Good vibes - but not only!

In February, it was all about emotions at The Mindful Lab - specifically, about how we can learn to listen to and trust our feelings. Accordingly, Rock the Weekend Yoga classes included a mindfulness meditation at the beginning of each lesson to tune into the body and observe our emotional world. A really nice habit to start off the day - and one that you can incorporate into your life off the yoga mat! Find a simple instruction below.

Emotional Mindfulness Meditation

Sit on a comfy cushion or on a chair, close your eyes, maybe play some calming meditation music. Place your hands on your heart. Take a few deep breaths. Ask yourself: “how do I feel today?” Then, observe. Listen closely. How does your body react? What emotions are coming up for you? Can you label them? Where in your body do you feel them? Try not to judge. You are simply the observer of your emotions, watching from a distance. If you are a visual person, imagine your mind as a blue sky and your emotions as the clouds, slowly passing by. These clouds may change the appearance of the sky, sometimes even covering it up completely. However, they are not actually the sky itself - like you are not your emotions.

Research suggests that mindfulness practice1 reduces emotional and cognitive reactivity (meaning that you react less to upsetting events), repetitive negative thinking (meaning less rumination and worry) and generally increases mindfulness skills. This in turn has a beneficial impact on mental health outcomes, reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety and negative emotions2. This is great news because we are mentally wired to focus on negative events, information or emotions more than on positive ones. For example, when making a decision, people typically tend to weigh negative over positive information (news reporting makes use of this!)3. Neuroscientist Dr. Rick Hanson explains this negativity bias nicely: “The brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positives ones.”4

In my opinion, mindfulness is also such a great practice because it leaves room for both positive and negative emotions. This is unfortunately not encouraged in our society. Popular psychology tells us to cultivate “good vibes only” or “think positive”. On social media, we tend to see only the perfect, happy moments of other people’s lives. Comparing our experience to such a distorted snapshot of reality is not healthy. Toxic positivity is a thing, and it is dangerous.

In her book, ‘Daring Greatly’5, social scientist Dr. Brené Brown summed up 12 years of her social research on shame and vulnerability. From the insights she gathered based on coding over thousand interviews and additional data sources, she came to the conclusion that vulnerability is not a weakness but actually a superpower that helps us to form meaningful relationships. Being vulnerable means emotionally exposing ourselves and facing tough emotions - very uncomfortable! In a world where negative emotions are not welcome, many people spend a lot of energy avoiding this by all means. A top armour against vulnerability according to Dr. Brown is numbing it - with food, our phones, television or simply by keeping ourselves busy at all times. Sounds familiar?

Bottom line: it is in fact important to cultivate ‘good vibes’ and pay attention to the positive things in life in order to override our brain’s negativity bias. But that does not mean we should ignore and numb out any uncomfortable emotions. Mindfulness is a great practice to embrace all of our emotions and learn to deal with them in a healthy way.

If you take anything away from this post, let it be this:

Good vibes, yes please - but not only!

1 Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), developed by Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion Books.

2 Gu, J., Strauss, C., Bond, R., Cavanagh, K. (2015). How do mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction improve mental health and wellbeing? A systematic review and meta-analysis of mediation studies. Clinical Psychology Review.37: 1-12.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2015.01.006

3 Kahneman D, Tversky A. Choices, values, and frames. American Psychologist. 1984;39:341–350.

4Hanson, R., & Mendius, R. (2009). Buddha's brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness, love & wisdom. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

5 Brené Brown (2012). Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead. Penguin Random House, UK.