More and more we hear people talking about Mindfulness and Mindfulness Meditation as being beneficial to health and well-being. This article is an introduction to what Mindfulness is and how it might be cultivated. Mindfulness is developed by purposefully paying attention in a non-judgmental way to your experience of your body, your mind and the world around you. Mindfulness is about being awake and aware and living in the present, rather than dwelling in the past or anticipating the future. If you think of your attention as a muscle then, as with any muscle it makes sense to exercise it, in this case with meditation. And like a muscle, it strengthens with exercise. This meditation training is typically offered in the evidence-based, 8 week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course, based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is credited with bringing these traditional Eastern practices into Western mainstream medicine. Science is learning about our brain’s ability to adapt and rewire. This phenomenon, known as neuroplasticity, suggests there are concrete and provable benefits to exercising the brain. Most people completing an 8 week programme report lasting physical and psychological benefits including:
• Greater self-confidence and more acceptance of life as it is.
• An increased ability to cope effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations.
• An increased ability to relax and experience calm.
• More energy, enthusiasm and appreciation for life. Although we are often unaware of the current of our thinking, it has a profound effect on how we live our lives, as well on our mental and emotional health. Becoming aware of our habits of mind can thus profoundly affect our well being, our relationships, and our emotional resilience. What Mindfulness Is Not:
Mindfulness is not positive thinking. Mindfulness is not about having only good feelings. It does not help you to get rid of unwanted feelings, but to actually feel them. That is why it is often said that mindfulness is not for the fainthearted. Our usual reaction to uncomfortable or distressing feelings is to push them away and try to get rid of them. This just does not work. “What we resist, persists.” With mindfulness we learn to turn towards the difficulties, challenges and pain in our lives with an attitude of allowing and kindness. This is a gentle process, not a forceful one, and it happens gradually as we build emotional strength and resilience. Resistance and avoidance require a lot of energy and when we let them go and allow ourselves and our experience to be as they are we find that we free up a lot of energy which can now go into seeing more clearly, making wiser choices and taking wiser action. Compiled by Claire O’Rourke, Psychotherapist (Reg. FTAI & ICP) and Mindfulness Trainer, (Certificate in Mindfulness-Based Approaches, Bangor University, Wales).
