When one hears the words “mindfulness” or “meditation” it is likely they think of someone sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, chanting “Ohm” over and over.
When we see that image, we also tend to assume that the person meditating is sitting there, controlling their thoughts, which is allowing them to be more peaceful, or “zen.”
In truth, meditation is not about controlling one’s thoughts. Rather, it’s about acknowledging thoughts and being in the present moment.
In this article, we have the honor of interviewing Chris Hatter, creator of the Healing Zone mindfulness meditation program. He’s been practicing as a mindfulness and meditation instructor since 2015. He’s earned his certifications in meditation, stress management, sleep science, and public speaking. Additionally, he is Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA).
In 2018, his program was introduced to Summerlin Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the past three years, Chris has been bringing his life-changing meditation practice to patients within the hospital and beyond through his website, healingzonemeditation.com.
Chris not only teaches, but practices meditation as well. He does an hour every day! Don’t let that intimidate you, though! He says he breaks it up into 20 minute segments over the course of the day. He believes that this practice has truly changed his life for the better.
We are so thrilled that Chris is sharing his knowledge about the importance of a meditation practice with us.
See his interview below to learn about his inspiring story and how he uses his past to help others improve their present and future!
Also, check out this video where Chris leads us through a 7 minute meditation:
Interview with Chris Hatter
How did you personally get into meditation?
The reason that I got into meditation was because at one time I had an invention and I actually quit my job sank all of my 401(k) into an invention and it failed at that time I was really really stressed had a lot of high anxiety and a lot of fear, and I actually grabbed a book that I thought was on CD and it end up being these 10 minute meditations.
Once I listen to these meditations it really calmed me down and from then on I have love meditation every sense. Until I listen to those 10 minute meditations I really had no experience with meditation at all. I had heard of it but I thought, just like everybody else, it’s probably not for me. I believe that every person can benefit from some type of meditation in their life.
When many people hear the word “meditation” they visualize sitting on the floor, legs crossed, chanting. Is that what it is?
I do understand that when you mentioned the word meditation. People think about sitting cross legged on the cushion chanting. Now, that is a part of it but it’s not all it’s about. You can sit in a chair, you can lay in the bed. The position, per se, it does not matter when you’re performing some type of meditation.
The easiest form of meditation for most people for beginners is the guided. Guided meditation is when some person is talking to you throughout the whole experience.
There are many many, many forms of meditation out there. The thing that I suggest to people is to find the type that really calms them down. They can get on YouTube and type in “stress meditation” and many many different things will come up.
Also, the program that I created, the Healing Zone mindfulness meditation program, was created around people who say they can’t meditate. I’ve heard many of my clients say I tried and it didn’t work. And I tell them I built the Healing Zone program just for them to make it as easy as possible when they are meditating.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a type of meditation that you’re bringing your mind and your awareness into this moment without judgment.
When you’re performing mindfulness meditation we want you to again bring your awareness to this moment and you can focus on your breath, you can focus on the noise around, you can focus on anything and the main thing that we want you to do is to do it without judgment.
Most of the time your mind is either thinking about the past or the future. With mindfulness we want you to come to this moment right here. We want to bring your mind and your body in the same place at the same time. And the main thing is without any type of judgment.
When you hear mindfulness or meditate, you hear people talking about the breath. The reason we want you to focus on your breath is because you can always take your breath with you.
No matter what you’re doing or no matter where you are you can always relax and focus on your breath which will calm you down.
Is there a difference between mindfulness and meditation?
The difference between meditation and mindfulness is that the former is the full category and mindfulness is a subset of that category.
Just like you hear the word exercise and then there are some things that you do within the exercise like cardio.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation.
Whenever I bring up meditating and/or mindfulness to clients, I often get told, “Oh, I just can’t stop thinking, so I can’t meditate.” Is mindfulness/meditation about stopping our thoughts?
Meditating or practicing mindfulness it’s not about stopping thoughts.
What I like to say it’s about finding space in between two thoughts.
To be able to stop your thoughts is almost impossible to do.
