The Tao of Bipolar Using Meditation and Mindfulness to Find

Balance and Peace

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 Publisher’s Note
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold
with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering psychological, financial, legal, or other professional
services. If expert assistance or counseling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books
Copyright © 2013 by C. Alexander Simpkins and Annellen M. Simpkins
New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
5674 Shattuck Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609
www.newharbinger.com
Cover design by Amy Shoup
Acquired by Melissa Kirk
Edited by Nelda Street
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Simpkins, C. Alexander.
The tao of bipolar : using meditation and mindfulness to find balance and peace / C. Alexander Simpkins, PhD, and Annellen M.
Simpkins, PhD.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-60882-292-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60882-293-5 (pdf e-book) -- ISBN 978-1-60882-294-2 (epub) 1.
Manic-depressive illness. 2. Manic-depressive illness--Treatment. 3. Tai chi. 4. Exercise therapy. I. Simpkins, Annellen M. II.
Title.
RC516.S563 2013
616.89’5--dc23
2012047227
 To our parents, children, grandchildren, and extended family.

And to all those who have suffered from bipolar disorder. We recognize your talent and
great potential. May you find meditation to be a valuable tool for opening your heart and
mind to positive change—and transcend.
 Contents
INTRODUCTION

PART 1 FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES AND FACTS

1 LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS OF THE TAO

2 ALL ABOUT BIPOLAR DISORDER
3 HOW MEDITATION CAN CHANGE YOUR BRAIN

PART 2 LEARNING MEDITATION

4 WARMING UP TO MEDITATION
5 FOCUS ON BREATHING: THE GATEWAY TO MOODS
6 OPEN FOCUS: DEVELOPING MINDFUL AWARENESS
7 NO FOCUS: CLEARING YOUR MIND

PART 3 EASING YOUR MOODS, FULFILLING YOUR TALENTS

8 THE WAY OUT OF STRESS

9 MODERATE YOUR DEPRESSION
10 HARMONIZE YOUR MANIA
11 BALANCE YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
12 NURTURE YOUR POTENTIAL
RECOMMENDED READING
REFERENCES
 Introduction
Your bipolar disorder need not hold you back from accomplishing your
goals and doing what you care about. Throughout the ages and into the
present, many have suffered from bipolar disorder. And yet, a percentage of
those who receive this diagnosis manage to accomplish great things and
lead productive, happy lives. So can you!
Typically, people have a pessimistic view of bipolar disorder. You may
have been told that bipolar disorder is a lifelong medical problem with a
strong effect on the brain. As a result, you might be thinking there’s not
much you can do. But we invite you to join those who are successfully
managing their bipolar disorder, by opening yourself to the idea that you
can help yourself. If you catch a cold, you might believe that all you can do
is endure it. But going out in the rain, missing sleep, or exposing yourself to
other illnesses will certainly make things worse, whereas getting plenty of
rest and drinking liquids will probably help. Most medical conditions,
including bipolar disorder, can be improved when the patient takes an active
role.
If you view a house only from the outside, you will never know what’s
inside. But after you enter the building, you can walk to all the different
rooms within. Similarly, you may be thinking about bipolarity from an
external perspective, based on the negative things people have told you.
These pessimistic perspectives might keep you from trying to do anything
to alter your condition. Meditation lights the lamp of your inner experience,
thereby allowing you to guide your actions from an illuminated source
within, whereby you will discover new potential and options for improving
your life.
This book offers you an optimistic view of bipolar disorder drawn from
the ancient wisdom of the East and combined with the latest findings on
bipolar disorder from neuroscience, psychology, and Western medicine. You
will look at your mood problems through a different lens. Taoism is an
ancient philosophical tradition that focuses on the principle of harmony and
balance known as the Tao, which can be found through meditation. By
viewing your mood problems through the lens of the Tao, you add another
perspective and many practical methods for improving your bipolar
disorder. This time-honored perspective, with its meditation techniques, will
bring you feelings of well-being, balance, and happiness. Your life will be
enhanced as you live with greater awareness, and this book shows you how
to do it.

