Mindfulness for Wellbeing

and Peak Performance

• WEEK 1: Feedback from Craig and Richard - Friday 5 October 2018

https://youtu.be/48TCY5Oyglo

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Hi, it's Craig and Richard here. So the first
and the feedback videos for this round of the Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak
Performance. It's been tremendous to be back with everybody.

Our mentors have given us a great summary. So Susan and Sherelle, so please, follow
them throughout the course. But we've got thousands of joiners.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Nearly 7,000.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah, that's right. And over 1,000
comments. So there's plenty of great discussion happening and sharing of enthusiasm
but also insights.

Welcome back to our repeat learners as well. It's a great mindfulness community
that's really--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: It's wonderful to see, yeah.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: So there are some interesting things to

explore this week, Richard. So first thing is people becoming aware of how distracted
they are.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Well, that's the first step in becoming more mindful, isn't it,
Craig, to realise just how unmindful we are. Because we can actually be so unmindful
that we don't even realise how unmindful we are.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. If somebody tells you I'm present all
the time, they're either enlightened or just totally asleep.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: My mind doesn't wander when I meditate, right!. Yeah,
sure! Even that famous Harvard study that found that we're distracted about 50% of
the time, I think the people in that study didn't even notice. The alert goes off and I
they're like, oh yeah, I was paying attention.

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But maybe we're not. And that's what a lot of our learners have started to notice.
That even when watching the videos that we produce, their mind's wandering off,
they're getting distracted by their phones. And that's a really important thing to
notice.

First we notice the distraction and perhaps the costs or the effects of that. And then
we start to practise being more present. And that's really the--

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: That's right.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: --point of this training.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: I think it creates an illusion for many people
that, oh, I'm going backwards. I'm learning mindfulness but I'm going backwards, when
it's actually a sign of progress that you're noticing the distractability, and hopefully
noticing it without criticism.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Well, that's the point, isn't it? Mindfulness is a non-
judgmental awareness. So often the awareness comes first and then non-judgement
lags a little bit. But we want to notice it without judging it.

But also start to retrain ourselves. And that was another point that some of our
learners started to notice, which is that we can just use the senses, literally come to
our senses. That's what that expression means.

To feel the feet on the ground. To notice what we can see, or hear, or smell, or taste.
And that brings us back into the present moment. So once we've noticed the we're
distracted we can just ground ourselves again back in the present.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. Because when those sentry circuits
are re-engaged, the proprioceptive areas of the brain are engaged, it switches off the
default circuits. So we start to hear what somebody is saying rather than listening to
the commentary on the mind.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: The commentary about it-- yeah.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: --which may have nothing to do with what
the person's saying. We start to see what's there instead of seeing a movie playing in
our head that we're taking to be real. So the senses cuts through that kind of
distracted default mental activity.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: And it's so simple but not easy.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: No.

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DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: And that's the point, isn't it? That it's conceptually the
simplest thing in the world. Notice that you're distracted, get yourself back in the
game by paying attention to what's happening in the senses.

But the practise of that, it takes work. And that's why we've got a four-week course
ahead. And it's also why we encourage all of our learners to do this course week by
week rather than rushing through and finishing all the content in the first week, which
I think has actually happened less in this run of the course than it has in previous
runs, Craig.

But we strongly encourage all of our learners just to do the experiments, do all the
exercises, the meditations, take it slowly, apply it to your lives so that you can
actually start to learn this. Because it's a great idea, yeah, be more present. But the
practise of it often takes-- I don't know about your experience, but it takes work.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. And the expertise over time is not
becoming more complex and sophisticated it's actually becoming more and more
simple. But it really does require practise. And that's the bit that's not so easy.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: But through informal applications, just being more mindful
in their day to day life, but also the meditations, Craig. Our learners really liked the
comma, the shorter practise.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: And ‘comma’ with a double M, not--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Double M.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. So you have double M-A, not ‘coma’.
That's a different practise.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: That's right.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Don't practise that one. And the body scan,
as well. But those little brief moments, those little commas, they can be very short
sometimes. Just the briefest space between one thing and another can really help to
reinforce the mindfulness when we go back into doing whatever we need to do next.
So it's great if people are practicing plenty of those because they can be
tremendously helpful in keeping us mindful in the informal way as we're going about
our lives.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: And in that great book, “The Brain That Changes Itself”,
there's a conversation around massed practise. And when we do something
intensively, that's when we see the most neural change. So sitting and meditating,
whether it's for a minute, five minutes, 10 minutes every day is really rewiring the
brain. And that's meaning that it's much easier to be mindful throughout the rest of
the day. So strongly encouraging people to do the meditation practises each week.

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ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: And you see the very natural flow on into
day to day life. When trying to study, and noticing the mind's wandered off again,
[CLICKS FINGERS] you're noticing more quickly the attention coming back. That's
where it really starts to translate into well-being, and also as we're saying, peak
performance.

If people find it helpful, certainly, keeping a practise record can be useful just to map
how much is being practised. Sometimes we think we're practicing less than we are,
or we think we're practicing more than we are. So it can certainly help to give us a bit
of an objective measure of that.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: As can setting alarms, putting in calendar entries, putting
post-it notes around, doing meditation with other people, getting them to remind you,
there are lots of strategies for establishing a practise. And we just want to really get
that routine going.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Now many people have been saying that
going at one's own pace is really important.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Well, as I was saying before, it's an experiential course. So
really we want to be doing this slowly, at a pace that works for us, rather than
rushing ahead, which is just that habit of the mind, where you get bored and we're
OK, what's next, what's next week's content. Let's just skip over that. But to go
slowly.