You have about 70,000 thoughts every single day and meditating is not about stopping thoughts, but it’s about finding space in between two thoughts.
Mindfulness is about being able to sit back and look at those thoughts as they arise in the mind and not have any judgment about the thoughts that you’re having.
Mindfulness or meditation is about bringing your mind and your body in the same place at the same time again without judgment.
How can mindfulness meditation benefit older adults?
The way that mindfulness and meditation can benefit older adults it’s by allowing them to decrease their pain, their fear, their stress and their anxiety.
There are so many benefits for older adults including general well-being, better sleep, increase mood, decrease in blood pressure, decrease in heart rate, and an overall sense of mental wellness and also one study showed and decrease in loneliness for older adults.
Those were only a few benefits that both practices can have with older adults, and there are also many more that I did not name.
There are meditation apps out there and even YouTube videos that have meditations for as little as 10 minutes. There’s also research out there encouraging meditating for 30 minutes. Is there a specific amount of time one needs to meditate for?
The minimum amount of time that I would recommend that people start off when they meditate is about 10 minutes.
I’ve seen some article suggests five minutes can help and have so many benefits. But the problem with a five minute practice is it usually takes about five minutes for the mind to calm down. That is why I recommend at least 10 minutes when you’re doing any type of meditation.
The first five minutes the mind me struggle a little bit but the last five minutes is where you really start to see the mind start to calm down.
At first when you first start to meditate the first thing that you’re mine will say is what are we doing, we don’t have time for this. But as you continue to be consistent with your practice then your mind will start to crave the time of calming down for your mind.
Some meditations are like giving your mind a mini vacation. That is one of the reasons after the first few times that you tried meditation that the mind will start to crave it. All minds and people like vacations.
How do you know if these practices are working? How long does it take to work?
The way that you can tell if mindfulness and meditation is working for you is that you feel better is that your mind starts to crave the meditation and looks forward to it.
I would say give it at least a month of some type of consistent basis to really start to see the benefit of the mindfulness or meditation program. You do need some type of commitment and you start to see benefits.
A very practical way to know if the meditation is working for is to rate yourself before and after you complete the meditation.
For example, rate your stress level 0-10 before you do your mediation. With 0 being the least amount of stress and 10 being the worst stress you have ever felt.
Then rate your after you have completed the meditation.
Let’s say you start at 8 then you complete the meditation and you rate yourself after and you drop to 7 of 10 on the stress scale.
That is a huge drop in stress for 10 minutes worth of time!
As you bring awareness to your stress level dropping then you’ll be more in encourage to continue with the meditation or the mindfulness program.
If someone’s never practiced mindfulness or meditation before, is it ever too late to start?
It is never too late to start mindfulness our meditation!
It doesn’t matter how old you are there and their are so many benefits from the program it can always help.
Can you share with us more about your business The Healing Zone Meditation and what type of programs do you offer?
The Healing Zone mindfulness meditation program has been existence for the last three years.
The program was built around people or patients laying right in the bed. I also built the program around people who have never meditated before.
I made sure that the programs were very easy for people who have never meditated.
Also the program is for veteran meditators were been meditating for years and want a different experience.
I want people to have an experience with meditation.
Once a person has an experience with the Healing Zone mindfulness meditation program then nobody will be able to talk them out of the benefits of meditation.
What I promise the people who complete the Healing Zone mindfulness meditation program is that they’ve never had a meditation experience like this before.
We have many different programs on the Healing Zone mindfulness meditation website, and we also customize certain programs for people so please when you get a chance visit the website (healingzonemeditation.com)
If you ever have any questions just drop me an email and I’ll be glad to talk to you walk you through and answer all your questions.
Anything else you would like to share with our audience about mindfulness and meditation.
Meditation and the Healing Zone mindfulness meditation program has completely changed my life.
I believe that he can do the same for anybody that is open and has a curious mind and willing to receive.
If you ever have any questions I’ll be glad to answer any and all questions thank you very much.
A huge thanks to Chris Hatter and the wonderful work he does, and his willingness to share it with us!
Have the Strength the Live Life to the Fullest!
