הפחתת מתח מבוססת מיינדפולנס
שָׂפָה:
הפחתת מתח מבוססת מיינדפולנס
In this section, we're going to talk about the management of tinnitus, and we're going to start by talking about the management of tinnitus using mindfulness meditation as a way of—I think of it as tuning your orchestra or balancing your mind—so that you can start to see tinnitus for what it is: a benign body sensation, rather than feel locked and loaded on it with no choice and freedom.
And so I'm going to start out with a truism. This is something that we know about tinnitus:
Stress increases tinnitus bother. Relaxation decreases tinnitus bother.
So when somebody is looking for ways to calm the mind, because we spoke about the tinnitus trifecta and stress being a necessary ingredient of tinnitus, one of the important things to do in its management is to reduce stress in our lives.
And so there are many ways to do this, and many of us have our own ways that are either creative or work for us, whereas it might not work for somebody else.
So this is where we get to be creative.
And so today I wanted to talk to you about some management tools that you may not have thought of, or have maybe thought of and just haven't really put into practice.
And so, again, stress increases tinnitus bother and relaxation decreases tinnitus bother.
When I'm sitting with somebody with bothersome tinnitus, I think of them like a beautiful instrument.
Let's take a Stradivarius—a beautiful violin—as an example.
Okay, so imagine you have this beautiful, beautiful violin. The Stradivarius is one of the prized instruments of all time. In fact, I recently learned that Joshua Bell plays a $14 million Stradivarius.
So imagine you have this beautiful Stradivarius in your hands, and you take the four pegs—because a violin has four strings to it—and you take the four pegs and you crank up the strings as tight as they can go.
And then you take this beautiful instrument, you take your bow, and you start to play this violin.
And whoa, it does not sound very good.
Why?
Because the strings are so tight, it's not playing in tune.
And I don't care how good of an instrument this is, I don't care how wonderful the player is, it's not going to sound like music.
And so do we throw out the Stradivarius?
No.
What do we do?
We simply retune the instrument so that we can start to create something beautiful.
So, again, loosening the strings a little bit is the way that we tune the instrument when it's playing too tight.
And so when I think of the people that I sit with with bothersome tinnitus, they are—I think of them as instruments that are playing sharp.
And for those who know about music, when the strings on that violin are way, way too tight, you're playing sharp. If the strings are too loose, you're playing flat.
And so the people that I work with—we talked about the personality of the person with bothersome tinnitus—the personality that I work with in my practice are people that are struggling primarily with anxiety.
And so their strings are too tight.
If we pause for a moment and pay attention and loosen those strings to just the right amount, all of a sudden we can make music.
And so one way to do that is through a mindfulness meditation practice.
Again, I make a lot of analogies to music.
But, for example, when you go to the symphony, everybody expects that the conductor is going to get up on the lectern and, you know, tap the podium and pause for a moment and pay very, very close attention to each section of the orchestra, making sure that the violins and the oboe and the flute and the trombones and the trumpets and all of these instruments are playing in the same key.
But that takes time, and you need to stop, pay attention, and listen very, very carefully in order to make small adjustments to each instrument to make sure that everybody is playing in the same key.
And then, boom, you can make some beautiful, beautiful music.
So I think of mindfulness meditation as a way of almost like that conductor that gets up and pauses for a moment, stops, and pays attention to where is the mind.
Are there sections of the brain that maybe are a little bit too tight? Maybe some that are too loose? Or maybe they're not communicating with each other?
And so mindfulness meditation is really a beautiful way for us to harness our own abilities to tune our own orchestra without medication, without side effects that are negative.
And there's only positive side effects to mindfulness meditation.
It's a way that we can all tune our own brains so that whatever comes our way—whether it's tinnitus, whether it's a work problem, whether it's a relationship problem—we create enough space that we can pause for a moment and choose our response, our way of managing or responding to whatever comes our way.
And so with a mindfulness meditation practice, we have a way of tuning the brain that is with us everywhere we go.
It's with us at 3:00 in the afternoon. It's also with us at 3:00 in the morning.
We don't need a doctor's prescription for it. There's no real negative side effects.
So this is something that we all can do for ourselves, and is very important for us to be able to do for ourselves, for us to be able to live the life with meaning that we're all wanting.
And so when we are meditating, we're simply tuning inwards to the breath.
We're placing our curiosity, our openness, our acceptance, and compassion on waves of the breath.
As the breath rises and falls, and our belly rises and falls, we pay attention to each moment by moment by moment, and breath by breath by breath, as our counterpoint or as our tuning fork, much like the conductor that gets up in front of the orchestra.
And so, in many ways, I think that we focus on the breath because, well, the breath is benign.
Okay?
The breath is not an indication of a greater illness. It's simply the breath.
And most of us, unless we have some kind of pulmonary issue, we don't usually attach a lot of stories or judgments or comparisons to the breath.
So it seems that the breath is just a really kind of very simple yet body sensation that we can control to some degree, that we can very safely place our attention as the counterpoint or as the place to anchor ourselves as we begin to watch the mind and its wanderings.
And the mind naturally wanders.
That's just what the mind does.
But while we're meditating, we're paying very close attention to that wandering because we want to know where our mind is.
And maybe you notice the mind goes to a thought.
Maybe you notice the mind goes to an emotion.
Maybe it goes to a planning thought or a judgment of some sort.
And so that gives us an opportunity, with compassion, to note where the mind has gone, but just letting go of where the mind has gone and placing our attention very gently right back on the breath.
And we do that over and over and over again, moment by moment by moment.
And as soon as the mind leaves the breath, we are aware of it.
We know where the mind has gone.
We let it go, and then come right back to the breath.
And what we find is that over time and with practice—almost like a muscle, you know, if you go to the gym and you lift that barbell and, you know, to build that muscle in your arm over time, usually not the first day, but if we do it consistently over time, we notice that there's a great strengthening in the muscle.
Meditation is similar.
Most people, or some people, will say, "Oh, I can't meditate because my mind is wandering."
I mean, first of all, I kind of laugh because that's what the mind does. The mind is designed to wander.
But what we're really doing here in meditation is we are aware of where the mind is wandering and then letting it go as quickly as we can to come right back to the breath.
And so with that—with that noting, letting go, and coming back; noting where the mind goes, letting go, and coming back—we begin to build this awareness muscle, I call it.
And over time it strengthens, and we're able to really drop in and tune our orchestra in a way that we're able to just—the mind wandering can start to lessen, and we can start to ride the wave of the breath consistently.
And, you know, this can be very balancing for the brain, again, much like the orchestra.
And so this is a wonderful way, a wonderful tool, a wonderful management tool that we all have at our disposal, that people can harness.
And especially the person with bothersome tinnitus who is misappraising a benign body sensation.
It's an indication to me that their stress level is pulling them really, really sharp, really, really tight.
And if you can loosen the strings a little and create some space, you end up with some more choice and freedom with how you will be responding to tinnitus.
And you can find much more life-affirming ways in which to be able to take in this body sensation, recognize it as simply a benign body sensation.
And the body or the brain knows what to do with those sensations, which is, when they notice them, they can simply also push it into the background.