minutes as you walk from place to place, or when you're stopped at a red light or sitting at the computer.

What if you just can't keep your mind focused? Will the exercise still do any good?
It’s the nature of the mind to be distracted. Mindful awareness isn’t about staying with the breath, but about returning to the breath. That’s what enhances your ability to focus.

And this emphasis on re-shifting your attention, of outwitting the mind's natural tendency to wander, is what makes us think this technique could be especially helpful to someone who has AD/HD.

By Ann Douglas
Living columnist
Here’s some good news about that much talked about teenage brain. Teenagers who practice mindfulness — a technique that involves focusing on what is happening in the moment and being aware of and accepting of emotions — benefit from increased self-control, healthier relationships, and improved overall well-being.

Psychologists at Australia’s University of Wollongong and George Mason University in Washington, DC, studied mindfulness in 776 Grade 10 students over a one-year period. The results of their research were published in the August 2011 issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

Mindfulness is a useful strategy for teenagers because it allows them to think through their emotions as opposed to reacting impulsively — something their brains are primed to do during the teen years.

“The teen brain is still undergoing a period of active construction,” explains Dr. Jean Clinton, an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience at McMaster University, division of Child Psychiatry. “And, during this time, teenagers are more reactive. Mindfulness allows them to pay attention to their feelings rather than being their feelings.”

Mindfulness also involves accepting what you are feeling and understanding that an emotion is just an emotion: it doesn’t control you, explains Shelley Hermer, a social worker based in Peterborough, Ontario. “Feelings come and feelings go. And there’s no such thing as a bad feeling. Being angry is just as valid as being excited.”

So how can you apply this new research about mindfulness to your life as a parent the next time your teenager storms through the front door, livid about something that happened at school?

“Focus on responding with empathy,” says Clinton. “Say, ‘Tell me what happened.’” It’s important to resist the temptation to try to fix the problem or to allow your own emotions to take over. “It’s not about you. It’s about your teenager.”

Then, once your teenager has had a chance to tell his story, encourage him to reflect on his feelings, says Clinton. “Ask questions like, ‘What about it really upsets you? Why are you so angry?’ In asking these types of questions, you are being your teen’s mindful brain. You are helping him to figure out that it is helpful to take a step back and ask these types of questions when he is feeling really angry or upset.”

Then, once your teenager has had a chance to acknowledge what he is feeling and to reflect on those feelings, suggest some self-soothing strategies that he can use to bring his emotions under control, says Clinton. Talking a shower, going for a walk or a run, or talking to a friend are strategies that many teens find helpful.

The mindfulness research about teenagers makes a lot of sense to Mississauga mother and early childhood consultant Cathy Kerr. Kerr has been taking a mindful approach to raising her two daughters, Sarah, 16, and Larissa, 12. She feels that it is important that her daughters grow up understanding that there needs to be a balance between caring for yourself and caring for other people. “Having empathy is a really big part of problem-solving in general — knowing how you affect other people,” she explains.

She also wants her daughters to grow up knowing how to take good care of themselves. That’s why Kerr and her daughters make weekly treks to a Yoga studio together. “Yoga really teaches you how to relax, tune in and let go. I like knowing that they’re learning the same things that I am about relaxing.”

Clearly, Kerr’s 16-year-old daughter, Sarah Weredynski, has taken these lessons to heart. She practices yoga on an almost daily basis at home. “Yoga exercises your mind, body, and spirit,” Weredynski explains. “After yoga, I feel fresh. I try to fit it in first thing in the morning on weekends. That way, I can go into my day knowing I’ve done something good for myself.”

Yoga seems to be working for Weredynski. She doesn’t get stressed easily or often. A sticky note on her dresser helps her to keep track of upcoming deadlines for assignments. And when friends start to obsess about the little things, she reminds them to “calm the heck down” and to keep things in perspective. “Not everything is the end of the world,” she explains.

http://www.thestar.com/living/article/1181009--teen-brain-benefits-from-mindfulness-training

Urge surfing is a term coined by Alan Marlatt as part of a program of relapse prevention he developed for people recovering from addictions to alcohol and other drugs. It can actually be used to help with any addictive behaviour such as gambling, overeating, inappropriate sex or any other destructive impulses.

http://www.mindfulness.org.au/URGE%20SURFING.htm

ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2012) — An article by researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), New York Medical College (NYMC), and the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons (CCPS) reviews evidence that yoga may be effective in treating patients with stress-related psychological and medical conditions such as depression, anxiety, high blood pressure and cardiac disease. Their theory, which currently appears online in Medical Hypotheses, could be used to develop specific mind-body practices for the prevention and treatment of these conditions in conjunction with standard treatments.
For more information click link below

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120306131644.htm

By Lauren Zehnle MA, PLPC

When we are in a “fixed mind,” we are not open to new experiences. We are instead controlled by our past and our own rigid rules. Albert Ellis calls these rigid expectations, “musturbation,” – I swear I’m not making this up!

Ellis said that if we hold fast to the belief system that the world must be a certain way, we must be a certain way, or others must be a certain way- then we are setting ourselves up for feelings of bitterness, resentment and anger.

When we are in “fresh mind” we are unaware of the dangers we might face. We do not consider past mistakes or experiences when evaluating a new situation. We are overly trusting of a person or situation that is potentially dangerous.

Both of these polarized states of mind are problematic.

Instead, we want to be in “fluid mind”, or “wise mind”; that part of ourselves that knows and experiences personal truths.

“Fluid mind is being peacefully aware of each moment as a new beginning that is based, in part, on previous moments. It is willingness to try something new but not just because it is “new.” It is focusing on where you want to go, while still honoring where you have been. Fluid mind knows that living effectively requires genuine adjustment to an ever changing environment over time. What worked once may not work now" (Dimeff, 2007).

What area of your life do you need to use fluid mind? Are you more prone towards being in fixed mind or fresh mind? What consequences have you experienced when engaging in either of these problematic states of mind? What needs to happen in order for you to stay in wise mind/fluid mind?

References
Dimeff, Linda. "Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice. New York: New York, 2007.