SYNOPSIS:This Grand Round will explore the principles of mindfulness from the scientific, practical and philosophical perspectives and explore how it can be applied in personal and professional life. Perhaps the simplest way to describe it is to say that mindfulness is the practice of paying attention: knowing where our attention is and being able to choose where to direct it. Mindfulness comes in many forms including meditation, a way of living and an approach to cognitive therapy. Mindfulness has been successfully used to help people with a variety of conditions, including chronic pain and depression. Mindfulness has many powerfully practical applications, including:
Mental health: depression-relapse prevention, anxiety, panic disorder, stress, emotional regulation and enhancing emotional intelligence, improvements in sleep, personality disorders, addiction.
Neurological: structural and functional changes in the brain, neurogenesis (enhancing the capacity of the brain to generate new brain cells), better executive functioning, increased blood flow, and possibly the prevention of dementia.
Clinical: pain management, symptom control, coping with illnesses such as cancer, metabolic benefits, hormonal changes and changes in genetic function and repair.
Performance: sport, academic, leadership.
Spiritual: deep peace, insight, oneness.
SPEAKER:Dr Craig Hassed is a General Practitioner and Senior Lecturer at the Monash University Department of General Practice. His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness-based stress management, mind-body medicine, meditation, health promotion, integrative medicine and medical ethics. Craig is regularly invited to speak and run courses in Australia and overseas. He is a frequent media commentator, writes regularly for medical journals and has published six books; “New Frontiers in Medicine” (Volumes 1 and 2), “Know Thyself” on mindfulness-based stress management, “The Essence of Health” on the lifestyle approach to health and chronic illness, a textbook co-authored with Kerryn Phelps, “General Practice: the integrative approach”, a book written with Stephen McKenzie, “Mindfulness for Life”, and most recently, ‘Mindful Learning’ with Richard Chambers.