Teaching Meditation

1
Teaching Meditation to College Students
James L Spira, Ph.D., MPH, ABPP
2
Outline

• Principles of Meditation
• Types of Meditation
• Simple/Effective Techniques
• Adapting to different problems
• Adapting to different settings

3
Principals of Meditation

• Reducing attention to cognitions and reactions to
  cognitions and emotions
• Reducing focus on and reaction to self and others
  and the world
• Allowing fuller perception of what presents
  itself, more as it is, with less biased
  distortion
• Being fully and comfortably in the moment
• Calming the mind
• Comforting the body

4
Types of Meditation

• Eastern Experiential vs Western Conceptual
• Yogic Origin
• Pranayama
• Hatha Yoga
• Taoist
• Tai Chi
• Chi Kung
• Buddhist
• Vipassana
• Zen

5
Simple Effective Techniques

• Absorptive Approaches
• Yoga
• Tai Chi
• Zen
• Observational/Non-reactive Approaches
• Vipassana / Mindfulness
• Combination Approaches
• Zen/Mindfulness

6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (Specific
Frequencies of HRV)
RSA During Worry
RSA During Zazen
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
EEG Aspects of Meditation

• Hz attentional focus processing effort/style
• Delta (0-4Hz)
• Sleep
• Effortless, recuperative
• Theta (4-8Hz)
• Daydreaming, background noise
• Minimal effort, parallel processing
• Alpha (8-12Hz)
• Calm, clear open attention to sensation
• Low effort, Bottom-up, sensory processing
• Beta (12-16 16)
• Focused attention to problem-solving task
• Effortful, conceptually-driven processing

13
EEG States of Mind
Snapshots of a normal subject undergoing
different activities (1 lead)
14
Functional Model of Attentional Processing
Elite Athlete
thoughts
associations
Average Person
feelings
ADHD
Attention to environment
Attention/access to internal experiences
Meditator
15
Attention is enhanced processing

• 1) We enhance what we attend to
• Pay attention to worry and we will enhance the
  worry
• Pay attention to sensation and we will enhance
  sensation ( or -)
• 2) We become what we attend to
• If we attend to pain or worry, our nervous
  systems gear up for that
• If we attend to the softness of the breath or the
  simplicity of sensory input, our nervous systems
  reflect that processing

16
Attentional Retraining

• 3) Pay attention to something if you can act on
  it to improve the situation.
• Otherwise, switch your attention to

• Some other beta activity you can act on
  productively
• Rest in alpha receptive meditative state

17
Attentional Retraining

• Two ways to improve attention
• (i.e. enhance S/N ratio for what one
  processes)
•  1) Reduce Theta (background noise)
• through Vipassana style meditation (low alpha)
• (one typically drifts into theta, learns to
  recognize it and let it go, to be replaced by
  alpha activity)
• this is typically practiced in a meditation
  session
• CBT may first need to be employed to support
  belief in the benefit of suspending self-image,
  especially among those who lack confidence in
  themselves (NPD, GAD, BN, etc.) 

18
Attentional Retraining

• 2) Enhance Alpha (attended signal) through Zen
  absorption techniques
• A) high alpha
• this can be practiced either in a meditation
  practice (eyes open)
• or in receptive activities of daily life, such as
  driving, walking, eating, listening to a
  conversation, etc. (examples?)
• B) low beta
• can be enhanced through training in sustained
  attention in active involvement
• for anxious or ADHD types, being motorically
  involved is useful (chi kung, tai chi, Yoga,
  doing massage, Karate, etc.)

19
Attentional Retraining

• Those who ignore internal activity need to
  emphasize
• recognition of internal noise and be less
  unconsciously driven by it (Vipassana)
• Impulsivity/OCD/Conversion D/O
• Those who are "stuck" in their thoughts need to
  emphasize
• enhancement of signal (Zen)
• ADHD/GAD/PTSD/Psychosis
• But all need to practice both approaches
• typically practicing both each day

20
Practice

• Active Absorptive ? Still Permissive