The lovely Dr Jacqueline Baulch is the second interviewee in my ‘Meet the Meditators’ series. Jacqueline is a Clinical Psychologist and owner of Inner Melbourne Clinical Psychology. I first met Jacqueline at a workshop last year and was immediately drawn to her warm and caring nature. When she introduced herself as a psychologist with an interest in mindfulness I wanted to know more! I’m excited to share Jacqueline’s thoughts on mindfulness and how she incorporates it into both her personal and professional lives. Jacqueline exudes enormous warmth and compassion and is clearly passionate about her work as a psychologist. I hope you enjoy her responses as much as I did.
Can you tell us when and how you were you first introduced to the concept of mindfulness and how you came to practice it yourself?
I was first introduced to mindfulness during my doctoral training in my mid 20s. I was really intrigued by aspects of mindfulness, so I ended up pursuing additional training in two mindfulness-based approaches, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy. Since this time I feel like my book-shelf has gradually started to swell under the mountain of mindfulness based books I have collected (admittedly some of them remain unread!).
I remember finding mindfulness quite confusing initially (I still do sometimes!). I think this was because I was focused on learning the theory rather than actually getting my hands dirty with practice. Once I took the plunge into actually using mindfulness as a way to enhance my own life I noticed things really clicked for me. The more I continue to learn about mindfulness the more I realise it makes intuitive sense to me as a person and as a Psychologist.
How would you describe what mindfulness is to people who have heard about its many benefits but aren’t sure what it is exactly?
Mindfulness is a buzz word at the moment, so there seem to be an unlimited array of definitions out there. I think this is partly because mindfulness encapsulates so many different ideas. Essentially, at its core, mindfulness is about developing an awareness and acceptance of our experience. We can train our brains to become aware of our internal experience (what we are thinking, our emotions, physical sensations in our body, our breath and urges that we feel compelled to act on) and we can also tune into what’s happening externally to us by using our five sense (what we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch).
The skill in mindfulness is to be able to notice where your attention is and to decide if that’s okay with you. So if you are spending most of your time up in your head analysing the past and anticipating all of the painful, difficult or embarrassing events that your mind predicts will unfold in the future, is this okay with you? What are you missing out in on the present by being stuck in this place?
If we can notice those moments when our mind falls into the trap of worrying, or when we feel an urge to binge eat, yell at someone, or withdraw from others, we have choices. Those moments of awareness are forks in the road where we can begin to step out of auto-pilot, slow things down and make conscious decisions about where we focus our energy and attention. I think Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, captures the essence of this idea in his quote:
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is the power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.
Would you mind sharing a little of what your daily mindfulness practice involves?
Certainly! Initially when I started learning mindfulness my practice was more “formal” and included listening to recordings by Jon Kabat Zinn and Russ Harris. I think this more formal practise helped me to get my head around the concepts of mindfulness, but with time my formal practise has really dropped off. Nowadays I have shifted to more “informal” mindfulness particularly when I am doing everyday things like washing the dishes, driving in my car, having a shower or walking my dogs. During these times I try to use my breath as a way to stay anchored in the present. I also try to tune into the external world by paying attention to what I can see, hear, taste, smell and touch. Inevitably my mind wanders back to thoughts or emotions. When this happens I try to not to beat myself up and instead to see it as an opportunity to strengthen my “mindfulness muscle”.
How would you say mindfulness has influenced your life and what are its greatest benefits for you personally?
Mindfulness has helped me to see that my mind is a pretty busy place even when I am feeling “calm”. Through mindfulness I have learned that it’s not useful to beat myself about this. Being compassionate with myself is the part of mindfulness that I find most challenging. I am constantly noticing the urge to want to do mindfulness “perfectly” and gently reminding myself that there is no “perfect” way to do mindfulness. Letting go of judgment is what it’s all about.
Do you use mindfulness techniques in your psychology practice and if so do you think mindfulness can benefit everyone?
Depending on the needs and preferences of my clients I integrate a number of evidence-based approaches when working with clients. I am constantly amazed by the array of mental health issues mindfulness seems to be effective for, but I also believe that no one approach suits every person and every issue. Some of my clients have told me that their whole life has been transformed by mindfulness and others have felt that the approach totally clashes with their beliefs and personal philosophy. As you can probably imagine, most people fall somewhere in the middle.
What advice would you give to someone who is curious about mindfulness but isn’t sure how to go about incorporating it into their lives?
The less you read the better. The beauty of mindfulness is that it’s actually not beneficial to immerse yourself in learning the theory. It’s all about “doing” and “being”. Jump in and give it a go by starting off with simple mindfulness exercises like labelling five things you can see and hear. Notice the way your mind wanders and gently bring it back to focusing on what you can see and hear. The breath is another simple, but profound place to start. Experiment with focusing on each in-breath and each out-breath for 60 seconds. When your mind wanders off, gently bring it back to your breath. In mindfulness the goal is not to stop our mind wandering, but just to notice it. Each time you notice yourself getting distracted from your breath by your mind you are strengthening your “mindfulness muscle”.
And finally, a more general question, what is the best piece of life advice you’ve ever been given?
This is a tricky question! Hmmm…perhaps the piece of life advice that impacts me most on a daily basis is that struggling against your emotions usually just ends up making them stronger. When we feel anxious, depressed, angry or rejected we often end up trying to push these emotions down or we beat ourselves up for feeling this way. This usually ends up creating more suffering. We end up feeling depressed about our depression, angry about our anxiety or anxious about our anger. This struggle against our emotions also tends to bring our the inner-critic in us saying things like “I shouldn’t be feeling this way” or “I need to snap out of this”. Mindfulness can help us to work towards approaching ourselves in an accepting and compassionate way. This doesn’t mean we approve of, or like, the way we feel, it’s just an acknowledgment that struggling against our feelings is damaging and causes more suffering.
