 Welcome to Shrink Rap Hawaii. My name is Steven Katz. I'm a marriage and family therapist practicing here on Oahu. And today we have with us again Dr. Tomas Cumming, the founder of Mindful Matters in Kailua right here on Oahu. Dr. Cummings is a psychologist, a yoga teacher, a musician I saw. And over the past decade there has been a phenomenal increase in the research on the effectiveness of mindfulness practices in treating anxiety, depression, and a whole range of mental physical illnesses. Dr. Cummings strives to make mindfulness accessible to the average person. Welcome again Dr. Cummings. Thank you Steve, a pleasure to be here. So for those that don't know yet, what does that mean mindfulness meditation? Mindfulness means paying attention to the internal and external goings-on on purpose without judgment. Paying attention to what? Paying attention to the internal experience of thoughts and feelings. Inside my head. Thoughts and feelings, yes. And to the external occurrences that are happening. Noises, sounds. Statements by others. So what's the difference between that and just going about your daily life? Most people go about their daily life, kind of half sleepwalking, not very conscious. Like stream of thought is going on and oh I've got all these bills and oh my kid is struggling with this or that in school and I'm worried about this president and the security of the world and so forth. And they're not fully paying attention to what's going on internally, externally, and doing it without judgment. Judgment is categorizing it as good or bad. Just kind of you know. So dichotomously and without any other consideration. Would it be fair to say it's paying attention to what's going on now in the present moment rather than the past or the future? Yes, in the present moment. From moment to moment. Paying attention to the internal experience thoughts and feelings and external happenings. So when you say paying attention you mean just like noticing it. Not saying this is good and that's bad just noticing it. Right. Not judging. Just noticing it. In fact one of my teachers, teachers said the happiness is in the noting. For example, your spouse says something with a sharp tone of voice. If you weren't mindful you just probably bark back at her. Right. I already did it. But if you're mindful you go okay she's a little bit irritated here. You note it and you note and I feel it kind of contagiously infecting me. I'm getting a little irritated by that tone of voice. But I have a choice now. I don't have to respond in kind. So it's kind of taking back your own power. In a way what people say who meditate regularly is it gives you a little buffer of time. You don't react anymore. You respond according to your goals and principles rather than just reacting kind of you know emotionally because anger or irritability is very contagious in that way. But it gives you a little buffer so you think you note. Well she seems a little irritated. I feel myself getting a little uptight. What's the best way to respond to this? Calm her down. Honey I already did. I got it. It's all good. I'll keep you posted. Calm her down. Yeah. What about calming me down? That's part of what meditation does on a regular basis. Practices like meditation yoga and instantly cardio exercise all contribute to the generation of the newer transmitters like cannabinoids and endorphins and serotonins that keep us calm and cool and collected and yet awake and present. So you use it often in your practice to treat people with lots of anxiety. Yes. All right. So let's I I'm very like I like to use examples. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So all right. So you brought it up. I'll go with it. I'm very anxious sometimes lately that given the current state of political affairs there is they're going to be riots. There's going to be blood in the streets. It really you know I'm having nightmares about it. What can I do about that. Well I would first you know ask you a lot of questions to get you to flush that out. So really get inside your experience of it and really understand that and you feel understood. Yeah. So I was watching some old movies about the demonstrations in the 60s and I saw people. I saw that's what was happening. And I think that the country is divided like it was then maybe even more so. Yeah. And you know I want to build a wall. People going to blow it up. He's got hotels people going to blow him up. Yeah. And it makes me crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And so I would start by just acknowledging and empathically validating your experience. And then I'd outline a treatment plan. And part of that treatment plan would be to teach you how to examine your thoughts and first session if not second session. Teach you exercises that you'll practice on a daily basis that calm you down. That combat the anxiety. That teach you skills that you practice regularly to relax yourself while being awake and present. Being mindful. What is that. What are these exercises look like. And mindfulness based stress reduction MBSR a system of therapy that was designed in a for a group setting eight weeks three hours. John Kevitz John Kevitz in started this with Saki Sondrelli. And I I will apply in an individual setting where I teach you these these self centering or we call them self regulation exercises. Some of which are formal meditation. Others are informal practices. So starting with the relaxation training exercises as a breath focused meditation probably the most common across the centuries and across the globe across cultures where we focus our attention on the breath without controlling it. And every time we notice our mind wanders we bring it back to the