New Consciousness Review Spring, 2017 | Page 13

HEALTH

and the presence that is achieved while alone can translate into presence with others . Among doctors who take the time for stillness , nearly all feel that the time one makes for contemplative practices — meditation , reflection , awareness — is soon recaptured in increased clarity . The goal of presence is not necessarily efficiency , but efficiency often arises from presence .
All contemplative practices offer ways of practicing stillness . Yet these practices do not confer immunity to strong emotion ; quite the opposite . Even those who ’ ve spent thousands of hours meditating have the same kinds of reactions to stress as anyone else . Their hearts race , they feel anxiety and dread , and they experience moral outrage . Research shows that these immediate emotional reactions are at least as robust in experienced practitioners as in those who ’ ve never done any contemplative practice . So why bother ? The difference is that in experienced practitioners , those stress reactions abate sooner — they don ’ t keep on reverberating . Rather , experienced practitioners discern more rapidly which emotions and experiences are “ theirs ,” and which belong to other people — in other words , they ’ re good at self- other differentiation . They have the skill to “ decenter ”— they can feel their own emotions and at the same time observe them as if they were standing outside themselves . They develop a capacity for what psychologists call mentalization — they understand their own mental states rather than being oblivious of or mystified by why they feel the way they do . They have learned to see their mental states as something they can control rather than the other way around ; they know that these states are transitory and not enduring , that they ebb and flow . For example , they more readily distinguish between I am feeling angry — an emotion that they can control — and I am angry — a person whose anger is part of their identity . They learn to set aside their immediate reactions so that they can respond more mindfully . All of these skills open up space for presence . Physiologically , meditators learn to regulate the expression of certain genes that affect the number and type of receptors to the stress hormones ( such as epinephrine , cortisol ) that course through our systems when we ’ re aroused and anxious , as well as the neurotransmitters ( such as serotonin , dopamine , neuropeptide Y ) that play a

All contemplative practices offer ways of practicing stillness . Yet these practices do not confer immunity to strong emotion ; quite the opposite .

role in regulating emotion . It ’ s not that you don ’ t have strong and sometimes distressing feelings ; while feeling their immediacy , you learn how not to be consumed or paralyzed by them .
Excerpted from Attending by Ronald Epstein , M . D . Copyright © 2017 by Ronald Epstein . Published by Scribner , an Imprint of Simon & Schuster , Inc . Reprinted with permission .
Author Bio :
Dr . Ronald Epstein , author of Attending : Medicine , Mindfulness and Humanity is a Professor of Family Medicine , Psychiatry , and Oncology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry , where he directs Mindful Practice programs , the Center for Communication and Disparities Research , and the Dean ’ s Teaching Fellowship program . His landmark article , “ Mindful Practice ,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1999 , has revolutionized physicians ’ view of their work , and his writings are required at over a third of medical schools in the US . Dr . Epstein has been named one of America ’ s Best Doctors every year since 1998 by US News and World Report .
For more information visit his website at http :// www . ronaldepstein . com , and connect with him on Facebook .
13 | New Consciousness Review