MODULE 2 (minor)

CONSCIOUSNESS

INTRODUCTION TO CONSCIOUSNESS

 We all experience changing states of consciousness each day–varying levels of awareness

of ourselves, our behavior, and the world around us.
 We shift from operating ―on automatic‖ while driving a car, combing our hair, or
brushing our teeth to full and careful attention to tasks we find challenging, either
mentally or physically.
 And when we go to sleep at night (perhaps to dream), or take some drug that affects the
way we feel, we may also experience dramatic shifts in consciousness.

DEFINITION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 Consciousness is a person’s awareness of everything that is going on around him or her

at any given moment, which is used to organize behavior.
 Consciousness is your awareness of everything that is going on around you and
insideyour own head at any given moment, which you use to organize your behavior
(Farthing,1992), including your thoughts, sensations, and feelings.
 In a cognitive neuroscienceview, consciousness is generated by a set of action potentials
in the communication among neurons just sufficient to produce a specific perception,
memory, or experience in our awareness (Crick & Koch, 1990, 2003; Koch &
Mormann,2010).
 In other words, your eyes see a dog, the neurons along the optic pathway to the occipital
lobe’s visual cortex are activated, and the visual association cortex is activated to identify
the external stimulus as a ―dog‖.
 Much of people’s time awake is spent in a state called waking consciousness in which
their thoughts, feelings, and sensations are clear and organized, and they feel alert.
 But there are many times in daily activities and in life when people experience states of
consciousness that differ from this organized waking state. These variations are called
―altered states of consciousness.‖

ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 An altered state of consciousness occurs when there is a shift in the quality or pattern of
your mental activity.
  Thoughts may become fuzzy and disorganized and you may feel less alert, or your
thoughts may take bizarre turns, as they so often do in dreams.
 Sometimes being in an altered state may mean being in a state of increased alertness, as
when under the influence of a stimulant.
 You may also divide your conscious awareness, as
 when you drive to work or school and then wonder how you got there—one level of
conscious awareness was driving, while the other was thinking about the day ahead,
perhaps.
 This altered state of divided consciousness can be a dangerous thing, as many people who
try to drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time have discovered. Driving and
carrying on a phone conversation are both processes that should demand focused
attention, and it is simply not possible to do both at once in a safe and efficient manner.
 There are many forms of altered states of consciousness. For example, daydreaming,
being hypnotized, or achieving a meditative state are usually considered to be altered
states
 Being under the influence of certain drugs such as caffeine, tobacco, or alcohol are
definitely examples of altered states.
 But the most common altered state people experience is the one they spend about a third
of their lives in on a nightly basis—sleep.

ALTERED STATES: SLEEP

 People can try to stay awake, and sometimes they may go for a while without sleep, but
eventually they must sleep.
 One reason for this fact is that sleep is one of the human body’s biological rhythms,
natural cycles of activity that the body must go through.
 Some biological rhythms are monthly, like the cycle of a woman’s menstruation,
whereas others are far shorter—the beat of the heart is a biological rhythm. But many
biological rhythms take place on a daily basis, like the rise and fall of blood pressure and
body temperature or the production of certain body chemicals. The most obvious of these
is the sleep–wake cycle.
 The sleep–wake cycle is a circadian rhythm. The term actually comes from two Latin
words, circa (―about‖) and diem (―day‖). So a circadian rhythm is a cycle that takes
―about a day‖ to complete.
 For most people, this means that they will experience several hours of sleep at least once
during every 24-hour period.
 The sleep–wake cycle is ultimately controlled by the brain, specifically by an area within
the hypothalamus, the tiny section of the brain that influences the glandular system.
 Sleep deprivation, or loss of sleep, is a serious problem, which many people have
without realizing it. People stay up too late at night during the week, get up before
 they’ve really rested to go to work or school, and then try to pay off the ―sleep debt‖ on
the weekend. All of that disrupts the normal sleep–wake cycle and isn’t good for
anyone’s health.
 Students, for example, may stay up all night to study for an important test the next day. In
doing so, they will lose more information than they gain, as a good night’s sleep is
important for memory and the ability to think well.
 Person to person because of each person’s age and possibly inherited sleep needs, but
most young adults need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep each 24-hour period in order to
function well.
 Some people are short sleepers, needing only 4 or 5 hours, whereas others are long
sleepers and require more than 9 hours of sleep. As we age, we seem to sleep less during
each night until the average length of sleep approaches only 6 hours.

