Tag: mindfulness

How does mindfulness reduce stress?

How does mindfulness reduce stress?

Stress has become an almost inevitable part of our lives. From demanding work schedules to personal responsibilities, stress can take a toll on our physical and mental well-being. However, in recent years, mindfulness has gained significant popularity as a powerful tool to combat stress.

Understanding Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a practice that involves focusing on the present moment without judgment. It is about being fully aware of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the environment around us. Rather than getting lost in the worries of the past or the anxieties of the future, mindfulness encourages us to accept the present moment as it is. This approach allows us to experience it without undue attachment or aversion.

Mindfulness and the Brain

Studies using brain imaging techniques have provided valuable insights into the effects of mindfulness on the brain. Mindfulness practice has been found to activate and strengthen the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for decision-making, concentration, and problem-solving. This helps individuals become more skilled at regulating emotions and reduces the activity of the amygdala, the brain’s fear center, responsible for stress and anxiety responses. Consequently, mindfulness helps create a sense of emotional balance, making individuals less prone to getting overwhelmed by stressors.

Reducing the Stress Response

When we encounter a stressful situation, our bodies react by triggering the “fight or flight” response, releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. While this response is essential for survival in dangerous situations, chronic activation of this system can have detrimental effects on our health. Mindfulness has been found to down regulate the stress response by promoting the activation of the body’s relaxation response, reducing cortisol levels, and inducing a sense of calmness and tranquility.

Cultivating Resilience

One of the key benefits of mindfulness is its role in building resilience. Mindfulness practice encourages individuals to observe their thoughts and emotions non-judgmentally, which helps them become more aware of habitual patterns of thinking that contribute to stress. By recognizing these patterns, individuals can develop a more adaptive response to stressors, leading to increased resilience.

Enhancing Emotional Regulation

Stress often goes hand-in-hand with overwhelming emotions. Mindfulness fosters emotional regulation by enabling individuals to become more aware of their emotional states and the triggers that elicit them. This heightened self-awareness allows them to respond to emotions with greater composure and understanding, reducing the likelihood of emotional outbursts and facilitating more constructive problem-solving.

Improving Focus and Concentration

Stress can scatter our thoughts, making it difficult to focus on tasks at hand. Regardless, through regular mindfulness practice, individuals can improve their attention and concentration. By training the mind to stay focused on the present moment, mindfulness helps reduce cognitive clutter. This process enables people to be more productive and efficient in their daily activities.

Promoting Self-Compassion

Stress can sometimes be exacerbated by our own self-critical thoughts and harsh self-judgments. Mindfulness encourages self-compassion and self-acceptance. By treating oneself with kindness and understanding, individuals can break free from the cycle of negative thinking and develop a more positive outlook on life.

How does mindfulness reduce stress?

Mindfulness offers a powerful and accessible way to reduce stress and enhance overall well-being. By encouraging present-moment awareness, emotional regulation, and self-compassion, mindfulness equips individuals with invaluable tools to navigate life with greater ease. Daily practice can lead to profound benefits for both our mental and physical health. So, take a moment to breathe, embrace the present, and embark on a journey towards a stress-free and fulfilling life through the practice of mindfulness.

What is CBT?

By Michael Arndt, Alumni Coordinator, CAST Centers
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@michaelcastcenters

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) was first put into practice by Aaron T. Beck in the 1960’s and has in the ensuing years become an industry standard for evidenced-based care in mental health and addiction treatment. It traces its philosophical roots to a marriage of Greek Stoicism and Eastern mindfulness practices. Stoicism teaches us to essentially challenge our negative, maladaptive or unrealistic thoughts and perceptions of the world around us as a way of living. It is about finding objective truths.  Mindfulness practices teach us to be able to examine our own thoughts and to take them with a grain of salt. The idea behind CBT is that when you are able to reframe these problematic thoughts, you can then move into changing behavior that is not serving you.

CAST Centers recently hosted an in-service for our staff with Dr. Joel Becker, Ph.D who studied with Dr. Aaron T. Beck in the 1970’s in Boston after completing his training at Harvard. He now heads the Cognitive Behavior Associates practice here in Beverly Hills. He has been a leader in CBT since just after its inception. He now spends time working with SGM (sexual and gender minority) clients, in addition to teaching at UCLA in the Department of Psychology and the Geffen School of Medicine, precepting and seeing clients at Cognitive Behavior Associates.

CBT was originally developed with the hope of treating major depression. Over the years it has evolved to include many variations that treat everything from substance use disorders to OCD and anxiety. Offshoots of CBT include the very popular DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) which is primarily used in the treatment of personality disorders like borderline personality disorder. There is also mindfulness CBT, compassion-based CBT among many others, all sharing the same goal but aim to achieve it with slightly different approaches.

Mindfulness is seen across the board in all of the various offshoots of CBT. Mindfulness training teaches us to sort of detach ourselves from our thoughts (or cognitions, hence the word cognitive in CBT) instead of immediately reacting to them or even accepting them as necessarily true. In the recovery world, this is called “the pause.” It is a practice that lessens our reactivity to our thoughts and beliefs. For example, just because I have a negative thought towards my partner does not mean that it is true, or that I am a jerk for thinking it. It is just a thought, and I do not need to act on it. I can pause and ask myself if this thought is true, helpful, or in alignment with how I truly feel when I am coming from a more authentic and relaxed place. Or just because I think of using drugs, or engaging in self-harm does not mean I have to do it.

At its core, CBT is about examining root causes of negative thoughts and then building up towards taking contrary actions and setting goals as a team with the therapist. Over time, and with enough practice, we literally rewire our brains to act more in alignment with what we really want, and to make it second nature to do so. CBT is not the traditional open-ended talk therapy model that most of us think of when we think of therapy. Sitting in a room rehashing our childhoods over and over again with vague insights. It is about action, and implementing new tools into our daily lives. One of the things that sets CAST apart from most treatment centers is that we are very action-oriented. While we believe it is important to address underlying issues, we encourage and support our clients as they decide what kind of life they want for themselves. That is what our programs are all about: helping our clients dig deep and figure out exactly what they want out of life at their core so that they can begin building a life that is theirs and worth fighting for.

CAST Centers recently hosted an in-service for our staff with CBT pioneer, Dr. Joel Becker, Ph.D.

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