Mindfulness is about learning to train your attention to the
present moment without dwelling on what has happened in the past or
worrying about what will happen in the future.
Mindfulness provides many physical and psychological benefits.
It has worked its way into modern day therapy and can be practiced
in other non-therapy forms such as yoga and meditation.
What is mindfulness?
According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding director of the Stress
Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health
Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical
School:
"Mindfulness is the awareness that
emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment,
and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by
moment"
It is about training your attention to be
able to rest in the present moment.
Thoughts about the past and
future are acknowledged without necessarily being focused on.
In
this way, you can avoid being caught up in dwelling on the past or
worrying about the future and can instead truly experience life as
it happens.
The word mindfulness can be used to refer to both the
state of being mindful as described above and the daily practices
(eg meditation) that help to bring it about.
History of mindfulness
The practice of
mindfulness has been applied to human consciousness for
thousands of years with origins in Eastern philosophy.
Over the
past 40 years, however, it has taken root in Western societies
.
In addition to people using it daily, in forms such as meditation
and yoga, it has been incorporated into many types of therapy
including:
Awareness, attention +
mindfulness
Mindfulness involves paying attention to certain stimuli and
disregarding others.
This lesson activity has an exercise
that shows just how your awareness of stimuli can be limited, and
how by focusing on different aspects of the images, you are able to
see things in a different light.
Though we know the image can be seen in multiple ways, we can
only perceive one of them at a time and that depends on how we
focus our attention:
- In relation to thoughts, our minds participate in habitual
thinking. This means it goes to places and thoughts that we usually
think of out of habit.
- Our minds go to these thoughts simply because they have not
been trained to focus differently.
- Mindfulness training allows you more control over where your
thoughts become focused.
Mindfulness meditation
There are many different types of meditation with the two most
common approaches being:
- Concentrative meditation: this focuses the
attention on the breath, an image, or a sound (mantra), in order to
still the mind and minimize thoughts.
- Mindfulness meditation: this involves training
the attention to become aware of the continuously passing
sensations and feelings, thoughts and images that make up your
moment to moment experience. Additionally an attitude of simply
'noticing and letting be' is cultivated towards what you become
aware of.
In mindfulness meditation you learn to remain aware of what is
happening and what you're feeling in that moment, whether you like
it, dislike it, or are confused about it.
You increase your
tolerance for seeing the unpleasant - neither identifying with it,
nor running from it.
As you become more and more familiar with
the usual patterns in your mind, mindfulness allows you to
CHOOSE what your mind focuses on by
interrupting its habits (eg to put yourself down).
Who can practice mindfulness
therapy?
EVERYBODY!
Who does it help?
EVERYBODY!
Mindfulness + your wellbeing
Practicing mindfulness has benefits to both your
psychological health and physical health.
Psychological benefits include:
• decreased anxiety
• decreased depression
• increased coping skills
• decreased irritability and moodiness
• improved learning ability and memory
• increased happiness
• increased emotional stability
• increase ability to effectively manage
problems
• improved self-esteem.
Physical benefits include:
• improved breathing
• lower heart rate
• improved circulation
• improved immune function
• reduced physical stress responses
• better sleep
• better management of physical symptoms (eg
pain).
Where can you go for more
information?
If you are interested in learning more or participating in a
mindfulness program here are some places to check out:
• Mindfulness Centre: Training in MBCT,
mindfulness + mindful living
• Mindfulness.org.au.
Additional resources
• Know Thyself by Craig Hassed
• Full Catastrophe Living by Jon
Kabat-Zinn
• Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn:
YouTube video. This video starts out a little slowly, but feel
free to watch the whole thing. The mindfulness exercise, however,
starts at about the 20 minute mark and lasts about 20 minutes -
remember though, mindfulness takes time and practice, don't be
discouraged if it doesn't work right away!