The word “Mindfulness” is just simple but it is also powerful. It determines or suggests the way which the mind is managing by, what is happening around him or her to the point of attending to those little spaces that you are moving through.
While all these it may look like a trivial matter, it is certainly not, because humans have the tendency to drift apart from the matter at hand. In some cases, the mind could switch off, and we lose contact with our body which could lead to thought about being happened around him or her, or what will happen in the future. If this is not checked, there is a tendency of making a person becoming anxious for things that shouldn’t be in the first place.
What is Mindfulness Itself?
It is simply to suggest, that a basic human ability to be anxious and present in such way, that they know where they are and what is being done without having to become overwhelmed or overreacting to the happenings around them.
However, it is important to note, that no matter how we drift away as humans, it is mindfulness that helps bring us back to where we are and where we are going, feeling or doing. Mindfulness could mean a variety of things depending on the source of your information, and that is why it is always advisable to try it out. The good thing is that mindfulness is something that belongs to every human, and not something that we have to manufacture.
One thing that must be understood, as we are talking about mindfulness: It is innate. However, mindfulness can also be cultivated through usage of some proven techniques. For instance, these techniques include standing, walking, sitting as well as moving mediation. It can also include things like short pauses that we can fix for our everyday life and merging activities like sports and yoga to meditation practices.
Becoming mindful will mean that we have the capacity to enhance performance, reduce stress, and achieve the necessary awareness and insight by just observing our mind; in addition, the fact that we can increase our attention which we are paying to others and their well-being.
Note that mindfulness mediation works in such way, which gives people some wide time in their life judgement is suspended thanks of revealing our natural curiosity to find out by the working of the mind.
Key Points to Note about Mindfulness
There are several key points that must be well understood as we are talking about mindfulness in order to appreciate and understand how things work and are expected to work at all times. The following are few things to note about mindfulness:
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- It is important to note that, in Mindfulness, we do not actually need to change who we are as a person. Any solution that push change from who we are to something that we are not is bound to fail and it is important to point this out. The good thing about mindfulness is that it not only recognises who we are, it also helps cultivate who we are to become the best human beings of all.
- Also, let us note that mindfulness is not an addition of something else to the things we should do. Everyone already has it built in, and this means that the capacity to be present is available for everyone, so we are not expected to change who we are. However, what can actually be done is to cultivate these features through some techniques that have been identified to be beneficial to ourselves and others.
- Mindfulness is not complicated as some people think. It is already familiar since it is what we already do. The issue here is that it could take many forms and can be called many names.
- Mindfulness can be used to transform social phenomenon. This is because in the first place, anyone can be mindful since no one is expected to change their beliefs. It is beneficial to just anyone and the good things is that it is easy to learn. Apart from that, it is a way of living and not just academic one in nature. This means that it can reduce unnecessary stress and make life better for everyone.
- Mindfulness is not theoretical but it is supported by overwhelming evidence. It has been confirmed by science as a well as experience that it is beneficial to everyone in the areas of health, relationship, work and even happiness.
There is no doubt that mindfulness creates innovation and this is true when we consider that today’s world is filled with uncertainties and complexities. Mindfulness can help recover us and introduce us into an effective or resilient approach to these serious problems experienced by the world today. Note that mindfulness should not necessarily be taken to faith but the reality is that it is something is proven to work.
Benefits of Mindfulness
Mindfulness focuses your attention on the present as well as accepts it without having to pass judgement. There are a lot of benefits. It is important to note that although mindfulness cultivation has its root in Buddhism; other religions include the meditation techniques that have help in shifting the thoughts away from those things that preoccupies the mind in order to gain larger possibilities in future.
Since the practice of mindfulness meditation had brought into the mainstream medicine, it has been demonstrated that it can be used to improve both psychological and physical well-being which includes: changes in behaviors, attitude and health improvement. For instance:
Mindfulness Improves Physical Health
It is important to note that experience has shown that mindfulness techniques have proven to improve physical health in a lot of ways. For example, it can help improve sleeping, it can help reduce chronic pains, it can help in lowering of blood pressure, and it can help in treating heart diseases as well as relieving stress among others.
