Mindfulness is not 'strictly spiritual' but proven to work, say experts in Colchester

Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.

But it has become a buzzword for a generation aspiring to be zen yogis whose Instagram-filtered lives are metaphorically painted green – kale green, in fact, to match their smoothies and clean lifestyles.

Mindfulness is a technique to boost mental wellbeing by becoming more aware of stressors, and how you currently respond to them as well as their impact.

Given its ancient Buddhist origins, mindfulness for some is also shrouded in mysticism with chanting, attempting to unblock chakras and empty the mind.

It is an understandable misconception, says mindfulness teacher Mike McKenna, 67, who has practised Vipassana meditation – Sanskrit for ‘clear seeing’ - since 1972.

But at its simplest, Mike says mindfulness is to know the mind, train the mind, and free the mind.

“You learn what disturbs the calm and this is individual to you,” he said.

“Everything is based on cause and conditions so your past experiences will condition what you see now and what you see now will condition what you do in the future.

“If you can get in between the conditioning and see it for what it is, you have an opportunity to do it differently which is why it works so well with depression.”

He added: “It’s not an intellectual exercise - it’s a practise - and that is observing your breath.

“What you’re doing while sitting there is training your mind to gently go back to the breath each time with a particular technique, without judgement or getting caught up by whatever is going on.”

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has recommended mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for recurrent depression since 2004.

Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), proved a positive link between mindfulness and chronic pain back in 1982.

Britta K. Hölzel et al (2011) quoted Kabat-Zinn in the research paper, How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work, among a large body of studies which prove mindfulness-based interventions have been effective in the treatment of clinical disorders and also provides health benefits.

They suggest these are experienced through a four-part process: attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and a change in self-perception.

But if you do not realise you have patterns of behaviour to be mindful of, it can be tricky.

Mike, of Wivenhoe, said: “That’s an important issue because if you’re living in a state of conditioned experience which creates stress in your life, you can’t suddenly be different.

“If you have self-esteem issues, for example, you’ll hopefully notice what presses your buttons and takes you away from the feeling of wellbeing. Once you notice those, you go into why you feel them.

“Underlying all those feelings is a belief so you then ask yourself: is said belief reasonable and what is it based on?”

Evidence suggests these changes relate to neuroplasticity which is the brain’s ability to literally re-wire itself by the neurons firing together in new places.

Mindfulness training targets the left prefrontal cortex, the feel-good centre of the brain.

It is the same ability which lets us learn new skills and develop from infancy to adulthood, but it takes regular practise for the connections to form and action long-term changes.

On a ten-day immersive yoga retreat in Los Angeles, Louise Hart, realised her practice was removing obstacles from her life.

Now 42, at the time she had her dream job in marketing for a large Hollywood film studio and began yoga as a means to “keep herself sane”.

However, yoga also lead to Louise “liberating” herself.

Louise moved back to Dedham, where she grew up, to establish Dedham Retreats in 2015 at the picturesque Tallow Factory – a self-catering holiday cottage-cum-yoga and meditation centre.

But she was surprised on moving home that mindfulness had already took hold of the village.

She said: “I thought I’d be bringing something from California to Colchester but it was already happening and validation of that was Ruben, who started the Dedham Mindfulness Group.

“In Dedham it feels like we’re starting to build quite a community here and mental health is a really central point within mindfulness practise.

“If you have lots of people practising in their own bubble or isolated, and the burden of managing a mental health problem is placed on themselves without a sense of community, it can generate a lot of problems which is why we try to keep the group going.“We want there to be this anchor to keep people grounded.”

The first Dedham Mindfulness Group meeting attracted 36 people in 2015 but now has about 200 people on its mailing list.

Staff at the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group had a taste of mindfulness with a session to mark World Mental Health Day in October.

So is the backing of clinicians and scientists contributing to its staying power or has the general public just become more open-minded to the power within them?

Mike said: “The only reason people stay with it is it works for them - there are tangible results.”

Louise added: “Thich Nhat Hanh says to walk as if your feet are kissing the earth and it’s such a lovely sensation to do that and find a lightness in your step.

“Most people are either planning or remembering but not actually enjoying the moment.”