What Are Moods?

Without your feelings and experiences, who are you? Emotions are like
music, lending harmony or discord to experience. You can find examples all
around you: When a good friend you rarely get to see visits, you
spontaneously feel happy, even elated! Then, having shared some
wonderful time together, you feel sad when that person has to leave. Eating
your favorite food, you feel enjoyment, whereas when you take a sip of sour
milk, you feel disgust. Each of these emotions occurs naturally in relation to
what you are doing and experiencing, and all of them elicit your sense of
meaning about the events in your life. Whether your feelings are positive or
negative, they add information that deepens your understanding of yourself
and the world. The emotional center of the brain, known as the limbic
system, is highly interconnected with many different regions all around the
nervous system. These extensive links help to explain why your feelings are
so much a part of what you think and do.
When an emotion endures, it becomes a mood. Moods are also a way of
knowing what’s happening. For example, when people find themselves
continually feeling irritable, it often reflects a problem in their lives. Then
when the problem is solved, the irritable mood goes away. Emotions and
moods are normal, built-in reactions of the mind-brain-body system. They
come into being and then leave again as an integral part of everyday life.
Through this process of experiencing continually changing emotions, we
weave the cloth of our lives.
But when you have bipolar disorder, your emotions and moods don’t
always accurately reflect what’s happening in your life. In fact, your moods
may mislead you, creating problems for you. Your moods can be extreme,
leading you into tangled knots in the fabric of your life experience and, at
other times, tearing the fabric apart. If you suffer from the chronic
moodiness found in bipolar disorder, your mood can take you on a roller-
coaster ride from low to high and back again. You may become engulfed in
a vortex of emotions that push and pull you away from any sense of calm
and stability. As you work through this book, you will learn how to get off
the roller coaster and return to more balanced emotions that can become a
resource for you rather than a problem.

Bipolar Disorder, the Brain, and Meditation

Modern neuroscience has found that the brain continues to develop and
change throughout adulthood, and that we can influence this development
with our actions. Bipolar disorder has a strong brain component associated
with mood swings. Research reveals that people with bipolar disorder have
structural abnormalities in neural pathways that are involved in regulating
moods (Strakowski et al. 1999). The mental training that comes from
practicing meditation increases activation in the parts of the brain that
manage emotions and moods. Regular meditation can make these important
structures and connections even denser (Tang et al. 2009). These exciting
findings and others that we will discuss in this book offer compelling
evidence that meditation can change your brain and stabilize your moods.
Meditation also has many general benefits. You know that the
symptoms of bipolar disorder can be extremely stressful for you and your
family. Many different studies have found that meditators feel less stressed
and anxious (Kabat-Zinn 2003), so you will be able to address your
problems with more calm and comfort. Meditating also balances your
autonomic nervous system (Grossman et al. 2004), which can lessen your
tendency to swing from high to low and back again. And meditation is well
known for inducing an overall experience of well-being (Lutz et al. 2009).
We encourage you to use meditation along with your drug therapy. The
two treatments enhance each other. With all of these positive effects on your
brain, mind, and body, you can find happiness and discover your own
unique stability.
 What This Book Offers
This book offers hope. It helps you to restore your faith in yourself. It gives
you a clear path to follow. And it helps you develop your talents and
express them realistically and effectively in the world. Using meditation
allows your experience to become your teacher. You will be able to notice
what’s really going on. Through this awareness, you can learn more about
what you need to do to live the life you want to live. You will develop tools
for either activating or calming your mind, brain, and body to restore
balance. When you are attuned to the moment, alert, aware, and at ease with
yourself, you can express your best potential for living fully.
The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 presents a new perspective
for understanding bipolarity, based on the Tao’s ever-changing movement
of flowing energy. From this perspective, you can use a set of meditative
tools to alter this flow in order to bring about real mind-brain changes. You
will learn the latest scientific knowledge about bipolar disorder and how
meditation changes your brain. Part 2 teaches three forms of meditation
step-by-step. Focus meditations train you to keep your attention
deliberately focused on something, such as breathing, which helps you gain
some control over your thought processes. Open-focus meditations, such as
mindfulness, have an ever-changing object of focus that teaches you how to
keep your attention flexible and aware. And no-focus meditations free your
mind so that you can have clear, aware consciousness. Part 3 guides you in
applying these skills to reduce your stress, manage your moods, improve
your interpersonal relationships, and develop your talents and abilities. We
often tell our clients that their problems are the seeds of their potential, and
this part of the book helps you transform troubling symptoms into creative
capabilities. We draw on well-researched methods and include stories of
clients who used these techniques successfully.