sensation of the breath the real and very present sensation of the breath either in the belly or in the upper lip. So noticing the air going past my upper lip and focusing just focusing on it and very calm and relaxed. Focus on that. Well you just tune into it sense and feel it. It's very real. It's tangible because it's very difficult to empty your mind like they say in Zen unless you've grown up doing that it's very difficult. So we do is we attempt to focus the mind on one thing. That's our anchor like the breath. And when you notice that you're not thinking about your breath anymore without judgment you just go back to the breath. Kind of like nice gentle parenting. I'm not back to the breath. Yeah but I got all this work to do. You get to it later right now on the breath not later focus. And then when I get tired of paying attention to my upper lip I can notice my belly getting bigger when I breathe in. Yeah when you breathe in the belly expands when you let go of returns and very subtle sensations. But as you tune into them they're very real. They're very present. OK. So to play patient here. Yeah. Yes. But doctor that is not going to change the world. No. In fact there's nothing you and I can do in here to change the world except writing letters to the editor and being active citizens voting. You're very frustrating to me. I'm sure that's very frustrating but you're here to change you. So it doesn't affect you. I'm fine. It's the government that screwed up. Well you're here to see me because you're not fine. I'm a doctor. You could you know the other stuff. I'm not fine. I'm not happy. Yeah. I'm not happy. So you're saying I could be happy with the way things are. You might be 10 percent happier with the practice of these. That's it. Yeah. 10 percent. Yeah 10 percent. That's better than drinking or smoking dope. Because this happiness is solid. It's yours. And many people find more than 10 percent. But come on let's get real. It's really hard to measure happiness. Right. There's a book called 10 percent happier by a former news anchor who had a panic attack on live TV. And he decided to stop doing drugs and decided to go into mindfulness based meditation retreat and it really benefited him. He wrote a book on it and he called it 10 percent happier. And he claims he's been interviewed a lot. Dan Harris his name is. And he's been interviewed a lot and he says meditation has a PR problem. Too many people think that it's but truly scented and dreadlock wearing people. But you know what there's been decades of research now in a very controlled setting MBSR eight week programs with plumbers and teachers and mothers and fathers. Average Joe's benefiting immensely from this in terms of anxiety depression but also in terms of all kinds of health conditions. People use to treat pain high blood pressure pain. Even psoriasis. You just throwing that in. No that's true because the outbreaks of connected to anxiety is related to stress and anxiety. So breath focus is one of them. Another is where you do a body scan. Once people do this lying down but often they'll fall asleep. So you fall asleep. But you focus on certain muscle groups and relax them one at a time. You do a full body scan. It can take as long as 40 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. So that's another technique among the formal meditation practices with MBSR. So breath focus body centroid or body scan. Another one is focus of focusing on the ambient sounds without getting carried. Yeah. Just what in the world birds on dog barking in the distance. You hear it. But you don't get it attached to any of it. You don't analyze it. So you can hear conversation. Don't pay attention to the meaning of the words. You just know it. Talking. Oh I hear somebody talking talking. And then you let it go talking dog barking. Wind. But all right. So in my practice that I attempt mostly poorly in terms because I don't get around to it. Is there a trick that people can use to keep the practice going because you know we all start all these things diets and this and that. You're talking about basic behavioral psychology. Yeah. There are many tricks. One is setting a specific time to do it. Most people find it's easiest to do first thing in the right before the day. And before you look at your smartphone before you look at your email. Right. Get up use toilet maybe coffee and then sit. And there's a posture to doing this because you sit for longer and longer periods of time. Why do we sit. So we lay down we fall asleep. Right. Because you're getting very relaxed. Yeah. Two things are going on in meditation. Even the Dalai Lama addresses this. Yeah. One is you're getting into a very relaxed state that's very restorative. Yeah. Very healthy for us boosts our immune system slows our heart rate lowers our blood pressure improves digestion improves many aspects of health. You get into that state. The second thing that's happening is you exercising what we might call a mental muscle of concentration. And the more you do it the better you get. Practicing focusing focusing. Yeah. Because the mind wants to wonder it's like a puppy. It's on training. Yeah. Yeah. Everyone the buzzwords I'm ADHD. Well we're all it's an ADHD culture. Right. Bam bam camera angles changing constantly. How often is this one changing. It's changing. So you know our culture teaches us to not focus very long. So it's not easy to learn. But the more we practice the better we get at it. And like I said there's been a lot of research done on supermeditators. But a lot of research are lately. Yes sir. Talking about attention deficit. Yeah. We have to go to a break. We'll be right back. Don't touch the mouse. Hello. My name is Crystal. Let