Brains On Purpose™

Attention choreography: Revisiting the key role of attention in conflict resolution (and just about everything else you do)

I sometimes say the role of the mediator is attention choreographer or attention conductor. Where people are putting their attention is going to powerfully influence the conflict, and any resolution. Attention is key.

To help with attending to attention, I point out to you excerpts from two different books. The first is from the book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life. From the excerpt:

If you could look backward at your years thus far, you’d see that your life—what you’ve confidently called “reality”—has been fashioned from what you’ve paid attention to. You’d also be struck by the fact that if you had paid attention to other things, your reality and your life would be very different.

Attention has created the experience and the self stored in your memory; looking ahead, what you focus on will create the life and person yet to be. Psychology has mostly examined our pasts to explain and improve our lives. If you think in terms of the present and future instead, you might encounter an intuition lurking in your mind, as it was in mine: If you could just stay focused on the right things, your life would stop feeling like a reaction to stuff that happens to you and become something that you create—not a series of accidents, but a work of art.

Click to read the rest of the excerpt (Utne Reader).

The second excerpt is from the book Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. From the excerpt:

Can attention be trained? To [Alan] Wallace, who has

Mindfulness training can improve mood and working memory: Conflict pros, are you taking advantage of mindfulness benefits?

More research by neuroscientists has shown some possible benefits of mindfulness training.  These benefits detailed below could be helpful to mediators and other conflict professionals.

Do you have a mindfulness practice? I would appreciate hearing from those of you who do—and those of you who do not. Please e-mail me with your comments, including why you do or do not have a practice. After I hear from some of you, I will create a survey to learn more about the attitudes held by conflict professionals about mindfulness.

Now, on to the research. From "Building Fit Minds Under Stress: Penn Neuroscientists Examine the Protective Effects of Mindfulness Training" (Office of University Communications at University of Pennsylvania):

A University of Pennsylvania-led study in which training was provided to a high-stress U.S. military group preparing for deployment to Iraq has demonstrated a positive link between mindfulness training, or MT, and improvements in mood and working memory. Mindfulness is the ability to be aware and attentive of the present moment without emotional reactivity or volatility.

The study found that the more time participants spent engaging in daily mindfulness exercises the better their mood and working memory, the cognitive term for complex thought, problem solving and cognitive control of emotions. The study also suggests that sufficient MT practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress challenges that require a tremendous amount of cognitive control, self-awareness, situational awareness and emotional regulation.

To study the protective effects of mindfulness training on psychological health in individuals about to experience extreme stress, cognitive neuroscientist Amishi Jha of the Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Penn and Elizabeth A. Stanley of Georgetown University provided mindfulness training for the first time to U.S. Marines before deployment. Jha and her research team

Upcoming conference on Zen and the brain

This conference being held in Santa Fe in July and August features a couple of neuroscientists I'd like to hear. From the Upaya Institute Web page:

ZEN BRAIN: Zen Practice and the Emerging Science of Alleviating Suffering

Description:

In recent years, neuroscientific research involving experienced Buddhist practitioners, and clinical science studies of interventions derived from Buddhist meditative practice, have motivated new skillful approaches to reducing suffering. In this retreat, Roshi and leading scientists in this emerging area will discuss recent advances in application of these approaches in the alleviation of suffering. Talks and discussion will be embedded within Zazen practice throughout each day.

Presenters and their topics:

James Austin, M.D. (University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and University of Missouri School of Medicine) “Selflessness, Wisdom, and Compassion: Neuroscientific Reflections on Zen Practice and the Transformations of Consciousness”

Susan Bauer-Wu, Ph.D., R.N. (Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, and Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School) “Contemplative Practice, Mind, and Body in Cancer Care”

Roshi Joan Halifax, Ph.D. (Upaya Zen Center) "Being with Dying: Zen, Science, and End- of-Life Care"

Amishi Jha, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania) "Driven to Distraction: Attention, Meditation, ADHD and the Brain"

Al Kaszniak, Ph.D. (University of Arizona) "Impermanence Made Visible: Alzheimer's Disease Caregiving from the Perspectives of Neuroscience and Zen Practice"

Shauna L. Shapiro, Ph.D. (Santa Clara University) "From the Cushion to the Clinic: Research on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Health-Care Professionals"

Are any of you planning to attend?

Note: You can listen to the podcasts from the last Upaya conference on Zen and the brain. Click to hear all 11 Zen Brain talks from January, 2010.

I will be away for several days

I'm looking forward to writing more posts when I return.

Learning and the Brain: Some conferences for all of us who are teachers and learners

Conflict resolution is about learning. From Learn, baby, learn: Resources to help facilitate brain learning and mind changing:

Resolving conflict typically requires our learning much, including the parties' positions, interests, and stories. Growing as a conflict professional requires that we be learning about ourselves, too, both in the room and away from sessions. We are not the only ones who need to be learning: When parties are able to move towards resolution, they too have learned. Learning causes changes of both brain and mind. Neuroscience is giving us a growing body of knowledge to help us facilitate that learning.

Here are two conferences that will have some good information for you as conflict professionals, both offered by the Learning & the Brain Society:

• Focused Minds: Enhancing Student Attention, Memory & Motivation, May 6-8, Washington DC
• Making Connections: The Art & Science of Teaching, June 22-25, Groton, MA

Note: The Learning & the Brain Society is also offering two more conference this year. More here.