How Mindful Awareness Can Support Us During Times of Adversity

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In the mindfulness course I teach, we talk about how the brain pumps thoughts like the heart pumps blood. Mindful awareness isn’t about turning off our thoughts, which would be impossible; rather it’s about changing our relationship to them so we can create new neural pathways that better support us during times of stress and adversity.

• Notice — Mindful awareness allows us to notice our thoughts and the patterns of emotions and body sensations that accompany those thoughts. You can think of this awareness like switching from a regular TV to high definition or from regular headphones to noise canceling. The programming remains the same, but we’ve got an added level of clarity and crispness.
• Name — As we begin tapping into our awareness, we can start diving below surface-level emotions and name what we’re actually experiencing so we can identify the right response or self-care practice we need. For example, when I make a mistake in front of other people, I might get angry with myself. But with awareness I can dig a little deeper to recognize that below my anger is actually shame and embarrassment, and it’s showing up in my body as a flushed face and butterflies in my stomach.
• Navigate — Naming the underlying emotions allows us to navigate through the experience by tapping into choice — in this case, perhaps choosing to practice self-compassion to address the root emotions by reminding ourselves that we’re human, that everyone makes mistakes and then by letting go, instead of berating ourselves for something we can’t change.

Breaking these patterns and creating new neural pathways that support us better during times of stress, crisis, and adversity requires us to use our awareness and compassion to make new choices — and not just once, but over and over again, otherwise your neural pathways will revert back to old survival-mode patterns until you’ve put in sufficient effort to build a new, healthier default pathway.

All of this takes time and practice. We know going to the gym and lifting weights one time isn’t going to give us beautifully sculpted muscles. Similarly, awareness, compassion, and self-care are all muscles that have to be built up with intention over time.