Effortless Mindfulness:
Making CBT More Effective
Still Trying Too Hard to Get to Sleep?
Try Effortless Mindfulness
Judith Davison, David Reed, William Sacco, Stephanie Gilberman and Charles Morin are among the leading clinicians writing about and teaching CBT-I. Their work in applying CBT-I, along with that of many others, has been so successful that in 2016 the American College of Physicians identified CBT-I as the #1 choice for treatment of insomnia, prior to the use of medications or nutritional supplements.
Though CBT-I has had widespread success, not everyone who uses it ends up benefitting from it. In order to address its shortcomings, over the past 10 to 15 years, a “second generation” CBT-I treatment was developed – one that incorporates mindfulness. As developed by Jason Ong, Guy Meadows, William Moorcroft, Brandon Peters and others, it targets the biggest problem people have with CBT-I – trying too hard. Dr. Ong and others have found that for many, the addition of mindfulness has been the key to helping those who had only partially benefited from the original formulation of CBT-I get much greater value.
What is Mindfulness?
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is among the most well-known teachers of mindfulness, and has also created what is probably its most widely accepted definition. There are several versions of it out there, but it's usually something like this:
”Paying attention to our experience in the present moment,
with interest, care and compassion, without judgment or any attempt to change it.”
What Research Tells Us About the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Practice
A consistent practice of mindfulness has been shown to make positive changes in the physical structure of the brain. Brain scans of people who practice mindfulness meditation show that the size of their prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain that integrates and balances the different parts of the brain and body - actually increases.
However, research also shows that there are limitations to the use of mindfulness alone. A great deal of research has confirmed that integrating mindfulness with relaxation, breathing, and positive psychology interventions – as we do in our course - makes its positive results both more likely and more powerful.
Research performed by Les Fehmi, Dan Siegel, Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Zoran Josipovic of the New York University Nonduality Laboratory, Loch Kelly’s Effortless Mindfulness Institute, and Diana Winston, director of mindfulness education at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, among others, shows that even more powerful effects are experienced when an “effortless mindfulness” approach is taken - as we do in our course.
How Well Does CBT-I + Conventional Mindfulness Work for Sleep Problems?
I've found, over 40 years of practicing and teaching mindfulness, that the popular definition:
”Paying attention to our experience in the present moment,
with interest, care and compassion, without judgment or any attempt to change it.”
can be very helpful but, for many, it can lead to a strained effort to pay attention. As a result, many people choose to give up on mindfulness because they find it too difficult and/or unpleasant to do.
The tendency to be tensely effortful is so pervasive among people trying to meditate or live mindfully that I designed the entire sleep course around the most recent developments in what has been referred to as “effortless mindfulness.” In Part 1 of the course, you learn the neuroscientific basis of effortless mindfulness, and you learn practices for developing effortless mindfulness throughout the course.
As a member of the sleep community, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions and receive clarification from me and and other member of the community with regard to learning and applying the skills of effortless mindfulness to sleep and getting back to sleep more easily, as well as to up waking up feeling refreshed, and having more energy throughout the day.