The “SPARK” Model for Practicing Mindfulness

Much has been written about the benefits of mindfulness. While there are several ways to practice mindfulness, the image that conjures up in most people's mind when they think about mindfulness is of a person in some kind of Yoga pose breathing mindfully. Well, mindfulness certainly goes beyond these stereotypical characterizations across popular media. There are practical ways to approach mindfulness which appear less amorphous than what some traditional practices may look like and this article talks about one such practice. Before we delve into details of this particular practice, it would be prudent to first define what mindfulness exactly means.

In simple terms, mindfulness is moment-to-moment awareness of your present experience with curiosity, openness, and acceptance. Knowing what you are doing while you are doing it is the essence of mindfulness practice (Kabat-Zinn, 2013). Mindfulness is not approached with an attitude of getting to someplace better, or getting something, or fixing what we don’t like. Mindfulness is shifting your relationship to your experience simply by observing the arising and passing of an emotion, physical sensation, thought, or mental image instead of being consumed by these (Pleas & Muscara, 2017). Mindfulness-based treatments are an established modality for treating and preventing depression (Khoury et al., 2013). These interventions work by countering the tendency to ruminate by training people with depression to relate to their unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as temporary products of the mind rather than identifying with them or treating them as accurate reflections of reality (Williams et al., 2007). The SPARK model is a mindfulness practice that can be used to take an intentional pause during stressful moments to respond to thoughts and emotions rather than reacting to them in an unhelpful way. The acronym SPARK identifies the five distinct stages of mindfulness – Stopping (or Slowing), Perceiving, Allowing, Reflecting, and Knowing and is described in more detail next (Kaplan & Chang, 2017).

Stopping (or Slowing Down): Mindfulness requires you to consciously stop or slow what you are doing – being lost in a thought or immersed in an activity or dividing your attention among multiple tasks. Once you have done so, you will be in a position to bring sustained awareness of the current experience and relate to this experience in a curious, non-judgmental, and kind way.

Perceiving: You tune into some aspect of your immediate experience and make an effort to maintain that awareness over time. At this stage, you pay attention to how you perceive the experience in various senses – what you see, feel, hear, taste, and smell. In addition, you observe your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and intention. The key attitude here is one of curiosity – you discover inquisitively what is unfolding in real time.

Allowing: During this critical stage of mindfulness, you allow yourself to experience the present moment with an attitude of kindness and acceptance. This includes allowing yourself to experience any disturbing thoughts, painful sensations, traumatic memories, or hurtful emotions and also allowing yourself to experience your aversive reactions to these. If it helps, you can say, “Yes” or “It’s OK that…” For example, you may say, “Yes, this is painful,” or “Yes, I don’t like this,” or “It’s OK to feel that tension in my chest.”

Reflecting: Reflecting is the process of asking questions to yourself about what is being observed and experienced. These questions will provide you with insights into your mind, personality, relationships, or your perception of your external environment. For example, if you perceive a strong sensation in your body, then ask yourself. “What does this feeling want me to know?” or “Is this me?” or “How do I understand this?” If you have a persistent thought or belief, then ask yourself, “How old is this thought?” or “Who does this thought remind me of?” or “Is this who I am?” Responses to these questions will open the door to a greater understanding of yourself at a deeper level.

Knowing: Knowing embodies the outcome of the reflecting process. What emerges from this practice are various “truths” that resonate with your inner core and can be profoundly life changing.

Mindfulness reins in the “now” or “presence” into your consciousness. According to Eckhart Tolle, author of the book The Power of Now, too much future and not enough presence leads to unease, anxiety, tension, stress, and worry and too much past and not enough presence leads to guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and unforgiveness (Tolle, 1999). Mindfulness, through its focus on now, provides a tool to counter the aforementioned negative emotional states. Integrate mindfulness into the fabric of your life, day after day, year after year.

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HARPREET S. DUGGAL, MD, FAPA

REFERENCES

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full catastrophe living. New York, NY: Bantam Books.

Kaplan, J., & Chang, D. F. (2017). Mindfulness in practice: incorporating mindfulness inside and outside of sessions. In E. Zerbo, A. Schlechter, S. Desai, & P. Levounis (Eds.), Becoming mindful (pp. 61-78). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Khoury, B., Lecomte, T., Fortin, G., Masse, M., Therien, P., Bouchard, V., … Hoffman, S. G. (2013). Mindfulness-based therapy: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 33(6), 763-771.

Pleas, K., & Muscara, C. (2017). The practice of mindfulness. In E. Zerbo, A. Schlechter, S. Desai, & P. Levounis (Eds.), Becoming mindful (pp. 25-44). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Tolle, E. (1999). The power of now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment. Novato, CA: New World Library.

Williams, M., Teasdale, J., Segal, Z., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2007). The mindful way through depression. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.