me tell you my talk show. I'm all about health. It's healthy to talk about sex. It's healthy to talk about things that people don't talk about. It's healthy to discuss things that you think are unhealthy because you need to talk about it. So I welcome you to watch QuokTalk and engage in some provocative discussions on things that do relate to healthy issues and have a well balanced attitude in life. Join me. Aloha. My name is Richard Emory host of Condo Insider. More than a third of Hawaii's population live in some form of association. Our show is all about educating board members and owners about the responsibilities and obligations and providing solutions for a great association. You can watch me live on Thursdays 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. each week Aloha. Welcome back to shrink wrap Hawaii. I'm still with Dr. Tom Moss Tom Moss Cummings and talking about attention deficit disorder. What are we talking about? We're talking super meditators. We're talking about there's been a fair amount of research done on super meditators in the 80s and 90s but that doesn't apply to our general population. Why not because they live a special life of growing up as a lama, as a monk and then a lama to meditate in a very calm environment that's conducive to meditating. So mindfulness practices have been developed to apply it to the average person, the average joe. And in a lot of my work I teach people how to do this and we troubleshoot and I have all these handouts that troubleshoot. We practice it. I guide them. They can go online. Anyone can go to my website. Mindful Matters Kailua and download me guiding you through these practices. Really? That's cool. Yeah, you can download that. Listen to them. Mindful Matters Kailua. Yeah. Mindful Matters Kailua. How long is that? Well, one of them, the breath focus is about 15 minutes. The body scans much longer. And then I have one called the wave that's kind of a hybrid between a body scan and a breath focus. And there are three variations of the wave A, B and C. And that's about 15 minutes total. That's wonderful. Yeah. Free. Yeah. Wow. That's great. I should mention that if someone has anxiety, standard of care tells us teach that person these exercises right away and guide them and get them started with it right away. If they have depression, don't because when we're really depressed, moderate to severe. It's almost impossible to meditate. You have to use what we call behavioral activation to lift the depression. Then we teach them and get them practicing the mindfulness meditation to prevent relapse. So what do you do to lift the depression? Well, it's called behavioral activation. The eyes have it, I say they need to socialize, exercise, cardio, solarize, get a little sun, spiritualize whatever your philosophical or spiritual path is, engage in it. But it's so humorous. And I realize you can't do it alone. You need help. You need psychotherapists. You need family and friends to help you and pull you off the couch, get away from the mouse and the TV. Stop watching Doomsday TV and get out in life. What about pills? Someone's severely depressed. It's almost Why? It's a long hard haul to get off and therapy is not going to be very effective and without the help of that or herbs that sometimes they need some medication. Yeah. And I tell people, if we hit on the right one, you know, it'll start to take effect in two weeks. And then you get the meditation, get the depression lifted and the therapy going and the meditation going, then they can wean off of it slowly in three to six months. Okay. So it's not necessary to somebody to stay on something for the rest of their life. So some people, a lot of people. Yeah, some people that it really depends on how disciplined they can be in fighting the depression in maintaining these eyes. Yeah, all the eyes is and the meditation practice. Once the depression lifts, you get meditation going and keep the therapy going, watching how you think and changing how you think you prevent relapses. This is a I'm kind of harping on this. I hope you don't mind because it's personal for me and for my clients. It's that routine thing. So the first thing that you mentioned, which works for me too. For me, it's like I do a running slash meditation thing. I find it hard. First thing in the morning. Yeah, first thing in the morning, you go to the bathroom, I make coffee. And then I check my email, which I probably shouldn't do. It'll be nice right away to stick in some meditation before that. And I know that if I could keep it going long enough. So how much time should a person who's just starting I'd start with 10 minutes and work up that's long for some people like I've done it with people in my office. They have 10 minutes to check their Instagram or Facebook, you know, it's we'll have 24 hours a day. And if you're suffering, you need to channel some of that time into getting well, right? But then they want to guarantee so like if I knew, as they say here locally, I love this expression, garrons, but barons that doing this would decrease my suffering. I would do it. I would do it religiously every day. I think that's one of the things that keeps us from doing things that we think was supposed to do. I think there's there's no ironclad guarantee on anything, even getting a car. We're going to die. We're going to be charged so so you know, we have to just have some faith that it's worked for many people of many ages of many cultures. And not only in the two decades of research now that comes from the America's top universities, but also in Europe and other places around the world, but also just over the over over millennia. That's why people follow this path for peace