Theories of sleep

1. Adaptive theory of sleep

Sleep is a product of evolution according to the adaptive theory of sleep. It proposes that
animals and humans evolved different sleep patterns to avoid being present during their
predators’ normal hunting times, which typically would be at night.

2. Restorative theory of sleep

The other major theory of why organisms sleep is called restorative theory, which states that
sleep is necessary to the physical health of the body. During sleep, chemicals that were used
up during the day’s activities are replenished and cellular damage is repaired.

STAGES OF SLEEP

 There are actually two kinds of sleep: REM (rapid eye movement) sleep and non-
REM (NREM) sleep.
 REM sleep is a relatively active type of sleep when most of a person’s dreaming takes
place, whereas non-REM sleep is a much deeper, more restful kind of sleep.
 In REM sleep, the voluntary muscles are inhibited, meaning that the person in REM
sleep moves very little, whereas in non-REM sleep the person’s body is free to move
around (including kicking one’s bed partner!).
 There are also several different stages of sleep that people go through each night in
which REM sleep and non-REM sleep occur.
 A machine called an electroencephalograph allows scientists to record the brain-
wave activity as a person passes through the various stages of sleep and to determine
what type of sleep the person has entered.
Non-Rem Stage 1: Light Sleep

 As theta wave activity increases and alpha wave activity fades away, people are said to be
entering Stage 1 sleep, or light sleep.
 Several rather interesting things can happen in this non-REM stage of sleep. If people are
awakened at this point, they will probably not believe that they were actually asleep.
They may also experience vivid visual events called hypnogogic images or
hallucinations.
 Many researchers now believe that peoples’ experiences of ghostly visits, alien
abductions, and near-death experiences may be most easily explained by these
hallucinations.

Non-Rem Stage 2: Sleep Spindles

As people drift further into sleep, the body temperature continues to drop. Heart rate slows,
breathing becomes more shallow and irregular, and the EEG will show the first signs of sleep
spindles, brief bursts of activity lasting only a second or two.

Theta waves still predominate in this stage, but if people are awakened during this stage, they
will be aware of having been asleep.

Non-Rem Stage 3 And Stage 4: Delta Waves

 In the third stage of sleep, the slowest and largest waves make their appearance. These
waves are called delta waves.
 In Stage 3, delta waves make up only about 20 to 50 percent of the brain-wave pattern.
 Once delta waves account for more than 50 percent of total brain activity, the person is
said to have entered Stage 4 sleep, the deepest stage of sleep.
 It is during this stage that growth hormones (often abbreviated as GH) are released from
the pituitary gland and reach their peak. The body is at its lowest level of functioning.
 Eventually, the delta waves become the dominant brain activity for this stage of sleep.
 People in deep sleep are very hard to awaken. If something does wake them, they may be
very confused and disoriented at first. It is not unusual for people to wake up in this kind
of disoriented state only to hear the crack of thunder and realize that a storm has come up.
 Children are even harder to wake up when in this state than are adults. Deep sleep is the
time when body growth occurs. This may explain why children in periods of rapid
growth need to sleep more and also helps to explain why children who are experiencing
disrupted sleep (as is the case in situations of domestic violence) suffer delays in growth .
 The fact that children do sleep so deeply may explain why certain sleep disorders are
more common in childhood. Indeed, many sleep disorders are more common in boys than
in girls because boys sleep more deeply than do girls due to high levels of the male
hormone testosterone.
REM SLEEP

