Mindfulness Meditation

Harrison Blum is a Board Certified Staff Chaplain in the Pastoral Care department at Franciscan Hospital for Children. He holds Master’s Degrees in Divinity and Education.  If you have questions about this subject or Pastoral Care services, please email us at info@fhfc.org or call (617) 254-3800, ext. 1644.

The room is dim, lit only by natural light coming through a window. The sound of a waterfall is the predominant noise in the room, punctuated at times by a guided meditation. Half a dozen or so people sit in a circle, most of them with their eyes closed.

While you may guess this describes a meditation retreat or the end of a local yoga class, it’s actually a regular scene on the adolescent wing of Franciscan’s Inpatient Mental Health Program, or Unit 1. Three times a week, the teen patients here are offered an optional mindfulness meditation group, which includes a brief introduction, guided practice, and a group discussion. While optional, there has not been an instance in the past two years when no patient elected to attend. Many patients report a positive impact from this practice, particularly related to increased relaxation and distress tolerance.

Mindfulness meditation has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of a variety of mental health issues, and has been incorporated into a variety of therapeutic treatment approaches, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and  Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. This technique trains our attention on the present moment, without judgment, and is offered to patients on Unit 1 and CBAT as one of many coping strategies.

In mindfulness practice we do our best to “be with” whatever is happening in an aware and self-loving way, often with a focus on present moment body sensations, thoughts, and emotions. Mindfulness practice is less concerned with what we’re experiencing than how we’re relating to what we’re experiencing. The practice might help you feel calm or relaxed. Even when it doesn’t, it can still be a tool for feeling greater ease amidst challenging thoughts, emotions, and body sensations. Outside of formal meditation, practicing mindfulness in small moments amidst daily life can enhance well-being and help to mitigate challenging emotions.

Once a patient leaves the hospital, our time working together doesn’t need to end. I’ve developed guided audio tracks and a “Guide to Mindfulness Meditation” that can be downloaded and followed.  I hope that you find these useful in your practice!

Click here to download the Meditation guide.  Also available for download are the Body Scan audio file and the Contact Points audio file.