What Is Meditation?
Meditation began long ago and has its roots in the ancient traditions from
the East: yoga, Buddhism, Taoism, and Zen. Thousands of intelligent
people from all around the world have contributed to the evolution of
meditation through time. Today we have the fruits of more than two
thousand years of sincere exploration, study, writings, and analysis in a rich
and varied set of meditation practices.
Meditation is a time for sitting quietly, seemingly doing nothing. In the
empty moment, you can discover meditation. You might think that sitting
quietly and doing nothing is a waste of time. How can anything significant
be accomplished by doing nothing? The answer requires a shift in how you
look at things. Then, what at first seemed to be a nonactivity is its own kind
of action.
To understand what meditation is in general, you can get to know it
better in terms of opposites. Meditation empties the mind of thoughts or
fills it with chosen thoughts. Some meditations direct attention deliberately
to an inner or outer object of focus, while others are indirect, objectless, and
open ended. Meditation can withdraw attention from the outer world and
focus it inwardly, or it can direct attention outward for alertness and
awareness in every moment. This book guides you through the process.
 Whom This Book Is For
This book is for anyone who is dealing with bipolar disorder or mood
problems. You can use it as a self-help adjunct if you are in treatment and
on medication. If you have not sought medical care but simply feel bothered
by moodiness, you will also find this book helpful. Many of the meditations
in this book will also assist you with the stress and disturbance that you
may be feeling. You may want to share things you learn in this book with
your parents, siblings, or spouse. Their support and positive attitude can
help you to help yourself. With everyone working together, new potential
opens up for all involved.
The meditation methods presented in this book offer powerful tools for
change. As you gain mental skills and become mindful of what you are
experiencing, you will be better able to take an active part in your own
treatment. So these methods can work well with medical and psychological
care.
We encourage you to seek a doctor or therapist and to use these methods
in conjunction with medication when needed, along with a good diet,
regular exercise, and adequate sleep. If you are having trouble maintaining
these healthy habits, this book may help you to discover how to be healthy
and in balance. And although meditation is something everyone usually can
do, we recommend consulting a psychotherapist or physician who is
familiar with this kind of approach before you begin, to ensure that you
have no psychological or physical conditions that might preclude
meditating. If you do have a history of severe anxiety, depression, or
trauma, always use these methods under the guidance of a well-trained
professional. When you work in conjunction with an expert, a better and
happier life will open up for you!

