The lockdown exposed us to unrest and stress. Conditions in which it is not easy for the mind recover strength and clarity and find useful ideas to reinvent the future. Psychologists recommend that you restore your energy by dedicating yourself to meditation. Even better to the mindfulness, that is to say that form of mindful meditation that focuses on the breath, on the body and on the dimension of the here and now.
Di mindfulness it deals with the new book of the psychotherapist and bioenergetics analyst Nicoletta Cinotti, whose video tutorials have caught up on YouTube as well 60.000 views in just the months of lockdown.
Minduflness in 5 minutes. Informal practices of happiness, Gribaudo Editore, guides the reader towards the awareness of oneself (of one's body, of one's breathing) to recover the introspective dimension that the stress of everyday life, especially in these days, has fatally overshadowed.
- esercizi practical contained in Mindfulness in 5 minutes they aim to alleviate disturbing phenomena, negativity, nervousness, insomnia. Nicoletta Cinotti describes in a clear and very accessible way the practices of relaxation need grounding. A writing for everyone. Mostly advice, which by his own admission they are not the panacea for all the ills in the world ma suggestions friendly, food for thought. To try, if possible, to change our point of view, or simply to broaden it.
How did the passion for bionergetics and midfulness tells us in this exclusive interview.
When was your passion for mindfulness born?
I have been meditating since I was twenty but I had never thought about bringing meditation into my work. The first few years were intense, with meditation retreats, some very long. Formative years and years in which I regularly "argued" with meditation. I thought I had to arrive in a different place than where I was. And finding out that I was always staying in the same place was really frustrating. I think this is one of the misconceptions about meditation: the idea that meditating is becoming something other than who we are. Or go to a place other than where we are. This misconception cleared up when I encountered mindfulness practice many years later. I got to know her because I deal specifically with depressive disorders and mindfulness offers an 8 week program to prevent depressive relapses. A program - called the MBCT protocol - which is considered as effective as pharmacological treatment in the prevention of depressive relapses. A true miracle therefore that works precisely for those who are unhappy with an emotional condition
How can mindfulness help us to regain focus and vitality in the delicate period we are experiencing?
Mindfulness helps to master our natural qualities of attention and concentration. When we are in a storm this is what we need: to be at the helm, alert, aware of the risks and opportunities. Certainly if we are experienced sailors it is easier to hold the helm but in difficulties we are more motivated to get involved and to commit ourselves. Commitment is an unpopular word, but mindfulness requires commitment. Above all, the commitment that comes from an affectionate attention to one's life.
Silence often makes us uncomfortable, how can we make peace with it to grasp its full potential?
Actually I think it's not the silence that makes us uncomfortable. The discomfort arises from the fact that, when there is no noise, we realize the incessant Radio Non stop Thinking that is always on inside of us. The restlessness, anxiety, discomfort we suffer from stems from the fact that this radio is always on and not always with good news. In the silence we realize it. When we don't hear it, because we are distracted or busy with something else, this radio is still on. It continues to transmit bad news against which we are helpless: behind the discomfort, the panic attacks, the outbursts of nervousness - apparently unmotivated - lies this incessant soundtrack. It is necessary to take care of it. Mindfulness does it with three actions that we could summarize as follows: it lowers the volume of thoughts, increases the volume of sensations and helps us to look outside the usual schemes to open ourselves to a world of possibilities that we do not see, do not grasp, do not appreciate. because we are guided by the usual automatisms
What is your idea of happiness, one of the goals of mindfulness?