 After spending some time in Stage 4, the sleeping person will go back up through Stage
3, Stage 2, and then into a stage in which body temperature increases to near waking
levels, the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids, the heart beats much faster, and brain
waves resemble beta waves—the kind of brain activity that usually signals wakefulness.
The person is still asleep but in the stage known as rapid eye movement sleep (REM).
 When a person in REM sleep is awakened, he or she almost always reports being in a
dream state (Shafton, 1995). REM sleep is, therefore, associated with dreaming, and 90
percent of dreams actually take place in REM sleep. People do have dreams in the other
non-REM stages, but REM dreams tend to be more vivid, more detailed, longer, and
more bizarre than the dreams of NREM sleep.
 NREM dreams tend to be more like thoughts about daily occurrences and far shorter than
REM dreams.
 Fortunately, the body is unable to act upon these dreams under normal conditions because
the voluntary muscles are paralyzed during REM sleep, a condition known as REM
paralysis. (This is why you sometimes have a dream in which you are trying to run or
move, and can’t—you are partially aware of REM paralysis.
 REM sleep seems to serve a different purpose than does NREM, or deep sleep. After a
very physically demanding day, people tend to spend more time in NREM deep sleep
than is usual. But an emotionally stressful day leads to increased time in REM sleep .
 Perhaps the dreams people have in REM sleep are a way of dealing with the stresses and
tensions of the day, whereas physical activity would demand more time for recovery of
the body in NREM sleep. Also, if deprived of REM sleep (as would occur with the use of
sleeping pills or other depressant drugs), a person will experience greatly increased
amounts of REM sleep the next night, a phenomenon called REM rebound.
 REM sleep in early infancy differs from adult REM sleep in several ways: Babies spend
nearly 50 percent of their sleep in REM as compared to adults’ 20 percent, the brain-
 wave patterns on EEG recordings are not exactly the same in infant REM when compared
to adult REM recordings, and infants can and do move around quite a bit during REM
sleep.
 These differences can be explained: When infants are engaged in REM sleep, they are not
dreaming but rather forming new connections between neurons.
 The infant brain is highly plastic, and much of brain growth and development takes place
during REM sleep.

SLEEP DISORDERS

A sleep disorder is a condition that disrupts normal sleep patterns, leading to difficulties in
falling asleep, staying asleep, or experiencing restful sleep, resulting in daytime distress and
impaired daily functioning. These conditions are common and can significantly impact physical,
mental, and emotional health.

[Link] And Rem Behavior Disorder

 Nightmares are bad dreams, and some nightmares can be utterly terrifying.
 Children tend to have more nightmares than adults do because they spend more of their
sleep in the REM state.
 As they age, they have fewer nightmares because they have less opportunity to have
them. But some people still suffer from nightmares as adults.
 Some people have a rare disorder in which the brain mechanisms that normally inhibit the
voluntary muscles fail, allowing the person to thrash around and even get up and act out
nightmares. This disorder is called REM behavior disorder, which is a fairly serious
condition (Shafton, 1995).
 Usually seen in men over age 60, it can happen in younger men and in women.

[Link], Or Somnambulism

 Real sleepwalking, or somnambulism, occurs in about 20 percent of the population and is

at least partially due to heredity (Abe et al., 1984; Kales et al., 1980).
 It is much more common in childhood and also occurs more frequently in boys than in
girls.
 Although the old movies portray sleepwalkers as zombie-like and with arms outstretched,
in reality a sleepwalker may do nothing more than sit up in bed.
 But other sleepwalking episodes may involve walking around the house, looking in the
refrigerator or even eating, and getting into the car.
 Most sleepwalkers typically do not remember the episode the next day
 Fortunately, he had not been able to find the keys in his sleep.
 The only real precaution that the families of people who sleepwalk should take is to clear
their floors of obstacles and to put not-easy-to-reach locks on the doors.
  And although it is typically not dangerous to wake sleepwalkers, they may strike out
before awakening.

[Link] Terrors

 A rare disorder, night terrors are more likely in children and also likely to disappear as
the child grows older (Garland & Smith, 1991).
 A night terror is essentially a state of panic experienced while sound asleep. People may
sit up, scream, run around the room, or flail at some unseen attacker. It is also not
uncommon for people to feel unable to breathe while they are in this state.
 Considering that people suffering a night-terror episode are in a deep stage of sleep and
breathing shallowly, one can understand why breathing would seem difficult when they
are suddenly active.
 Most people do not remember what happened during a night-terror episode, although a
few people can remember vividly the images and terror they experienced. Some very
real differences exist between night terrors and nightmares.
 Nightmares are usually vividly remembered immediately upon waking. A person who has
had a nightmare, unlike a person experiencing a night terror, will actually be able to
awaken and immediately talk about the bad dream.

[Link]

 Most people think that insomnia is the inability to sleep. Although that is the literal
meaning of the term, in reality insomnia is the inability to get to sleep, stay asleep, or get
a good quality of sleep (Kryger, Lavie, & Rosen, 1999).
 There are many causes of insomnia, both psychological and physiological. Some of the
psychological causes are worrying, trying too hard to sleep, or having anxiety. Some of
the physiological causes are too much caffeine, indigestion, or aches and pain.
 There are several steps people can take to help them sleep.
 Obvious ones are taking no caffeinated drinks or foods that cause indigestion before
bedtime, taking medication for pain, and dealing with anxieties in the daytime rather than
facing them at night.

