Mindfulness makes a difference
What is Mindfulness?
Simply speaking, mindfulness is your ability to stay in the present moment. Mindfulness is a mental state where you focus on the present, keeping your mind on the task at hand. Mindfulness practitioners may also talk about mindfulness as being ‘present’ and/ or being ‘connected to self.’
The practice of mindfulness dates back thousands of years and has roots in both yoga and meditation. The overarching goals of mindfulness are for you to learn to be present in the moment and to be able to quiet your mind. This can make a significant impact on your stress levels and overall wellbeing. In mindfulness you are encouraged to have a warm, open curiosity about life.
According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, "Neuroscientists have also shown that practicing mindfulness affects brain areas related to perception, body awareness, pain tolerance, emotion regulation, introspection, complex thinking, and sense of self."
Another wonderful aspect of mindfulness is that it is flexible and can be personalised to fit into your lifestyle. You can benefit from short meditations and, believe it or not, you can meditate just about anywhere!
Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness meditation involves opening our awareness to the endless procession of thoughts, sounds, sensations, images, smells, and feelings that we are experiencing, without becoming involved in thinking about them. We sit quietly and simply witnesses what goes through our mind, without reacting or becoming caught up in or building on those thoughts, worries, memories, or images. This helps train the brain to become more calm, clear, and non-reactive.
During mindfulness meditation, you do not control your thoughts. You allow your thoughts to surface and float, but at the same time you do not build on or become involved in them. You observe them.
Mindfulness meditation is fully experiencing what is happening in the here and now. It is the art of focusing our minds on what is happening in and around us presently. Mindfulness assists us in turning down (or turning off) the chatter in our heads and observing. It is a method that encourages us to be in the now.
The benefits of meditation
These days, there is little doubt that the regular practice of meditation has great physical and psychological benefits. Over the past three decades, with new developments and improvements in technology, much scientific research has been conducted to explore the effects of meditation as a practice. There have been over 3,000 scientific studies on the benefits of meditation. These studies have included monitoring brain activity and brain changes as well as physical changes in the rest of the body.
Meditation is a practice that helps people achieve balance both mentally, emotionally and physically. While it has taken several decades to gain acceptance in conventional medicine, it is now routinely used to treat a range of conditions including depression, stress and anxiety. Some other clinical uses for meditation include the treatment of sleep disorders, low self- esteem and a range of emotional problems. Meditation is also used to assist in overcoming addiction to smoking, alcohol and drugs. Clinical studies indicate that regular practice of meditation can reduce blood pressure and significantly lower the symptoms of menopause and premenstrual syndrome and a wide range of other ailments. The list of illnesses, disorders and conditions that can be substantially aided and, in many cases, wholly overcome through the regular practice of meditation is significant.
Meditation helps to lower the heart rate and the blood pressure, by slowing down the breathing, which decreases the amount of oxygen needed for the body. Due to the slowing down of the mental processes during meditation, muscles relax, and the body begins to function at a calmer and more natural level. This assists in relieving muscle pain and improves the function of the immune system and returns the entire body to its natural balance.
Top 10 tips for Mindfulness
