Eli Susman was a fairly experienced meditator when he participated in a month-long retreat at Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery in the south of France, in 2017.
The UC Berkeley Ph.D. The clinical science candidate had attended other retreats where participants spent most of their time meditating. So he was surprised when he saw that the daily schedule of Plum Village retreats included only 30 minutes of formal sitting meditation per day.
Midway through the retreat, he decided to extend one of his sessions, sitting under a tree for three hours. Later, he met a monk named Brother Trésor and told him about his practice. The monk’s response was not what he expected.
“Three hours?” Susman remembers Brother Treasure telling him with a smile. “How about three breaths?” That’s all it takes to get into the present moment.
The words stuck in Susman’s memory. This made him wonder if an abbreviated practice taking just a few breaths could make a difference in someone’s life.
Seven years later, he and his colleagues at Berkeley’s Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic have proof that it’s possible. Earlier this year, they published an article online in the journal Behavior Research and Therapy that described how a simple 20-second self-compassion “micropractice” reduced stress levels and improved the mental health of frontline volunteers. cycle who practiced it every day for a month.
“Two of the biggest obstacles people face in developing a meditation habit are having the time to do it and developing the habit of doing it regularly,” Susman said. “Micropractices are like tiny training sessions based on the most powerful parts of therapeutic practices. »
Below, Susman describes the practice he developed for the study and explains how anyone can use it to try to feel better in less than a minute a day.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Q: How do you describe the 20-second self-compassion micropractice you studied?
A: The instructions we gave were to close your eyes and recall something about yourself that is bothering you and making you feel unworthy, unloved or not enough and to notice what is happening in the body.
Then we asked people to send each other kindness and warmth by placing one hand on the heart and another on the stomach with the energy of hugging and noticing what is happening now in the body.
Then we invited them to ask themselves, “How can I be my friend right now?” »
Finally, we told them to open their eyes when they were ready.
Q: And did doing this for 20 seconds a day really make a difference in the lives of the study participants?
A: Yes, but it only worked for people who practiced it regularly. In our study, we looked at the subset of people who practiced daily and the entire sample of people who received instruction.
More frequent practice was associated with greater increases in self-compassion and greater reductions in stress and mental health problems like symptoms of depression or anxiety compared to a control group.
Q: What are some ways people can send kindness and warmth to each other?
A: The key phrase we used in the study was “How can I be my friend right now?” » What we meant by that is imagine seeing a friend or your teen in a similar situation and you really care about that friend. What would you tell them to do? How would you ask them to be?
You can also imagine receiving unconditional love from someone like a mentor, parent, or close friend. What would their relationship be with you in this moment of suffering? Is there a way to extend the same compassion to yourself?
Q: Does it matter where people practice this practice?
A: We haven’t looked at that, but it’s a great question.
Q: Why is it helpful for people to touch their stomach and chest while exercising?
A: There has been so much work on touch and how beneficial it can be for people to receive touch, but it has not been seen as a stand-alone intervention for emotional wellbeing in terms of people s ‘offering a compassionate touch. I was interested in the synergy between thinking self-compassionate thoughts and doing this embodied form of self-compassionate touching. It offers two potential ways to regulate yourself.
I should also say that we told participants that they could choose other forms of touch, such as stroking each other’s cheeks or giving each other a hug. Most importantly, the touch method helps you feel compassion for yourself.
Question : I was surprised that the majority of students in the study said they were too busy to do this 20-second practice every day. What is it talking about?
A: I was joking with a friend about this, and she told me that when people are stressed, they can feel like they can’t take 20 seconds to take a break. It may be more of a mindset than a reality, but there is still work to be done to help people feel like those 20 seconds will make a difference in their lives. We wash our hands for 20 seconds. We brush our teeth for two minutes. Why not take 20 seconds to do it?
Q: Do you have any tips on how people can make this practice a habit?
A: It may be helpful to choose a signal. You can practice after morning coffee in the living room or whenever you feel stressed if you can manage to do it at that time. The more specific you are in describing your signal and developing your plan, the more likely you are to turn this practice into a habit.
Q: Does this research suggest that there is no reason to practice longer?
A: Most of our study participants were beginning meditators or people who had never meditated before. So we don’t know what that would look like with people who have a really dedicated meditation practice or are very experienced in meditation. Rigorous research is needed to determine whether shorter practices have benefits over longer practices and for whom these benefits may be most pronounced.
Additionally, just as brushing your teeth is not a substitute for a visit to the dentist, this micropractice should not replace more intensive therapy or mental health care.
Netburn writes for the Los Angeles Times. This article was provided by Tribune News Service.
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