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Mindfulness and its Benefits

Mindfulness is a bit of a buzz word these days.  Essentially it can be defined as follows:

“Paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, without judgement”

Whilst it seems that it is something that’s very ‘now’, it comes from the Buddhist tradition. However in today’s world it is used for many different reasons and has little to do with religion in therapy.  In fact, it is used not only generally for wellbeing, but is a clinically proven therapy in its own right for those suffering from depression and anxiety.

Some of the proven benefits of mindful meditation are:

  • improved mood – decreases depression, anxiety, irritability
  • memory improvement
  • better relationships
  • improved immune system
  • and can bring relief for those dependent on alcohol and other drugs.

So why and how does mindfulness work?

The mind is essentially a problem solver.  So when you’re feeling down, the natural thing the mind does is try to fix the problem. We start to worry about what is wrong with us, why it’s happening to us, predict the worst outcome, and generally beat ourselves up, and then we sink into further negative thought patterns.

Over time this becomes a vicious cycle that can lead to harsh self criticism and even depression and anxiety.  Because our mind taps into memories without us even being conscious of it, we feel the threat in our bodies – butterflies in our stomach, heart racing, sweaty palms.  This is based on historical survival skills stemming from when we needed to run away from life threatening beasts.  To our unconscious minds, the threat is the same,  and so we try to push away thoughts and feelings that are threatening – whether they are real or imagined.

I know it seems counterintuitive, but what mindfulness teaches us to do is to observe what is going on in the mind without judgement.  This quietens our inner critic.  You can’t stop the self-critical thoughts and unhappy memories, but you can stop them feeding into destructive emotions that make you unhappy.  By practising mindfulness, you can observe the thoughts, and any emotions that come up, and then observe them as they pass.

Recognising them as they arise, watching them come and go and realising they are not real can bring great relief.

Start your practice with as little as five minutes a day.  It doesn’t have to be a lot, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be meditation as we know it.  If you’re looking for relief, one of my favourite books is “Mindfulness.  An Eight Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World”, by authors Mark Williams and Danny Penman.

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