“Cultivating Mindfulness to Support Recovery” was presented on Tuesday December 17, 2013; by Libby Robinson Ph.D., MSW. Mindfulness practices can help support an individual’s recovery from substance use disorders. This presentation will describe mindfulness, provide opportunities to experience and cultivate mindfulness, and review the evidence of its positive effect on recovery. Dr. Robinson has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction since 2003. She has practiced mindfulness meditation since 1979 and was trained to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction by Jon Kabat-Zinn and colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, where he developed this program for cultivating mindfulness. She recently retired from the University of Michigan, where she was a U of M Research Assistant Professor, carrying out NIH-funded research on the role of spiritual and religious change in recovery. She also did an NIAAA post-doctoral fellowship at the U of M Addiction Research Center and was on the social work faculty at Case Western Reserve University and the University at Buffalo. Dr. Robinson has an MSW and MPH from the University of Michigan, as well as her Ph.D. in Psychology and Social Work. This program is part of the Dawn Farm Education Series, a FREE, annual workshop series developed to provide accurate, helpful, hopeful, practical, current information about chemical dependency, recovery, family and related issues. The Education Series is organized by Dawn Farm, a non-profit community of programs providing a continuum of chemical dependency services. For information, please see http://www.dawnfarm.org/programs/education-series.

1. Cultivating
Mindfulness to
Support Recovery
Elizabeth A.R. (Libby) Robinson,
Ph.D., MSW
Dawn Farms Ed Series, 12 17 13

2. Outline
 What is mindfulness?
 Evidence of its effects on stress, pain,
depression, anxiety and recovery from addictions.
 What seems to change/shift as we practice
mindfulness?
 Ways to cultivate mindfulness:
“Informally”
With meditation
 Experiencing cultivating mindfulness, informally &
formally -- discussion

3. What is Mindfulness?
 “Mindfulness means paying attention in a
particular way: on purpose, in the present
moment, and non-judgmentally.”
- Jon Kabat-Zinn
 Cultivating mindfulness is training the mind to
develop greater awareness of the present
moment, including current physical
sensations, thoughts, and feelings, without
judging one’s self or one’s experience.

4. Not a new idea
 Almost every world religion (Christianity,
Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism) has a
strand of thought and practice that proposes
that being in the present has value in helping us
be better people (e.g., Centering Prayer, Quaker
meditation).
 The Greeks, Romans, and the American
transcendentalists (Thoreau, Emerson) also
made this same point.
 Most recently, Eckhart Tolle, author of bestselling The Power of Now, on Oprah Winfrey’s
show urging us to practice being more present.

5. Jon Kabat-Zinn and MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction (MBSR)
 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) :
cultivates mindfulness through meditation, both
sitting meditation and mindful movement
(easy yoga, walking), and through informal
practices (noticing one’s present moment
experience in ordinary life).
 MBSR is a secular 8-week class, originally
developed for coping with severe chronic pain.
 Since its development, many variations have
been developed, including a version for
depression (MBCT), eating disorders (M-EAT),
and relapse prevention (MBRP).

6. Mindfulness is not:
 A religion
 A state of bliss
 Automatic pilot
 An empty mind

7. A brief summary of research on
mindfulness’s effects
 Research on mindfulness-based interventions
is growing and now includes neuroimaging
studies and more sophisticated research
designs.
 Effects include:
- Reductions in depression, anxiety,
substance abuse, eating disorders, stress,
and pain.
- Increased immunological response, reduced
blood pressure and cortisol
- Increased psychological well-being and
enhanced cognitive functioning.
Holzel, Lazar et al, 2011

8. Some specific findings on changes
associated with mindfulness meditation
 Statistically significant improvements in ratings of
pain & other medical symptoms.
 Patients reported decreases in anxiety and
depression.
 Patients with binge eating disorders improved
eating patterns & mood.
 Fibromyalgia patients improved.
 Psoriasis cleared faster in patients exposed to
recordings of guided mindfulness meditation than
those who were not.
 Decreases in substance use both in MBRP & other
MB interventions.
 Changes appear to persist.

9. What seems to change/shift?
 Observing (noticing internal and external stimuli, e.g.,
as sensations, emotions, cognitions, sights, sounds, and
smells)
 Describing (mentally labeling these stimuli with words)
 Acting with awareness (attending to one’s current
actions, as opposed to behaving automatically or
absentmindedly)
 Nonjudging (refraining from evaluating sensations,
cognitions, and emotions)
 Nonreactivity to inner experience (allowing thoughts
and feelings to come and go, without getting caught in
them)
Baer et al, 2006

10. Some speculation on how mindfulness
works
Based on neuroimaging, self-report and
behavioral findings, practitioners of mindfulness
experience enhanced self-regulation from
increased:
 Attention regulation
 Body awareness
 Emotional regulation, including
Reappraisal
Exposure, extinction, and reconsolidation
 Changes in perspective on one’s self
 Compassion toward self & others
Holzel, Lazar et al, 2011

11. Ways to cultivate mindfulness
 Meditation
 Informally – being more present
in one’s ordinary life

12. What is meditation?
 “A family of self-regulatory practices that focus
on training attention and awareness in order to
bring mental processes under greater voluntary
control … (Walsh & Shapiro, Am. Psych., 2006)
 Types of meditation:
Concentration
Mindfulness
Contemplation

13. Experiencing Mindfulness
in this Moment
Practicing informally – noticing ordinary present
moment experience.

14. Informal Mindfulness:
examples
 Eating
 Shower/bath
 Time with loved ones
 Time in nature
 Music
 Driving a car
 Sitting
 Touching water
 Getting out of bed or into bed

15. Experiencing Mindfulness
in this Moment
Practicing meditation

16. cor.delaranja.com

17. What else you might notice
 Judgment
 Curiosity about thoughts
 Awareness of impermanence of experience
 Thoughts are just mental events
 Simple awareness

19. Why the Breath as an Anchor?
 Always available
 Free
 Accessible -- easily felt
 Connects mind and body, a measure of well- being
 Fairly neutral

20. Cultivating Compassion
 Almost always paired with mindfulness
practice.
 What is a compassion practice?
 Deliberately cultivating friendliness and
kindliness toward one’s self and toward
others.

21. Practicing Compassion