Mindfulness

Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as -‘paying attention, in a particular way, on purpose’.

This simple but effective technique calms the mind by engaging the senses to become aware and conscious of our place in every given moment – to be in the here and now and to live in the present moment. At its heart Mindfulness is about becoming self aware.

Mindfulness encourages us to live moment by moment, to simply be in the present and let go of anxieties about the past and fears about the future. Living in a mindful way gets us out of our heads and into our bodies. It encourages us to move from a state of doing into a state of being. With practice we become aware of the impact of our thoughts, so rather than being beholden to the constant stream of thoughts cascading through the mind, we learn to experience the world through the senses. We come to see the thoughts as they are, we allow them to come and go and observe them, rather than react to them. In a state of being we are aware of the habits that can leave us stuck in a state that negatively impact our capacity to live life to the full. The practice connects us to the reality of our lives and not the one that our thoughts create for us. In addition Mindfulness develops our ability to care for ourselves by developing our empathy and compassion.

Mindfulness and Resilience

In their book, ‘Mindfulness a practical guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World’, Mark Williams and Danny Penman observe that:

“While empathy, compassion and inner serenity are vital for overall wellbeing, a certain degree of hardiness is required too”.

Jon Kabat-Zinn’s research revealed that people who had participated in a mindfulness course came to see life’s challenges as opportunities rather than threats, in other words, the practice of Mindfulness built their resilience and they became more able to deal with life’s ups and downs.

Mindfulness and the Brain

Mindfulness changes the pathways in the brain too. It was assumed, until scientific research proved otherwise, that our emotional dispositions were preset. In other words that some people have an innate happy disposition while others tended to be sad or miserable. Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin discovered that when people feel negative emotions of anger, anxiety, sadness or depression that the right side of the pre-frontal cortex in the brain lights up and when people feel positive emotions of happiness, joy and compassion, the opposite occurs and the left side lights up.

Richard Davidson and Jon Zabat-Zinn then went on to study the effects of Mindfulness on the brain and found that it changes the way the brain works – activating the right side of the pre-frontal cortex so that participants became happier and more energized while any feeling of anxiety subsided, regardless of their so called ‘natural’ negative disposition.

Mindfulness and Yoga

Yoga is a mindful practice. We experience mindful movement through posture practice; mindful breathing whilst moving in and out of postures; mindful breathing exercises via the practice known as pranayama; mindful meditation using different techniques that use alternative anchors on which to place one’s attention; and mindful relaxation which draws the body into a deep state of rest.

‘There are many fine things which you mean to do some day,

under what  you think will be more favourable circumstances.

But the only time that is yours

is the present.’

Grenville Kleiser