What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness meditation involves either sitting on a chair or cushion; lying on a bed or yoga mat; standing and even walking.  A object of meditation is chosen, most often the breath or sensations in and around the body; sounds near and far; thoughts; emotions; or sometimes having open awareness of all of these things. Then the idea is just simply to stay present with the object of the meditation.  Inevitably, our mind will wander off to thinking about other things because that is what minds do!  When we notice that our mind has drifted from the focus of the meditation and got entangled in thoughts or other distractions, this is a moment of mindfulness to be celebrated…we have awareness of what our mind is doing! We then patiently and non-judgmentally (so as not to trigger our threat system) guide our mind back to the object of meditation. These are two of the mindfulness skills that we are strengthening…increased awareness and patience. 

Mindfulness can involve applying the skills developed in meditation into everyday activities and experiences, although, some people practice everyday mindfulness without meditating. It is about using our senses to pay curious attention to whatever we are doing in the present moment, whether that be cleaning our teeth, struggling with difficult emotions, experiencing physical pain or walking in the countryside. If we are able to stay in the present moment, we spend less time ruminating on the past (depression) and worrying about the future (anxiety).

Over time, mindfulness increases our moment-to-moment awareness, giving us the mental space to choose our attitudes and responses to any given situation and thereby giving us influence over our experiences. The focus is on using mindful awareness to move towards any type of pain and difficulty with acceptance and curiosity.  The ability to do this can be liberating and put an end to suffering. 

There are many fruitful benefits of mindfulness and meditation which are not immediately obvious; hence, I have experienced it as a journey of adventure…full of surprises along the way.  Trust in the process is required…a letting go.  If you can continuously approach it with curiosity, an open heart and mind, you will be rewarded.

There are many routes into cultivating mindfulness, in my work, I use meditation, mindful movement, mindful walking and everyday activities. Sessions also usually include some psycho-education based on psychological research and neuroscience.

“The reflective practice of focusing internal attention on the mind itself with openness, observation and objectivity, stimulates neuronal activation and growth in the brain” (Siegel, D.J. 2010). Research has shown that developing and maintaining a regular mindfulness meditation practice can lead you to:

• body regulation – being able to notice and modify our experience of bodily sensations, including how we respond to pain

• attuned communication – improved relationships with ourselves and others as we learn to listen wholeheartedly to others and become more able to mindfully express ourselves

• emotional balance – a sense of inner peace and contentment as the space created through mindful awareness enables us to be less emotionally reactive and make wiser choices

• fear modulation – ability to manage difficult emotions more effectively by noticing and becoming more familiar with what triggers our threat response and having the skills to calm it

• response flexibility – ability to choose how we respond to situations; as we calm our threat responses we are more open-hearted and see things from a much broader perspective, giving us more options for responding

• insight – more clarity about the inner workings of ourselves and others; as our threat system is calmed so our perception broadens, we see more of what is happening within and around us

• empathy – understanding and compassion towards ourselves and others grows with a sense of common humanity and oneness as our threat response and sense of separateness calms down

• morality – cultivating kindness and generosity becomes our focus as we feel less threatened or in competition with others

• intuition - a deeper, felt sense of knowing and wisdom grows as our perception increases and broadens, doubt about what we know decreases and trust in our instinct develops