Mindfulness is the mental act of being in the present moment and consciously aware of your thoughts and feelings. With intentional awareness, you accept what is happening around you and thoughts arising in your mind without judgment. The power of mindfulness was utilized in ancient religions to experience a higher consciousness and improve well being, but now the benefits are being accessed by Western medicine to improve mental and physical health.  Mindfulness can look like guided meditation, breathing exercises, or mindful movement like Yoga, Tai chi or Qi Gong, but it can be applied to every aspect of life. One can mindfully walk, play, socialize, enjoy nature, create, and eat. Slow down, notice, live in the moment, and take a deep breath. Experience life in the moment as it is unfolding before you. It sounds so simple, but sometimes being with our minds can be incredibly challenging.  

Many of the mindfulness intervention studies on cancer patients use a program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). MBSR incorporates relaxation, meditation, and gentle yoga by using a nonjudgmental, accepting, patient, and meditative mind while focusing on breathing to cultivate conscious awareness. Mindfulness benefits in cancer patients include a reduction in stress and anxiety and amplified immune function. Cancer-related symptoms of pain, fatigue, cachexia (loss of skeletal muscle mass), and sleep disorders have been improved with mindfulness practices.  

How does harnessing the power of the mind mitigate stress?  It is important for the body to have a lower overall baseline stress and maintain the ability to react appropriately to stress. But having cancer is stressful! When the body is chronically stressed for any reason, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) that releases the stress hormone cortisol, gets dysregulated (meaning the normal peaks of cortisol are blunted). Unfortunately, longitudinal studies have shown that a blunted cortisol response predicts cancer progression and decreased survival.  MBSR programs have been found to reduce baseline stress hormone cortisol in cancer patients and increase cortisol reactivity or response in times of stress. 

Breast cancer survivors have been shown to have a blunted cortisol response during the stressful event of a mammogram, but it has not yet been shown if mindfulness can reverse this blunted reaction. However, in a study on colorectal cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (also, incredibly stressful!), two groups were compared; those that experienced a mindfulness practice of body scan meditation and those that didn’t. The mindfulness group had decreased stress response blunting. In other words, mindfulness allow their bodies to awaken the appropriate cortisol reaction, which can translate to better heath outcome and survival.  

Another possible mechanism that mindfulness combats cancer is through the sleep hormone melatonin. Lower melatonin is associated with a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Melatonin levels are higher in those who regularly meditate. Melatonin has anti-cancer properties and prevents tumor initiation, growth and progression through its immune stimulating and cancer killing effects. Natural killer cell activity is stimulated by MBSR in cancer patients.

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Meditation literally changes the way that you think and the way your brain works. Meditation practice increases brain chemicals (neurotransmitters and neuromodulators) dopamine, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), serotonin, decreases oxidative effects, increases grey matter density and volume, and shifts to parasympathetic activity. Brain electrical frequency or brain wave changes during meditation can be measured by Electroencephalography (EEG). Meditation increases alpha and theta brain waves, which are associated with increased mental relaxation, self-awareness, inward attention, calm, memory, and positive emotions.    

Stressful experiences may be coped with distraction, repression, avoidance, numbing, or total absorption in negative rumination. These techniques can be very useful in the short term and feel good in the moment, but harmful long term. Mindfulness offers a different option, that of being aware but not being overwhelmed by or reacting to the stressful event. It is true mental resilience and control to be with one's thoughts and feelings. By observing, connecting with, and engaging with our minds, we say, “I see you stress, fear, anxiety, anger, and I am not going to react to you”. This is a powerful that tool that is always accessible. Mindfulness is your super power. 

Staying in the present is a challenge, but we call it the present because it is a gift. Experience it fully. Unplug. Close your eyes. Get quiet. Breathe. When your mind starts to race or spiral, notice the thoughts and then return to this moment and this moment and this moment. Again and again.