`[Link] to bed only when you are sleepy. If you lie in bed for 20 minutes and are still awake, get
up and do something like reading or other light activity (avoid watching TV or being in front of a
computer screen) until you feel sleepy, and then go back to bed.

2. Don’t do anything in your bed but sleep. Your bed should be a cue for sleeping, not for
studying or watching television. Using the bed as a cue for sleeping is a kind of learning .

3. Don’t try too hard to get to sleep, and especially do not look at the clock and calculate how
much sleep you aren’t getting. That just increases the tension and makes it harder to sleep.
4. Keep to a regular schedule. Go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time, even on
days that you don’t have to go to work or class.

5. Don’t take sleeping pills or drink alcohol or other types of drugs that slow down the nervous
system. These drugs force you into deep sleep and do not allow you to get any REM or lighter
stages of sleep.

[Link] Apnea

 It is this type of snoring that is often associated with a condition called sleep apnea, in
which the person stops breathing for nearly half a minute or more.
 When breathing stops, there will be a sudden silence, followed shortly by a gasping
sound as the person struggles to get air into the lungs.
 Many people do not wake up while this is happening, but they do not get a good, restful
night’s sleep because of the apnea.
 Apnea is a serious problem. Not only does it disturb nightly sleep, making the person
excessively sleepy in the daytime, but also it can cause heart problems (Flemons, 2002).
 If a person suspects the presence of apnea, a visit to a physician is the first step in
identifying the disorder and deciding on a treatment. With mild apnea, treatment may be
a device worn on the nose at night to open the nostrils and prevent blockage.
 Obesity is a primary cause of apnea, especially in men, so another solution might be to
lose excess weight.

6. Narcolepsy

 Narcolepsy is a kind of ―sleep seizure.‖ In narcolepsy, the person may slip suddenly into
REM sleep during the day (especially when the person experiences strong emotions).
 Another symptom is excessive daytime sleepiness that results in the person falling asleep
throughout the day at inappropriate times and in inappropriate places (Overeem et al.,
2001).
 These sleep attacks may occur many times and without warning, making the operation of
a car or other machinery very dangerous for the narcoleptic (person who suffers
fromnarcolepsy).
 The sudden REM attacks are especially dangerous because of the symptom of cataplexy,
or a sudden loss of muscle tone. This REM paralysis may cause injuries if the person is
standing when the attack occurs.
 The same hypnogogic images that may accompany Stage 1 sleep may also occur in the
narcoleptic person.
DREAMS

Dreams have long been a source of curiosity. People of ancient times tried to find meaning in
dreams. Some viewed dreams as prophecy, some as messages from the spirits. But the real
inquiry into the process of dreaming began with the publication of Freud’s The Interpretation
of Dreams (1900).

Freud’s Interpretation: Dreams As Wish Fulfillment

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) believed that the problems of his patients stemmed from conflicts
and events that had been buried in their unconscious minds since childhood.

These early traumas were seen as the cause of behavior problems in adulthood.

Manifest Content;

 The manifest content of a dream is the actual dream itself.

 For example, if Chad has a dream in which he is trying to climb out of a bathtub, the
manifest content of the dream is exactly that—he’s trying to climb out of a bathtub.

Latent Content;

 He believed that the true meaning of a dream was hidden, or latent, and only expressed in
symbols.
 In the dream, the water in the tub might symbolize the waters of birth, and the tub itself
might be his mother’s womb.

The Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis

1. Dreams start in the pons – a lower part of the brain that becomes active during sleep.

2. The pons sends random signals to the cortex – the part of the brain that handles thinking,
seeing, hearing, etc.

3. These signals are not from the outside world, like when you're awake, but come from inside
the brain.

4. The body is "turned off" – the pons blocks movement signals so we don’t act out our dreams.

5. The cortex tries to make sense of the signals, even though they’re random.

6. The brain uses memories, emotions, and past experiences to create a "story" – this is what we
experience as a dream.

7. This theory is called the activation-synthesis theory – the brain activates randomly and then
synthesizes (builds) a story from it.
 In this theory, called the activation-synthesis hypothesis, a dream is merely another kind
of thinking that occurs when people sleep.
 It is less realistic because it comes not from the outside world of reality but from within
people’s memories and experiences of the past.
 The frontal lobes, which people normally use in daytime thinking, are more or less shut
down during dreaming, which may also account for the unrealistic and often bizarre
nature of dreams (Macquet & Franck, 1996).

