Episode #1: Got a Moment? The Practically Mindful Moment podcast

This is the first (of twelve) and introductory episode of The Practically Mindful Moment podcast.  PMM's are brief bits of  featured information on concepts and tactics from Dr. Greg Sazima's new book, Practical Mindfulness: A Physician's No-Nonsense Guide to Meditation for Beginners (Mango Media, release date 1/19/2021).  

Each PMM clocks in at a user-friendly ten minutes or so; just a brief tuning in, learning opportunity, and brief guided exercise in mindfulness.  (And a quick, shameless plug for the book.)

In this episode, Dr. S covers some basics about the podcasts to follow: main themes and attitudes for the Podcast, some background on the book and the author, and then a brief guided meditation on sound to finish the podcast.

#practical #mindfulness #meditation #physician  #nocrystalsandgranola #practicallymindfulmoment

Transcript

Hey there…. got a moment?  Sure you do. It won't take long. I’m dr. Greg Sazima, and   This is a Practically Mindful Moment…..

Thanks for tuning in. My aim in this podcast series is to serve you brief, useful bits of information on mindfulness and meditation.  A lots of people are interested in mindfulness, but have trouble getting started, or think it will take too much work to get going, or may be turned off by some the mystical ways it gets presented.  

But mindfulness is really a capacity, a skill you train in.  As I've learned how to meditate,  I've recognized that it would be great to lower the bar on getting folks going on this really beneficial practice.  SO, I wrote a book about it -, called Practical Mindfulness: A Physician's No-Nonsense Guide to Meditation.  No pretense, no-nonsense, and no-incense, unless you like that kinda thing.    Just the nuts and bolts of how mindfulness and meditation work without the crystals and granola.

The book will be out late this year  - that's the main meal.  Think of this podcast series as some appetizers, snacks, small plates, tapas or something.  I present  a concept or two from the book, then a quick application of it.  Then, get back to your day.  Cause life's usually busy, right?  Maybe not now for some of us. 

A  little about me...  I'm Greg. I'm a psychiatrist and psychotherapist and have been practicing in Northern California for about 30 years. I also teach family docs in training at Stanford’s  FP  residency program in the Bay Area.  I've also taught meditation to individuals and groups, and developed a curriculum  for elementary school kids, too to get them started early in learning. Mindfulness skills . 

 One other bit of information that informs my outlook is that I've got some direct experience when it comes to how meditation can help people thru tough stuff.  I'm gratefully in a sustained remission from an aggressive form of bone cancer called chondrosarcoma.  Meditating has been pretty important in my own managing that thing. Still have some residual crap to manage, but still here 10 years in... certainly beats the alternative.  So I’ll weave in some lessons learned from that whole drama, when  think it can help.

Ting:  

OK - structure of the pod… first what's that tinging noise/  No I'm not trying to hypnotize you  That's a tuning fork.  We've used it in the elementary school programming  - found it to be as a good sonic "call to attention"  - it's a sciency rather than mystical religious. 

It's a simple focussing exercise  - just listen to it closely as the sound dissipates.  Try it again.....

I'll use it here and there to pull you back in, separate sections of the recording.  

So in the podcasts to follow, we'll start with that ting (ting) (alright, cut that out) as a little call to attention, and a moment for your to chill and tune in.  

Then I'll cover a little nugget of knowledge from the book.  It may be about some of the concepts I cover about the nature of consciousness, our experience of mind, maybe even some quantum physics.  

Some other pods will be more about technique, troubleshooting, stuff like that.  Nothing more than a few minutes  - just something to get you thinking or maybe try it out in your own developing practice.  

I'll end with a brief guided meditation  - again, just a moment to take a breather, check in with your self and your state.  Then get out here, you probably got other stuff to do. 

OK .....before we end with one of those little guided routines, a word on the book.  Did I say it is titled It's called Practical Mindfulness: A Physician's No-Nonsense Guide to Medication for Beginners?   There's a website for it where you can download any or all of these little tidbit of mindful goodness.  I'd appreciate some feedback, too.  email me at DRSaz @ practicalmindfulnessbook.com.  or twitter - my handle @MindfulMDSaz.  Facebook page

Book's out in 2021 - tell your friends.

OK a brief first routine.  Actually, already a retread. That damn "ting"again.  Meditating is a kind of training, really; working on our capacity to place and hold our awareness on, well, anything and everything. I learned to call it the "anchor", or home base, as it's where to return when that attention inevitably breaks down, whether that 2 seconds later  or 5 minutes.  

The thing to attend to is up to us. What to practice with can be our own breathing, our heartbeat, a sound, an emotion, or even a wide angle view of whatever comes and goes in mind during a moment of practice.  So sound is a perfectly good anchor. Taking part of a walk in nature to just attend mindfully to whatever sounds are occur is a fine way to train.  Listening intently to city noises out the window is another.  

SO here's this practice. It's nothing fancy.    The tuning fork starts sharply,  then dissipates.  We'll do this twice.  First up....

Deep breath to settle yourself.  Pay close attention to the sound as it starts, then trails off. When the sound ends, shift your attention to whatever else you can hear, wherever you are.  You may want take an earbud out, one ear of your headphones off; or just leave in and listen to what's there. Try to keep your attention on sound I'll cue us to stop. Ok, ready, here we go...

(ting).........

Besides the mediocre sound quality sizzling, what did you notice?  Did thoughts pop up and intrude? Or attention pulled off by a physical sensation or emotional feeling? Maybe not? If so, these are examples of kinds of distraction that we’ll learn to get less bound up in. We’ll learn  to briefly identify them  and then get back to the mission - the intention. Which was to attend to sound. 

OK, one more time... this time, listen to the fork ring and dissipate; when there's no more ringing, change your anchor to your breath. Sound 'til it's gone, then pivot to your breathing as the home base.  Ready?

(ting)....      (breathing noise)

OK.  Nothing cryptic here.  Just showing you a simple exercise in maneuvering your attention from one anchor to another.  Attention is flexible.  Also easy to lose, but get back.  

OK, we're done for now.  Thanks so much for your attention. The book on which these podcasts are based is ......  out in late 2020. I'm Dr. Greg Sazima, and this has been your practically mindful moment.