of mind. There's also other forms. I mean, some people, I was taught by in the kebabs in Santorelli that there's also a walking meditation. Exactly. That's another one. Sometimes I find that easier because it's hard for me to sit. Yeah, you walk very slowly. Yeah, I really like to take you 10 minutes to coordinate it with my breath because I did Tai Chi for so many years. You don't have to. But the point is most people interlace their fingers and just let them rest there. Walk upright like we sit upright when we meditate. And you just really feel the weight shift, all the minute sensations in every step. And when you go to different types of Buddhist meditation centers, Vipassana being the closest to MBSR to mindfulness, you'll sit for 20 minutes, walk for five or 10, sit for 20, walk for five or 10. I've done 10 day retreats for you doing that. You'll sit up to an hour towards the end of the retreat, and then you'll walk for 20, sometimes walk for a half hour. Like that's the first one we do in the morning. You get up and you walk before you've even eaten breakfast. Are these silent retreats? Yeah, you don't. Is that an important part of it? I think it is. What is it become more contemplative. We're so analytical in our words. And it gets you out of this verbal world of thinking, thinking, talking, talking, analyze, analyze, judge, judge, judge. So you do it in silence, except for once a day when you meet with the teacher, and you ask questions. And here she gives you guidance. That can be a small group format individual depends on the retreat. There's a great Vipassana Hawaii is a great place to tap into. Where is that? It's based on the Big Island, but also on this island. And they have a lot of retreats at the Palo Lo Zen Center. They have a good relationship with that, that line of Buddhism that the people there are Palo Lo Zen Center. Do you sleep? Yeah, when you do an overnight retreat. So they'll have three day retreats, two days, and nine days and seven days. So Vipassana Hawaii, I couldn't I can hear myself and other people saying, Oh, but how am I going to take out three days of my life to do that? People do it. Do you take vacation? Right. So staycation. Very stay. Yeah, very stay like don't move out of the chair practically. Yeah. What about like, you know, what gets in the way? Sometimes people think they have to sit like a yoga with your in lotus position. No, when I go to these retreats, I've been to a couple of John Kabat-Zinn's ones designed for for health professionals. Right. About 160 people. Yeah, probably a third are sitting in chairs. The essence of the position is that you're sitting upright with relaxed shoulders, a natural curve in your lower back. And your head is chin is parallel with the floor. But you're not leaning against the back of the chair, because then you start to slump, then your lower back curves the other way. And it's bad posture. Another third, like myself, I'll sit in half lotus as I practice more and more, I'll get into full lotus. But there's also ways they call it warrior pose or hero pose, where your legs are underneath you, and they put the pillows in between their legs. People will set up all kinds of legs. So it's okay to be comfortable. It's okay to be. It's important to be comfortable. Right. And then you start to distinguish what's natural just restlessness of the body and what's like this is really hurting. Yeah, change. I got a shift. You know, this knee is going. So you start to learn your favorite position and you'll see it's quite a bit of variety to it. But all with the upright relaxed back, they call it a position of relaxed dignity. And the eyes are either closed. So you can focus inward. Because the eyes are very young, easily distracted, easy mislead vibes, or just staring kind of 45 degrees at the floor at nothing. Yeah, like people that stare at a candle. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody mentioned I mentioned meditation to somebody to me. I mentioned it to her today. And she said, Well, I pray is that okay? It's different. prayer is good. prayer is a practice of hope. prayer can be a setting of intention. The difference I like to quote Carlos Santana said the musician. Yeah, the musician, the guy who stopped doing drugs early on, like 1969 and started following a teacher from India. And he said, When you sit down, get quiet, commune with God. And you talk to God and God listens. That's prayer. When you sit down, get quiet, commune with God. God talks and you listen. That's meditation. Wow. Yeah. So you're you're you're quiet and still in both cases, with prayer, you're like, please help me with my mother and her illness, please help. Maybe it's a prayer of compassion for someone else. Maybe it's a prayer of of of compassion for yourself. Maybe it's a prayer of give me strength to endure my bad back. You know, give me strength through the sub coming operation. You ask for help. Or and and one I've heard some scholars of different religions say there are three components to a prayer. This was a Muslim scholar. He said the first component is giving thanks gratitude to God a lot. The second component is asking for strength and guidance. The third component is just being with God. So that could be likened to meditation in Hebrew. It's I am here. I am here. Whether it's I am here or God is here. Yeah. I am here. I and I. Same. Same. Same. Same. God is right here. Here. Yeah. Well, I just got the notice that our time is about up. It seems like a very peaceful, beautiful place to stop again. Good. And I just want to thank you so much for coming. Well, thanks for having me. It's good to be here. Thanks. You will. Aloha. Join us next time for shrink wrap Hawaii. Aloha.