How to Use This Book

This book offers things to read and think about, as well as exercises to
practice. We encourage you to actually do the exercises. Although there are
concepts, theories, and research findings, change takes place through your
experience. By doing the exercises, you give yourself the opportunity to
feel something new. Through the process of actively engaging in the
exercises, change happens. You can skip around, especially in part 3,
working with the sections that seem most relevant to your situation and
needs.
When you do an exercise, read it through a few times. Then, set the
book down and try the exercise. Begin with a short amount of time and
gradually increase it. Even devoting a minute or two to meditation will help
you feel better and start a change process. And as you become more skilled
at meditating, you will be able to increase the amount of time you devote to
it. Start where you are, with what’s comfortable for you to do. Accept
whatever you do without judging it as good or bad. Learning to accept
things as they are is a primary quality of meditation. You will discover ways
to stop being so hard on yourself as you engage in the meditative
experience.
We have been writing about meditation for decades and have written
numerous books on these rich and beautiful practices. We also teach
meditation to the public and to other professionals to help them integrate
this useful tool into their work. Over the years, we have come to respect the
unique talents and creativity in our clients who have suffered from bipolar
disorder. We have developed meditative treatments to help them stop
dissipating their energy so that they can focus it on developing their
potential. It is our sincere hope that you will cultivate your best qualities as
you work with this book.
 Part 1
Fundamental Principles and Facts
 Chapter 1

Looking through the Lens of the Tao

This chapter introduces fundamental principles from Eastern healing that
can help you begin the process of overcoming the problems from your
bipolar disorder. The exercises that accompany each principle help you to
experience the ideas personally. You will gain a better understanding of the
nature of bipolar according to the Tao, which opens up a new way of
working with your bipolar disorder.

What Is the Tao?

Tao means “way,” a path or method to follow. And that path is the way
things are, their essential nature. Each thing has its own Tao, its way. When
you attune to the way things are, you gain understanding and access. Then,
everything you do flows more easily. Often when people have a problem,
they think the best way to overcome it is to set it at a distance and fight
against it. And of course, it makes sense to try to overcome your problems
with bipolar disorder. But how to do so successfully may not be what you
expect.
Taoism teaches that the way to overcome problems is to first get to
know them. Begin by moving closer, aligning with the underlying forces
instead of fighting against them. Use your awareness to help you redirect
the flow of energy and bring about change. Thus, the first step is to get to
know what you are working with, your personal Tao, or way, and the Tao of
your bipolar disorder. You do this by tuning in meditatively, and this book
will show you how. This ancient wisdom can help you to cope better with
your bipolar disorder.
According to the ancient Taoist classic, the Tao Te Ching, before the
beginning of the world as we know it today, there was the Tao, an
undifferentiated, endless emptiness with no beginning and no end. But with
the beginning of the world, this emptiness began to take form. The
emergence of the Tao in the world is often pictured as an empty circle with
a dotted outline, shown barely emerging from the background. The Tao in
its undifferentiated form is the foundation that sets everything in motion.
From its unformed beginnings, the Tao evolved into the complex patterns
that form our world.
The Tao, as an empty void, is the wellspring, so emptiness is not simply
“nothing.” In emptiness, we find openness filled with potential. Life springs
from the Tao. We see the importance of emptiness everywhere around us.
For example, a cup would not be what it is without the empty space inside
it. Once you fill a cup—perhaps you decide to fill it with soil, to make a
planter—it loses its capacity as a cup. Emptiness is essential for a cup to
serve its function as a vessel to be filled.
When you learn how to meditate, you return to emptiness, the
undifferentiated Tao, where you can find your path to follow. The Tao Te
Ching states, “Take emptiness to the limit; maintain tranquility in the
center” (Lao-tzu 1989, 68). In those moments of silence, you open a space
for the Tao to appear. Emptiness may seem like a vague foundation, but as
you discover your own open moments through meditation, you will learn
that the pushes and pulls that have ruled your life fade away, leaving an
empty space for new possibilities to take form.

Exercise 1.1 Discover an Empty Moment

Set a timer on your watch or clock for one minute. Find a comfortable place to sit
down. Just sit quietly. Do nothing except sit quietly. Let your breathing be relaxed and
comfortable. If you find yourself feeling as if you should be doing something, gently
remind yourself that you are just sitting quietly, and return to sitting and doing nothing.
In this silent, empty moment, with nothing that needs to be done, you open a space
for something new to happen.