 Hobson and colleagues have reworked the activation-synthesis hypothesis to reflect

concerns about dream meaning, calling it the activation-information-mode model, or
AIM (Hobson et al., 2000).
 In this newer version, information that is accessed during waking hours can have an
influence on the synthesis of dreams. In other words, when the brain is ―making up‖ a
dream to explain its own activation, it uses meaningful bits and pieces of the person’s
experiences from the previous day or the last few days rather than just random items from
memory.
 Girls and women tend to dream about people they know, personal appearance concerns,
and what issues related to family and home.
 Boys and men tend to have more male characters in their dreams, which are also typically
in outdoor or unfamiliar settings and may involve weapons, tools, cars, and roads. Men
also report more sexual dreams, usually with unknown and attractive partners (Domhoff,
1996; Foulkes, 1982;Van de Castle, 1994).

ALTERED STATES : EFFECTS OF HYPNOSIS

 Hypnosis is a state of consciousness in which a person is especially susceptible to

suggestion.
 Although a lot of misunderstandings exist about hypnosis, it can be a useful tool
when properly managed.
Steps In Hypnotic Induction

There are several key steps in inducing hypnosis. According to Druckman and Bjork (1994),
although every hypnotist may have a different style or use different words, these four steps are
always present:

1. The hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being said.

2. The person is told to relax and feel tired.

3. The hypnotist tells the person to ―let go‖ and accept suggestions easily.

4. The person is told to use vivid imagination.

 The real key to hypnosis seems to be a heightened state of suggestibility.

 People can be hypnotized when active and alert, but only if they are willing to be
hypnotized.
 Only 80 percent of all people can be hypnotized, and only 40 percent are good hypnotic
subjects.
 People who fantasize a lot, who daydream and have vivid imaginations, as well as people
who get ―really into‖ whatever task they are doing are more susceptible to hypnosis than
others (Silva & Kirsch, 1992).
 A test of hypnotic susceptibility, or the degree to which a person is a good hypnotic
subject, often makes use of a series of ordered suggestions. The more suggestions in the
ordered list the person responds to, the more susceptible that person is.

Theories Of Hypnosis

 There are two views of why hypnosis works. One emphasizes the role of dissociation, or
a splitting of conscious awareness, whereas the other involves a kind of social role-
playing.

Hypnosis As Dissociation: The Hidden Observer

 Ernest Hilgard believed that hypnosis worked only on the immediate conscious mind of a
person, while a part of that person’s mind (a ―hidden observer‖) remained aware of all
that was going on.
 It’s the same kind of dissociation that takes place when people drive somewhere familiar
and then wonder how they got there.
 One part of the mind, the conscious part, is thinking about dinner or a date or something
else, while the other part is doing the actual driving.
 When people arrive at their destination, they don’t really remember the actual trip. In the
same way, Hilgard believes that there is a hidden part of the mind that is very much
 aware of the hypnotic subject’s activities and sensations, even though the ―hypnotized‖
part of the mind is blissfully unaware of these same things.

Hypnosis As Social Role-Playing: The Social-Cognitive Explanation

 The other theory of why hypnosis works began with an experiment in which participants
who were not hypnotized were instructed to behave as if they were (Sarbin & Coe, 1972).
 These participants had no trouble copying many actions previously thought to require a
hypnotic state, such as being rigidly suspended between two chairs.
 The researchers also found that participants who were not familiar with hypnosis, and had
no idea what the ―role‖ of a hypnotic subject was supposed to be, could not be
hypnotized.
 Add to those findings the later findings of Kirsch (2000) that expectancies of the
hypnotized person play a big part in how the person responds and what the person does
under hypnosis.
 The social-cognitive theory of hypnosis assumes that people who are hypnotized are not
in an altered state but are merely playing the role expected of them in the situation. They
might believe that they are hypnotized, but in fact it is all a very good performance, so
good that even the ―participants‖ are unaware that they are role-playing.
 Social roles are very powerful influences on behavior, as anyone who has ever worn a
uniform can understand—the uniform stands for a particular role that becomes very easy
to play (Zimbardo, 1970; Zimbardo et al., 2000).

