Coping With Panic Attacks
THE ART OF MINDFULNESS AND BEING INTENTIONALLY AWARE BY TAN CHEEN CHONG
Mental Wellbeing 3 Minute Read
In 2012, I suffered a mental breakdown. In between running two companies – with a checklist of client obligations, employee issues and business operations — I was attending to my father who had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Within two weeks of his death, the strain of never-ending to-do lists, problems to solve, and appearances to keep up, led to a mental collapse. My doctor insisted that I learn to meditate. He told me I was thinking too much and that any meditation technique would help me re-anchor. I was willing to try anything. I just wanted the tornado of thoughts in my head to stop — I wanted to be worry-free.
Eight years later, many of the adults who attend my mindfulness classes today are seeking the same sense of inner peace and tranquillity. Many are stressed; others take medication for depression or panic attacks. The symptoms are clear whether a participant has just begun a career, or has competed in a marathon of rat races — anxiety, agitation and exhaustion are prevalent among adults. Our brains are wired for curiosity, so the 24-hour world of Internet and social media feeds into an endless stream of information. Technology, stress and a million-mile-an-hour lifestyle can interfere with the natural buffer the brain needs to reflect and process our daily experiences. Even sufficient sleep – essential for rest and cognitive integration – eludes many people.
As a teacher and practitioner, I’m convinced that mindfulness is essential to empower our body and mind to cope with demands of modern-day living.
This negatively affects both mentally mature adults and young minds alike. After their first experience of mindfulness training, those same over-tired, burnt-out individuals often report a sense of calm, relaxation or sleepiness. So what’s going on? What makes us feel overwhelmed one minute and yet within the same hour, experience calmness like that of water in a quiet lake? What is mindfulness and how does it work on our body and mind?
Mindfulness is no miracle cure or mystical hoodoo. The practice is an evidence-based method for stress management, requiring attention to the present moment, without judgement. Since 1979, when the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme was introduced at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center by Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn, the programme has helped countless patients cope with stress, anxiety, depression and pain. Over the years, mindfulness has been a major — and growing — research interest with 549 papers published in 2013, compared to 52 articles in 2003. PsycINFO, maintained by the American Psychological Association, includes over 2,000 articles, books, and dissertations addressing mindfulness. As a teacher and practitioner, I’m convinced that mindfulness is essential to empower our body and mind to cope with demands of modern-day living.
So what does the science tell us? Non-stop stimulation of the senses can make us feel overwhelmed. Our sympathetic nervous system – commonly known as the fight-or-flight mode – is constantly triggered. What was designed to protect us as hunter-gatherers, now appears to be the bane of modern living. We live on a constant knife-edge of unconscious sensory, mental and physical awareness. Mindfulness, the practice of being intentionally aware, acts as an antidote. When practitioners — from the earliest beginners to the most advanced participants — pause regularly during a busy or stressful day, they are activating a built-in mechanism to help mind and body shift towards balance, known as homeostasis. As the reactive half of the autonomic nervous system is given some respite, the healing, rest-and-digest mode (also known as the parasympathetic nervous system) takes over. This breathing space engenders feelings of calmness and relief.
Basic mindfulness training works by concentrating the ‘CEO’ of the brain (called the pre-frontal cortex) on a single focus. One popular technique is ‘awareness of breath’, when this focus is arrowed in on an individual’s respiration. The effort of returning attention again and again to each breath, whenever the mind wanders, begins to strengthen executive function. With practise, awareness of breath creates a habit, invites a practitioner to check-in on their cognitive and emotional state (worried, irritated, happy), or physical condition (tired, hungry, cold). When practised regularly, mindfulness can allow practitioners to deliberately shift out of unpleasant states, and on more difficult days, to lean into the discomfort. Others find joy in being able to notice objects and situations to be grateful for. As fitness increases for regular gym-goers, so too does a mindfulness practitioner develop the strength and ease of noticing both internal and external experiences. As someone who becomes anxious easily but masks it well, I find it easier to recognise the repetitive worries that swirl in my head, and to notice the build-up of tension on my body. The accessible techniques of mindfulness are now my go-to modalities for a sense of centeredness and stability.
Eight years ago, I had front-row seats watching my own breakdown under pressure from non-stop worrying and mental over-stimulation. At the time, I did not have the knowledge or skill to stop acting as the helpless movie character I suddenly found myself playing. I remember the struggle to keep the façade of normality together as I struggled through my daily activities. Having climbed out of the lowest point of my adult life using the tools of mindfulness, I’m determined to teach as many people as possible, whether children or adults, this essential habit to empower both body and mind to skilfully cope with the demands of modern day living.
Guests of COMO Hotels and Resorts can benefit from a COMO Shambhala meditation practice, led by mindfulness expert Cheen Chong Tan, on their in-room TV. This is a powerful way to calm the mind, and focus on self-care. It encourages focus on breath, gently guiding thoughts away from the day's worries towards acceptance.