Attuning to Your Personal Tao

You have your own Tao, your personal way. Your personality; your likes
and dislikes; your thoughts, behaviors, and feelings emerge spontaneously
as an expression of your deeper nature, your Tao. You spontaneously
expressed your Tao as a child, when you found yourself drawn to some
activities and not others. For example, our love of writing began early,
when we were children: Annellen created “Things to Do” books for family
and friends, and Alex designed, wrote, and produced his own newspaper. As
we mention our early interests, you will probably think of yours. Perhaps
you liked to play sports or video games, or maybe you were happiest with a
box of crayons and a pad of paper. Children express their Tao naturally, and
sometimes these early interests give you clues about your deeper nature.

Exercise 1.2 Uncover Your Personal Tao

Think about your interests throughout your life. What did you like to do when you were
a child? What was your favorite subject in school? What did you do best? Were you
athletic, artistic, or perhaps social? Now consider what you like to do as an adult.
What do you choose to do when there’s nothing that you have to do? What are your
hobbies? Whether or not you pursue these interests seriously, consider what they are.
As you think about these things, you can begin to recognize that you are much more
than your bipolar disorder. True, it pushes and pulls you strongly, but you also have
many interests, tendencies, and talents that comprise your fuller nature, your Tao.
Your Tao is a constant center that guides the journey of your life. And by taking the
time to become aware of yourself in this way, you will gain tangible skills that will
prove helpful in overcoming your problems from bipolar disorder.

Attuning to the Tao of Bipolar

As you might expect, bipolar disorder has its own Tao, its way. In the
West we typically define disorders by their symptoms, and bipolar disorder
is typically depicted as swings in moods, work disturbances, and loss of
sleep. These are the outer manifestations of the disorder. But the Eastern
way looks for the source, the deeper nature that drives the symptoms. So,
you might be wondering, what is the essence of bipolar disorder, its Tao?
The Tao of bipolar disorder affects energy. At its core, bipolar disorder
involves a cyclical change of energy. The original name, manic depression,
was replaced with the term bipolar disorder. Experts recognized that the
problem was better understood as an energy or mood change along a
continuum (see chapter 2). Therefore, learning about the nature of change
itself (described in the next section) will give you deeper insight into your
mood shifts. To truly know the Tao of bipolar disorder means to become
aware of your energy as it undergoes change. Then you will be able to move
your energy toward a natural balance that flows smoothly through time.
You can work with your bipolar disorder by attuning to yourself in real
time as you undergo changes in energy. Through the practice of meditation,
you gain skills that will help you become aware of your shifts in energy.
You will learn how to notice changes in your energy as they happen,
moment by moment. You will be able to sustain your awareness to notice
the flow of energy, because it is ongoing. And by becoming mindfully
aware of these subtle, underlying forces that drive your mood swings, you
will be able to recognize the source and work from it in order to lessen your
troubling symptoms.

Following the Way of Nonaction

Then how do you implement this real-time attuning to the Tao of your
bipolar disorder? One of the key teachings in the Tao Te Ching is the way of
nonaction: wu wei. Take no action, and then nothing will remain undone.
You might wonder, How can I make a significant change in my problems
without doing something to make it happen? Penetrating deeper into the
meaning of nonaction offers creative alternatives to typical ways of trying
to make things happen.
The Tao Te Ching states that the first step on the way to the Tao is to be
in harmony with, not in rebellion against, the fundamental laws of the
universe (Waley 1958). Thus, the first step in overcoming the symptoms of
bipolar disorder is to become aware of yourself along with your levels of
energy and corresponding thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Although your
intention is to change, you begin by noticing yourself just as you are. With
this awareness, you will gain a certain amount of control. So, even though
your symptoms, at times, may feel all encompassing and completely out of
your control, your awareness inserts a new variable, and with it comes the
potential for change.
Now you can probably see that nonaction doesn’t mean that you
literally should do nothing at all to try to help yourself. Instead, it means