Mindfulness Improves Well-Being of a Person
Note that mindfulness can help in improving the overall well-being in a person that joins in his or her more pleasurable and fulfilled life. It helps people to start becoming more engaged in lots of activities in such way that creates the capacity of a person to deal with unfortunate issues. For instance, mindfulness helps people to focus on the current moment, and this is the reason why a lot of mindfulness practitioners are less concerned or worried about the future events or show regrets about the past.
In addition, those who are deep into mindfulness practice find themselves less concerned about their self-esteem and success, but are, more likely, to form some form of deeper connections with others.
Mindfulness Can Improve Mental Health
Over time, it is now getting clear that mindful mediation could be used as a strong element of the treatment of some problems that are mental in their nature. For instance, mindfulness meditation can be useful in solution of problems such as: anxiety disorders, couples conflict, eating disorders, and substance abuse, depression as well as compulsive disorders.
In fact, conscious meditation has recently gained acceptance among psychotherapists as a very good tool in the treatment of these mental problems. While it may not produce a definite relief in some cases, even such information improve the situation.
Mindfulness Techniques
It is pertinent to mention that there are many ways in which mindfulness can be practiced.
However, it is also important to state clearly that no matter a technique used to gain the goal of mindfulness practice remains the same, and this is achieving such state of alert as well as a focused relation by the deliberate attempt to pay attention to thoughts without having to pass any form of judgement. This will allow the mind just to focus on the present moment and not worry about the past or future. However, it is also important to note that all mindfulness techniques are also a form of meditation. The techniques include as follows:
Body sensations: This involves noticing some kind of body sensations like tingling or itching without judgment instead you let them pass. Here, parts of your body from your head to the toe that are noticed.
Basic Mindfulness meditation: This is simply a basic technique which requires quietly sitting and then focusing on breathing naturally. Here, thoughts are expected to come and then go but you are not expected to return judgement to these thoughts, but instead the focus should remain on the breath.
Urge Surfing: Another important technique that should be mentioned here is urge surfing. What actually happens in this technique is coping with cravings in such a way that you are expected to allow them to pass. In this technique, the cravings will enter your body and you are expected to know how your body feels but then you will have to eliminate that wish the cravings to go away while having the knowledge that it will definitely go.
Emotions: There is nothing wrong in allowing emotions, but the issue is that it really has to be present without any form of judgement. Just note that emotions will come and accept it but do not judge them and let them go.
Sensory: You are expected to notice things like touch, taste, smell, sound, vision, etc., but this must be done without judgement and you must let them go.
How to be Mindful
Note that having to remind yourself of taking of your sensations, feelings and thoughts that happen around you will always be the first step when it comes to mindfulness. However, there are a lot of ways that can help one become more mindful, and they have proven to work and worth trying.
Try Something New: Trying something new has proven to make a lot of people to become more mindful. Besides, trying something new does not have to be something complete, but just consciously trying new things in our everyday life. For instance, trying something new, you could just mean simply sitting on a different seat for gathering, especially if you have not sat on their seat before now. It could also mean that you go somewhere else for lunch probably somewhere new that you may not have experienced before. The benefit of trying out something news is that it has a way of helping you notice the world in another way you may not have experienced.
Keep It Regular: One way this can be done is by picking a regular time in which you can decide to become aware of the sensations that have been created around you. For instance, one can pick a short walk at lunch time.
Ensure Your Notice Everyday: The reality is that we have a capacity to notice everyday as we go about our day to day activities. For instance, it is possible to notice the food we are eating, the different sensations we experience among other things. However, no matter how small this may look like, it still has a way that makes us see different variants of our future life that we may never have seen before.
Monitor Your Thoughts: One important thing is to note here that there are a lot of people who usually find it difficult when it comes to mindfulness practices. This is because worries and thoughts overwhelm them as soon as they stop what they are doing. However, one thing that must be at the back of everyone’s mind when it comes to mindfulness is that the thoughts are not really expected to go away instead they must be seen as mental events. Therefore, watching your thought is very necessary in such situation.
Get Yourself Freed from the Past as well as the Future: There is no doubt that mindfulness can be practiced just about anywhere. However, it is best always to practice mindful approach since it is possible to be held by your thought of the future or relieving past problems. Therefore, it is very important to free yourself from the future and past issues that may trap you; so, the approach of mindful remains the best way, if past and future worries become a stumbling block.
