Neuroscience Learns What Buddhism Has Known For Ages: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is recognized as a form of attention training that promotes health and overall well-being, supported by extensive scientific research. In this piece, I’ll explore another attention training method called Open Focus, an important part of my Embodied Sensemaking process.

Understanding Mindfulness

At its core, Mindfulness involves intentionally focusing on the present moment without judgment. Rooted in Buddhism, it was introduced to the West by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and the University of Massachusetts.

Over the past twenty years, many have engaged in Mindfulness practice as it has grown in popularity significantly. Benefits like reduced stress, enhanced well-being, improved clarity and focus, and better sleep have all come to thousands around the world as a result.

Dr. Kabat-Zinn explains that Mindfulness helps us switch off autopilot mode, a state where we live passively, often unaware of our surroundings and inner experiences. Being on autopilot not only diminishes life’s richness but also increases stress levels. When on autopilot, we tend to react impulsively rather than respond thoughtfully to life’s challenges. Mindfulness cultivates awareness of these automatic behaviors, providing the choice to change our reactions. It doesn’t eliminate stress but alters our relationship with it.

From a critical thinking and sensemaking perspective, you can see how being able to move away from autopilot is key!

Many of us spend considerable time in our minds, consumed by thoughts about the past or future. Mindfulness brings us back to the present moment, promoting awareness of our bodies, which are always grounded in the present. When practicing Mindfulness, we start to see the transient nature of experiences and understand that what we perceive as solid, like our sense of self, is actually fleeting. This practice can lead to profound insights and a sense of being greater than our observations.

Typically, Mindfulness involves focusing on a single object, such as the breath or body sensations, with curiosity. Another approach is Open Monitoring or Open Awareness, where attention is open to all experiences without focusing on any particular one, allowing a broader awareness.

Exploring Open Focus

Open Focus is a practice developed by neuroscientist and psychologist Dr. Lester Fehmi of Princeton University, is an attention training program aimed at improving mental and physical health by synchronizing whole brain activity in alpha frequency. Dr. Fehmi designed exercises to cultivate this brainwave pattern and created a neurofeedback EEG machine to detect it.

Dr. Fehmi’s Four Attention Styles theory outlines different ways we can direct our attention, linking these styles to brain physiology. He found that stress, pain, and anxiety narrow our attention, causing a ‘fight or flight’ response. While focusing narrowly on a problem can be useful, overuse of this style in daily life can lead to chronic stress. Habitual narrow focus creates a perception of a fragmented reality, making us feel isolated.

Dr. Fehmi advocates for diffusing our attention to address challenges more balanced and accepting. Diffused attention allows us to see the big picture and connect with its elements, fostering a sense of unity and healthy relationships. This approach is associated with the ‘rest and digest’ response, promoting synchronous brain activity in the alpha frequency, as verified by Dr. Fehmi’s device.

Dr. Fehmi advocates for a flexible approach to attention, suggesting that individuals should be able to switch between ‘narrow and objective’ and ‘diffused and immersed’ attention styles, or balance them simultaneously. He emphasizes that our attention style is directly linked to our well-being. Balancing attention can positively impact both mind and body.

During Open Focus training, we practice diffusing attention by becoming aware of multiple objects simultaneously. These objects can include anything we can focus on, such as physical items, sounds, tastes, thoughts, feelings, or bodily sensations. As training progresses, we expand our awareness to the spaces between these objects, like the silence between sounds or the gaps between thoughts. Ultimately, we become aware of the space within and around objects, which, according to Dr. Fehmi, helps us achieve a diffused and immersed attention style. In this state, all objects, including ourselves, dissolve into the surrounding space, creating a sense of full immersion and connection with reality.

Are Mindfulness and Open Focus Complementary?

Mindfulness and Open Focus are not opposing practices but are highly complementary.

Mindfulness teaches us to pay attention to our experiences and understand how we relate to them. Open Focus builds on Mindfulness by training us to be aware of how we pay attention and to be flexible in our attention styles.

By integrating both practices, we benefit from learning to pay attention and becoming flexible in how we pay attention. Mindfulness provides an excellent foundation for Open Focus training, while Open Focus enhances the benefits of Mindfulness.

What Can Open Focus Offer Mindfulness?

Much of Mindfulness practice involves focusing on a single object. While useful for increasing awareness of the present moment, this narrow focus can lead to tension and overexertion, especially for beginners. They may struggle between maintaining mindfulness and slipping into daydreaming, leading to frustration and exhaustion.

Open Focus introduces the idea of diffused attention and attention flexibility to Mindfulness. Practitioners who learn to diffuse their attention may find it easier to progress. Diffused attention can quickly quiet internal chatter, making it easier to observe without judgment. Instead of redirecting attention from one object to another, diffused attention involves simultaneously attending to multiple objects in a relaxed manner. This skill can be applied in daily life, such as staying aware of your breath while listening to someone, reducing the struggle between competing objects of attention.

Including daydreaming in diffused attention practice helps reduce the struggle with it, making it easier to stay present. This approach broadens the perspective, helping to disable autopilot mode and fostering a more responsive rather than reactive attitude.

Open Focus exercises cultivate an awareness of space around and within objects. By becoming aware of this space, objects like unwanted emotions can become softer and easier to observe. This diffused attention style can dilute difficult experiences, much like how a teaspoon of salt is less noticeable in a swimming pool than in an egg cup. Mindfulness helps us notice the salt, but Open Focus allows us to experience it in the context of the swimming pool.

Diffused and immersed attention styles help dissolve objects like pain or unwanted feelings. For example, while Mindfulness encourages observing an ache, Open Focus involves feeling the ache and the surrounding space, creating a sense of immersion. This can make the pain feel softer and more blurred, allowing it to dissolve naturally.

Mindfulness teaches us to pay attention to our experiences, interrupting unhelpful habitual patterns. Open Focus enhances Mindfulness by increasing awareness of how we pay attention and promoting attention flexibility.

Together, these practices help us be present and flexible, uncovering a profound sense of peace and love beneath the usual noise of life. Scientifically, this is homeostasis; spiritually, it reveals our true nature or higher self, helping us fulfill our potential and live with grace and ease.

How to Try Mindfulness and Open Focus

The best way to understand Mindfulness and Open Focus is through practice. As a quick exercise, you can check out this basic exercise I recorded around focus attention and diffusing attention that also helps to tell the body and brain that you are safe.