USING MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness is a way of paying greater attention to the present. It encourages people to live in the moment and not worry about what has happened or what could happen. It is growing in popularity around the world as a means of improving mental and physical wellbeing. The ideas behind it are:
- Remain focused on the present
- Avoid thinking about the past – the future can wait
- Actively concentrate on what is going on around you
- Don’t be judgmental don’t label things as bad or good.
Mindfulness can be used to:
- Help you relax - slows down your nervous system (physical activity) and thoughts (mental activity)
- Clear your thoughts from your mind
- Become more aware of yourself - your body, your environment
- Improve attention and concentration
- Overcome stress
- Mindfulness is a useful technique for tackling whole range of mental problems such as:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Stress
- Sleeping difficulties
- Mood swings
- Memory, concentration and attention problems
- Because it can be used to control physical symptoms associated with autonomic system arousal, mindfulness reduces anger, hostility and stress. It also has benefits for chronic pain, blood circulation and the immune system.
Many organisations, and some schools, are now adopting mindfulness classes or sessions during the working day so as to promote good health of workers. Many claim that following joint mindfulness sessions that they feel better prepared to tackle their workload, more refreshed and able to approach tasks with greater clarity of thought.
Mindfulness may be used in conjunction with meditation. Mindfulness has also been combined with cognitive behaviour therapy and used as a treatment for disorders like depression by therapists.
Read more about how negative emotions can affect your health with our ebook The Psychology of Health.