Induced States : Meditation

 Meditation is a contemplative practice, engaged in across various religious and spiritual

traditions as a means of quieting, focusing and transforming the mind (Yogapedia,n.d.).
 It is an extended contemplation or reflection to achieve focused attention or an altered
state of consciousness and to gain insight into oneself and the world around us.
 Meditation cultivates self awareness. It is an attention and awareness training, and is
widely used as a spiritual practice in Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Yoga.
 Some people consider Jewish, Christian and Muslim prayer to be a form of meditation
since the mind is focused on a set of words or concepts.
 In order to free on self from distraction, meditation establishes a focal point. And also
during meditating, people want to follow a steady and stable posture.
 The popular focal points for meditation include:
1. Sound: Repeating Mantra, phrase or other sound.
2. Visualising: Picturing an object with eye closed.
3. Gazing: Looking at an actual object with eye open.
4. Breathing: Observing the breath and what it feels like.
5. Philosophical or spiritual concept: Loving kindness, acceptance or self transcendence.
Meditation is traditionally associated with spiritual and religious exercises,but now it is also used
to provide relaxation and relief from stress.

It is also used as a treatment to symptoms of high blood pressure,pain and insomnia ;and
promote overall health and wellbeing.

There are two types of meditation that are commonly used: Transcendental meditation and yogic
meditation.

1. Transcendental Meditation
 Transcendental meditation is a type of meditation in which it uses repeating mantras to
achieve focused attention or an altered state of consciousness. It is also called as TM.
 The focus of TM is to settle the body down to a state of restful alertness.
 The body become deeply relaxed and mind become quiet, but the person become wide
awake. With this type of meditation,the active mind settles inward until you transcendent
to a state of pure consciousness.
 Transcendent means to go beyond. It is related to spiritual or divine aspect of life.
 An Indian guru named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi developed transcendental meditation in
the 1950s.
 Maharishi studied consciousness. He created transcendental meditation based on ancient
meditative yoga Practices.
 But transcendental meditation doesn’t involve any kind of religion, philosophy or
lifestyle. Maharishi introduced the technique as a science. He helped establish the
meditative state as the fourth state of consciousness. The first three are waking, sleeping
and dreaming.

2. Yogic Meditation

 Yogic meditation is a type of meditation in which it uses yogic practice to achieve

focused attention or an altered state of consciousness.
 In yoga, meditation or dhyana is the seventh of eighth step in Ashtanga yoga of Patanjali.
Maharishi Patanjali defines meditation as "Tatra pratyaya Ekatanata Dhyanam" meaning
a state in which there is a steady and continuous flow of attention and concentration on a
point.
 A deep vibrant quietness is the characteristic of meditation which helps to live the entire
life with calmness and control.

MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're
sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Mindfulness is the basic
human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly
reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
Procedure

 Take a deep breath and sit down in a comfortable seat.

 Then, bring focus to this moment. Release any thoughts about the stressors on your mind
and begin to ask yourself, what do you hear? What do you smell? What textures do you
feel on your clothes and your chair?
 If you find yourself getting distracted, just come back to your breath and your five senses.
 Try to be mindfully present for at least 5-10 minutes, and you’ll feel your stress levels
begin to go down.

MINDFULNESS

 Mindfulness is best thought of as a way of being rather than an activity in and of itself.
 Almost any activity can be carried out with mindful awareness.
 Originally associated with Buddhist psychology, the term ―mindfulness‖ comes from the
Sanskrit word “Smṛti,” which literally translates to ―that which is remembered‖
(Williams, Leumann, & Cappeller, 2004).
 From this, we can understand mindfulness as remembering to pay attention to our present
moment experience (Shapiro & Carlson, 2009; Black, 2011).
 Mindful awareness has three key features:
 Purpose – Mindfulness involves intentionally and purposefully directing your attention
rather than letting it wander.
 Presence –Mindfulness involves being fully engaged with and attentive to the present
moment. Thoughts about the past and future that arise are recognized simply as thoughts
occurring in the present.
 Acceptance – Mindfulness involves being nonjudgmental toward whatever arises in the
moment. This means that sensations, thoughts, and emotions are not judged as good or
bad, pleasant or unpleasant; they are simply noticed as ―happening,‖ and observed until
they eventually pass.
 Although originally a Buddhist concept, mindfulness is now understood to be an inherent
quality of consciousness that can be measured empirically and scientifically (Kohls,
Sauer, & Walach, 2009; Black, 2010).
 It is also understood that mindfulness requires no religious, ethical, spiritual, or
ideological commitments to practice (Walach et al., 2007).