And in a sense, some of that learners even appreciated being given permission to do
that, to not rush through things and to go slowly with things, which perhaps isn't
always what we necessarily do. And that's a very good way to learn.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: I think also, for those who are experiencing,
say-- have had anxiety, or had difficulties, and so on, it's very important that a
person's going at their own pace, not being pushed to go into practises they're not
comfortable with, or to practise for a length of time that the person doesn't feel
comfortable with. And we need to trust our own internal barometer as far as that's
concerned, I think.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: That's right. And at the same time keeping in mind, that
mindfulness isn't about feeling good or positive thinking, it's about being more
present with what is. So if we are feeling stressed, or tired, or upset in some way, if
we do have some anxiety, if we start to practise mindfulness, we're going to come
face to face with that. And so it's about developing the ability to sit with that,
without then reacting to that and getting caught up in judgments and stories about
how we're feeling, which of course compounds things.

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It's about learning to sit with discomfort, to be present with whatever's happening. If
we're feeling comfortable and great, awesome. Can we be present without getting
attached to that state?

And if we're feeling uncomfortable, can we sit with that without reacting to it? And
that's really the practise. So it's this fine line between being willing to do the practise
but also perhaps going relatively slowly.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Question. How do I know if I'm doing it

right?

[LAUGHTER]

What's right?

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Well, that's exactly right, isn't it? I guess what we're doing
is we're practicing a non-judgmental awareness. But the mind gets busy.

We start practicing mindfulness and in one moment we're present and then we think,
oh, I think I'm really getting this now. These mindfulness is really working. And if I
keep doing this, where is that going to go?

And then suddenly we realise, hang on, where am I? I'm in the future imagining some
mindful life 10 years from now. And then we just come back to what's happening right
now. And that's really the point of this practise.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. So thinking about, oh, I'm doing it
right could be as much of a distraction about having an internal dialogue with
ourselves and--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Or doing it wrong.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: --thinking I'm doing it wrong.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: That's right. Exactly.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: So thinking about being mindful is perhaps

a different thing than actually being mindful.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: It's a very-- but it's a very subtle thing. And I think only
with practise do we start to realise the difference.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: There's been some interesting discussions

about technology--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Well, there sure has.

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ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: --which can be a wonderful servant but a

tyrannical master. And there is quite a lot of research coming out now about the
overuse of social media. It can't have a negative impact on well-being, on mental
health, on emotional intelligence, and so on.

But there's some subtle distinctions. And the point is not to demonise all social media
or all technology but to use it consciously, discerningly. And I think one of the things
from a social media point of view, is that it can be helpful if it helps to facilitate
people connecting with others and that is--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Genuine connection.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: --actually helping people to turn up and get
together with friends, and help people to actually be more socially engaged. But
when the social media is replacing the actual face to face engagement with people,
which it is for many people, then that doesn't help at all.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: The research is pretty clear on that, that damages our
mental health and reduces genuine connection.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. The capacity and the confidence and
how to communicate. And for many people, it's easy to send off an angry, aggressive
tweet to somebody, for example, that if you're actually face to face with the person,
hopefully you'd--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: You wouldn't say that.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: You'd be more respectful and you'd

hopefully be able to share different perspectives on things. But it can be a very
polarising thing the way that social media is used sometimes.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Mindfulness helps us to use it skillfully, to pay attention to

how we're using it, to the effect that that's having on us, to pause before hitting send
on that tweet, to notice if we're on our phone yet again. And of course, there are
strategies, like flight-moding the phone, putting it out of reach, turning off social
media for a little bit, or just different ways of using it well.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yes, that's right.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: So just some final comments, as well. Some interesting
things that came up. Some of our learners really liked Viktor Frankl's very famous
quote, which is that, "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that
space is our power to choose our response. And in our response lies our growth and
our freedom," which I think just captures mindfulness perfectly, doesn't it?

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: It does.

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DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: If our thoughts and experiences are here we're just
reacting to everything. But as soon as we start to practise, get a little bit of space
between us and our thoughts and reactions, and then we can start to choose what's
most useful. That's a very useful thing.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. So the standing back, the awareness,
the non-attachment to what's being observed, that opens up that window of
opportunity. And we have to be mindful to actually have that window of opportunity.
And that's where the freedom lies really.

If we're caught up on automatic pilot there's no freedom in that. We're just

responding in the way that we're programmed to respond.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: That's right.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: My past habits, et cetera.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Caught up in “what ifs” rather than focusing on “what is”.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: Yeah. So anyway, it's been a very rich week.
We've really enjoyed hearing the great dialogues and discussions. Please continue to
follow the mentors throughout the coming week.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Continue to post, to support each other. Share your
experiences and support one another because, as we said before, this community
that gets formed is one of the really powerful things about this course.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: That's right. We'll be looking at stress, the
physical effects of meditation, the importance of--

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: Coming next week.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR CRAIG HASSED: --of informal practise here. We'll be looking
at all these things. So share insights, share questions, share challenges because we'll
all learn from each other's experience. So we'll look forward to being with you next
week.

DR. RICHARD CHAMBERS: See you next week.

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