1. Mindfulness Interventions: A Workshop to Foster Resiliency
Saturday, June 10 (12N – 1:30 pm)

2. Claire V. Wolfe, MD Delegate, AMA-SPS Governing Council
Introduction
Claire V. Wolfe, MD Delegate, AMA-SPS Governing Council

3. Speaker’s Disclosure
The content of this activity does not relate to any product of a commercial interest as defined by the ACCME; therefore, there are no relevant financial relationships to disclose at this time.

4. Philip H. Cass, Ph.D Consultant & Coach TLP Group, Inc. Columbus, Ohio
Speaker
Philip H. Cass, Ph.D
Consultant & Coach TLP Group, Inc. Columbus, Ohio

5. Objectives During this session, you will:
Review the latest understanding of the effects that mindfulness meditation has on the brain.
Assess the implications mindfulness meditation has for physicians in their practice of medicine.
Evaluate how to incorporate mindfulness techniques in daily life.
Practice three easy-to-implement mindfulness techniques.

6. Polling Question
Once a person begins a mindfulness meditation practice, approximately 50% of those people continue on with their practice for many years.
Yes No
Maybe

7. Mindfulness The quality or state of being mindful.
The practice of maintaining a non-judgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, or experiences on a moment-to-moment basis; also: such a state of awareness.
Merriam Webster 

8. Practices of Mindfulness
Living your life as if it really mattered, moment, by moment by moment. Jon Kabat –Zinn 
Yoga
Tai Chi
Qigong
Journaling
Meditation

9. Meditation
Can have many forms including those that specifically seek to develop love or compassion, a specific mode of thinking or mental state, deal with negative emotions, reduce stress or achieve a form of spiritual enlightenment, growth or insight and awakening.

10. Mindfulness Meditation
Typically involves the deliberate effort to stabilize attention on specific physical sensations and environmental stimuli, attempting to establish a lock with the present moment when (and not if) the mind begins to wander. This deep engagement with the here and now is combined with an attitude of acceptance and openness, enabling thoughts and emotions to come and go without cognitive evaluation. Focused attention on breathing while maintaining nonjudgmental awareness of thoughts and sensations is the most common activity used in mindfulness training. Theo Winter

11. Types of Mindfulness Meditation
Walking meditation
Standing meditation
Lying down meditation
Sitting meditation

12. Four Common Elements A quiet location with few distractions
A quiet location with few distractions
A specific, comfortable posture
A focus of attention
An open attitude

13. Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
Reduced Rumination
Stress Reduction
Pain Regulation
Boosts to working memory
Focus
Less emotional reactivity
More cognitive flexibility
Relationship Satisfaction
Blood Pressure
…and more

14. Mindfulness Meditation and the Brain
Long term meditators show more folds in the outer layer of the brain.
Slow, stall or even reverse changes in the brain that take place due to aging.
Can affect activity in the amygdala-different types of meditation have different affects on the amygdala.
Long term meditators show thicker cortical regions of the brain related to attention and sensory processing.

15. Mindfulness Meditation and the Brain (con’t)
Advanced meditators showed more activation in those areas of the brain that detect emotional clues.
After 8 weeks of training there was some evidence of increased activity in the region of the brain correlated with positive affect.
After 8 weeks of training there was evidence that the immune system reacts more robustly in antibody production.

16. Mindfulness Meditation and the Brain (con’t)
After 8 weeks of training there was evidence of better stress regulation as measured by a faster decrease in levels of cortisol following a laboratory stressful task.
Neuroimaging evidence suggests that mindfulness practice is associated with neuroplastic changes in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporo-parietal, fronto-limibc network and default mode network structures.
…and more

17. Mindfulness Applications
“There is no price tag on clear mind” Intel launched a mindfulness program
“At Aetna, we are using a CEO’s Management by Mantra.”
“The Mindful Business” - General Mills
“Why mindfulness works wonders” - Herbert, Smith, Freehills Global Law Firm
“Mindfulness goes to work: Impact of an online workplace intervention” Dow Chemical
“Examining the protective effects of mindfulness training on working memory capacity and affective responses” -The US Military
“Mindfulness-based interventions in schools” - A systemic review and meta-analysis

18. Polling Question
Once a person begins a mindfulness meditation practice, approximately 50% of those people continue on with their practice for many years.
Yes No
Maybe

19. Paul H. Wick, MD Chair-Elect, AMA-SPS Governing Council
Moderator:
Paul H. Wick, MD Chair-Elect, AMA-SPS Governing Council

20. Questions from Audience Members

21. Sponsored by the AMA’s Senior Physicians Section