Benefits of Mindfulness

 Mindfulness is a mind-body practice that has been found to benefit both

psychological and physical health.
 The primary psychological change that occurs during mindfulness practice is an
increased awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the present moment.
  Over time mindfulness practice can help you to become aware of the space between
noticing experiences and reacting to them by letting you slow down and observe the
processes of your mind (Black, 2010).
 The ultimate goal of mindfulness practice is for you to take advantage of this space so
you can make more intentional decisions—to wake up from living life on autopilot,
based on un-productive habits of mind (Black, 2010; Walach et al., 2007).
 It is easy to see how mindfulness could be beneficial in dealing with stress or other
difficult emotions.
 For example, we have all been in situations where we became angry or stressed and
said or did things we didn’t mean. In these moments, we may have felt we had no
control over our words or actions—as if we were reacting to situations without
thinking. If you experience a moment like this, mindfulness can help in several ways.
 First, being mindful can help you become more aware of your emotions before they
escalate and control you. Instead of recognizing your anger only anger you lash out at
someone, you can catch your anger when it is still mild and take steps to diffuse it.
 Furthermore, mindfulness can help you look at your thoughts and emotions with more
objectivity.

Psychological Benefits

 Increased awareness of one’s mind

 Significantly reduced stress, anxiety, and negative emotions
 Increased control over ruminative thinking (a major cause and symptom of depression
and anxiety
 Increased mental flexibility and focus
 More working memory
 Decreased distracting thoughts
 Decreased emotional reactivity
 Increased capacity for intentional, responsive behaviors
 Increased empathy, compassion, and conscientiousness of other’s emotions

Physiological Benefits

 Enhanced immune system functioning

 Increased brain density and neural integration in areas responsible for positive emotions,
self-regulation, and long-term planning
 Lowered blood pressure
 Lowered levels of blood cortisol (a major stress hormone)
 Greater resistance to stress-related illnesses such as heart disease
Spiritual Benefits

 Increased self-insight and self-acceptance

 Increased acceptance of others
 Increased compassion and empathy
 Increased sense of morality, intuition, and courage to change
 Increased control over automatic behaviors
 Increased self-discipline

Mindful Breathing (Seated Meditation)

1. Posture

 Sit in a way that feels comfortable and relaxed, but also upright and alert.
 You can sit in a chair or on the floor.
 Close your eyes if that helps you focus, or keep them open with a soft gaze on the floor.

2. Get Grounded

 Notice any tightness in your body.

 Relax your face, jaw, and shoulders.
 Feel the weight of your body supported by the chair or floor.

3. Notice Your Breath

 Start to pay attention to your breathing.

 You might notice:

* The air moving in and out of your nose

* Your chest or belly rising and falling

* The sound of your breath

If it's hard to feel your breath, place a hand on your belly.

4. Stay with Your Breath

 Keep gently focusing on your breath.

 If your mind wanders, that's okay — just come back to your breath.
 Stay relaxed. If you feel tense or sleepy, adjust your posture and continue.

Body Awareness:

1. Physical sensations: Notice sensations in your body, such as tension, relaxation, or numbness.
2. Scan your body: Starting from your toes, bring awareness to each body part, releasing tension
as you go.

3. Mindful movement: Engage in physical activities like yoga or tai chi with full attention.

Benefits of Body Awareness:

1. Reduces chronic pain

2. Improves body image and self-esteem

3. Enhances physical awareness and coordination

4. Supports emotional regulation

5. Fosters self-compassion

Mindful Observation

1. Pay attention to the present moment.

2. Observe thoughts, emotions, sensations, and surroundings without distraction.

3. Notice details, textures, smells, sounds, and tastes.

4. Focus on the process, not the outcome.

Non-Judgmental Awareness:

1. Allow experiences without evaluation or criticism.

2. Refrain from labelling things as "good," "bad," "right," or "wrong."

3. Observe without attachment or aversion.

4. Cultivate curiosity and openness.

Benefits:

1. Reduces stress and anxiety.

2. Increases self-awareness and emotional regulation.

3. Enhances cognitive flexibility and problem-solving.

4. Fosters compassion and understanding.