IMPACT OF MEDIATION AND MINDFULNESS IN SOCIAL INTERACTION
Introduction
Whether it is a meeting at work, lunch with friends, talk with parents, greetings from strangers in the street, or even just ordering pizza, social interactions are nigh impossible to avoid. Even David Henry Thoreau, in his Walden years, had visitors. And at the same time, social interactions are perhaps one of the most important aspects of being human and flourishing, and even surviving, in the human world.
However, some of these social interactions can be terrifying, like: making public speeches, asking for a raise, asking someone out etc. Even in the most ordinary social interactions, we may at times put our foot in our mouth and say or do something totally uncalibrated, …show more content…
Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, defines mindfulness as a purposive, non-judgemental attention to the present moment: thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). The concept of mindfulness is rooted in contemplative traditions, primarily buddhism, however it has been secularized in its transition to the western mainstream and is used clinically to treat stress, addiction, and even couple’s therapy (Atkinson, 2013; Marlatt, 2002; Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Yet the primary method of training mindfulness has remained the same: meditation. While there are a variety of forms of meditation, they all tend to cultivate kindness, compassion and equanimity (Davidson, …show more content…
Specifically, the reduction in amygdala activity, which is associated with depression, is inversely related to trait mindfulness (Davis & Hayes, 2011) and mindfulness can be cultivated through meditation. Hölzel and colleagues (2011) showed that five days of twenty minute mindfulness meditations in adults reduced anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue and much more; but important for our case, meditation showed decrease cortisol, a hormone related to stress. Not only that, there was an improvement in visual spatial memory, working memory and sustained attention, all of which could work to reduce stress and anxiety. This could create it’s own feedback loop: reduced stress and anxiety means more resources for attention and retention, and increased attention and retention could mean less we need to be stressed or anxious about. For example, in a reddit post, Has mindfulness made you a better conversationalist? redditor Grorvald, states that normally her/his mind races and s/he talks in rushed and jumbled manner. Grorvald attributes this to anxiety: fearing that a conversation is competition where s/he has to spew what ever s/he has to say before being cut off; at the same time thinking, “conversing in general is futile, I have nothing to gain from hearing others and others don't
Introduction
Whether it is a meeting at work, lunch with friends, talk with parents, greetings from strangers in the street, or even just ordering pizza, social interactions are nigh impossible to avoid. Even David Henry Thoreau, in his Walden years, had visitors. And at the same time, social interactions are perhaps one of the most important aspects of being human and flourishing, and even surviving, in the human world.
However, some of these social interactions can be terrifying, like: making public speeches, asking for a raise, asking someone out etc. Even in the most ordinary social interactions, we may at times put our foot in our mouth and say or do something totally uncalibrated, …show more content…
Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, defines mindfulness as a purposive, non-judgemental attention to the present moment: thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). The concept of mindfulness is rooted in contemplative traditions, primarily buddhism, however it has been secularized in its transition to the western mainstream and is used clinically to treat stress, addiction, and even couple’s therapy (Atkinson, 2013; Marlatt, 2002; Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Yet the primary method of training mindfulness has remained the same: meditation. While there are a variety of forms of meditation, they all tend to cultivate kindness, compassion and equanimity (Davidson, …show more content…
Specifically, the reduction in amygdala activity, which is associated with depression, is inversely related to trait mindfulness (Davis & Hayes, 2011) and mindfulness can be cultivated through meditation. Hölzel and colleagues (2011) showed that five days of twenty minute mindfulness meditations in adults reduced anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue and much more; but important for our case, meditation showed decrease cortisol, a hormone related to stress. Not only that, there was an improvement in visual spatial memory, working memory and sustained attention, all of which could work to reduce stress and anxiety. This could create it’s own feedback loop: reduced stress and anxiety means more resources for attention and retention, and increased attention and retention could mean less we need to be stressed or anxious about. For example, in a reddit post, Has mindfulness made you a better conversationalist? redditor Grorvald, states that normally her/his mind races and s/he talks in rushed and jumbled manner. Grorvald attributes this to anxiety: fearing that a conversation is competition where s/he has to spew what ever s/he has to say before being cut off; at the same time thinking, “conversing in general is futile, I have nothing to gain from hearing others and others don't