At the beginning of the MBSR protocol, the protocol for stress reduction based on mindfulness, which I cover in my book Mindfulness in 5 minutes. Informal practices of ordinary happiness Research was conducted by Richard Davidson, a prominent neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin, in collaboration with the Center for Mindfulness. The aim was to scientifically evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness. Both medical parameters and psychological tests were used. Until that time it was believed that the relationship between the right hemisphere - which is activated during the expression of difficult and negative emotions such as fear and sadness - and the left hemisphere - which is activated with positive emotions such as joy, contentment and energy - was a sort of non-modifiable character pattern. In simple terms, if you tend to see the glass as half empty you will always see it as half empty. If you tend to see it half full you will always see it half full. Research has shown that these character tendencies can be changed with mindfulness. Not only did the participants become more optimistic but they remained more optimistic even under stress and the benefits of the course - which lasts a total of 8 weeks with 9 meetings - also persisted in the following 4 months both from a psychological and physical point of view.
What does this all mean?
It means that undertaking and applying a Mindfulness program in daily life carries important measurable consequences for physical and mental health. It also shows that the effects are achievable even if the stressful conditions continue. As Jon Kabat-Zinn, one of the creators of mindfulness programs, says, we cannot eliminate the difficulties in life, we cannot flatten the waves but we can learn to surf! That is, we can learn to be carried by the wave beyond our known destinations.
What are the main enemies of the here and now?
Let's be prepared: this is a good thing. Only that we transform the desire to be prepared into a continuous and controlled planning of our life. Which is often accompanied by a reflection on past mistakes, ours and others'. We live thus divided between thoughts about the future and emotions about the past, escaping the opportunities that are instead, in the only time we have at our disposal: the present.
The father of bioenergetics, Alexander Lowen, writes We human beings are like trees, rooted to the ground with one end, reaching towards the sky with the other, and the more we can reach out the stronger our earthly roots are. If we uproot a tree, the leaves die; if we uproot a person, his spirituality becomes a lifeless abstraction. How can the practice of grounding help us in the path of evolution and knowledge of ourselves?
Being grounded means being concrete, capable of dealing with reality without too many illusions. It is a fundamental aspect of mindfulness and bioenergetics: keeping your feet on the ground is sometimes not romantic but it is certainly the best way to deal with joys and sorrows. And, to tell the truth, we risk losing the sense of reality more often in pleasant situations than in unpleasant ones: being rooted means knowing how to stay in pleasure without losing your head and knowing how to stay in difficulties without losing courage!
Really takes a few minutes to benefit from mindfulness?
There is something we would all like to buy: time. We would like more free time and more "serenity" in what we have available, too often delimited and forced between a thousand duties and commitments. It is easy to think that it is not possible to have time for something morè in our days. Much less for a practice - that of mindfulness - which requires constancy. Yet mindfulness is a gift for everyone: it gives you more time in which to enjoy your life. And not because it allows us to obtain something special but because, being more present and aware, we are able to savor what we do and do not feel drawn into a whirlwind of activity. The real point is not time: it is constancy. We can bring mindfulness into our daily life, even as little as 5 minutes a day. But it's not enough to do it for a day. So the real question is, are you willing to do 5 minutes a day of mindfulness practice for life? Five minutes is the time for a coffee, a cigarette, a phone call. All things we do on a daily basis. Let us ask ourselves if we are willing to give ourselves attention - loving, non-judgmental attention - every day for 5 minutes for a lifetime. If the answer is yes we have already taken the first step towards happiness and it did not take time but intention. The intention to cultivate a possible happiness
Is mindfulness for everyone?
Nothing it is good for everyone. Not even antibiotics are good for everyone in the same way. Mindfulness must be encountered, tasted, tasted and then chosen. If we don't try it, we can't know if it's right for us. I know that I have seen patients - whom I had followed for years - gain from mindfulness a well-being that had been overlooked in psychotherapy. And they had been my patients, so I make a political correct statement!
A tip to give to those who approach this practice ...
Starting Over: We break many healthy habits because we don't agree to start over. Instead, starting over is all we need to consistently build something. A hundred times the mind wanders, a hundred times we bring it to the breath. A hundred times we stop practicing mindfulness and a hundred times we start again. Starting over is one of the most beautiful acts of courage I know. After all, don't we all start over, every day?
Featured photo by Daniel Mingook on Unsplash
