Advantages of Mindfulness Practices
For this section, I will draw on my own training as a social worker where I have started to realise the importance of body-oriented interventions in view of my understanding of Steven Porges’ Polyvagal theory (Porges, 2017). Porges discusses how the vagal nerve, which connects the brain to structures in the body such as the neck thorax and the abdomen, is linked to whether an individual gets escalated following a stimulus. The theory posits that talk therapy alone would not be able to influence “neuroception”, which is how our body neurologically responds to stressful events, as the brain would send signals directly to the body. This theory connects with my struggles when working with clients who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, who despite our conversations about finding ways to respond to stressful events, find themselves disempowered when responding to stimuli that they experience.
For example, I worked with Lucy (not her real name) who frequently had flashbacks of her past traumatic relationship with her father, whenever she related to other men in her workplace. Although we had engaged in talk-oriented therapy, Lucy found that most of the strategies and conversations had not been useful. However, last year, she shared that she had participated in meditation classes recently and had been amazed at how she is better able to regulate herself with her male colleagues currently. She shared that mindfulness practices had been influential to help her accept her own body and her responses for what they truly are, and she had been able to be more attuned to her own bodily responses (for example, a sickening feeling in her stomach) whenever she felt uncomfortable around her male colleagues. She found herself being able to manage her automatic reactions, through the mindfulness practices. Through this, I am starting to incorporate mindfulness techniques to support relaxation of the body, in response to threats perceived by individuals who may have experienced trauma.
Having experienced trauma in my own personal history, I have found that mindfulness practices have helped in many ways (Turow, 2017). They include me being able to increase my emotional tolerance when responding to difficult and challenging situations. Previously I had found that in my own role as a manager in my organization, I found myself losing temper and getting easily upset by things I felt that staff were either not doing well enough or should be doing more of. This had been one of the main reasons that I had enrolled in the programme. I found that with the mindfulness practices, especially the sitting meditation and coping breathing space, I was better able to tolerate difficult emotions, and realise that these feelings do not last forever, and I could learn to find ways to manage them.
I appreciate the idea of acceptance, which was different from the concept of avoidance (Turow, 2017). Previously I felt that I was just hiding painful thoughts and feelings that I had, and just sweeping them under the carpet. This practice had contributed to me really feeling drained when I am at home, or sometimes having to struggle with overwhelming feelings. I appreciate the idea of acceptance (Kathirasan, 2017), where we can allow challenging emotions and feelings to be present and accept any struggles or shortcomings that I might be dealing with. My colleagues had shared about how they found that I have been kinder and more patient with them at the workplace.
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