Mindfulness is a state of being, a way of life.
It is about accepting your thoughts and feelings without judging them. You achieve this by focusing on the present moment, not worrying about the future or the past.
It’s about your mind being on task – fully attending to what you are doing in this moment. If we worry about what hasn’t yet happened yet, or or about what has already passed, we get flooded with Anxiety.
Research suggests that mindfulness practices help you to control what you are thinking and feeling, as opposed to having them control you.
In Therapy it includes the following elements:
Mindfulness has been shown to improve relationships, decrease physical pain, and symptoms of Anxiety and Depression.
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed at the University of Massachusetts 35 years ago by Jon Kabot-Zinn. explains that Mindfulness is not a technique, it is a way of being. A way of connecting with your life, living more purposefully and being more focused on each moment.
Or as Kabot-Zinn says, “Paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally, and as if your life depended on it.”
Saki Santorelli, Ed.D. reminds us that “Mindfulness is a way to of beginning to become more attentive to the present. To the actuality of being alive…and participating to the act of being alive.”
The way I explain Mindfulness is not only living in the present moment, but finding the gray in life. Most people come to therapy and they are living a very Black – White existence. Things are either Great or Terrible. And you experience those shifts strongly. One of our goals in therapy through mindfulness is to help you live comfortably in the mid-way. To enjoy your normal set-point. Yes there are highs and lows, but if you aren’t experiencing a high or a low, you can still be happy and attain your goals.
Since it’s inception at the University of Massachusetts, The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program has helped over 24,000 people reduce chronic pain, anxiety, depression, eating problems, heart disease, and a multitude of other things.
There are many mindful techniques that help us to find that sense of focus in our day to day moments. In our work we will initially focus on two. Mindfulness Meditation and Mindful Breathing.
I help you train your brain to relax by giving you a Stress Management MP3. This teaches you to relax your body, and focus your mind.
As you are able to get relaxed with the MP3 we’ll work on exercises every time we meet.
For many individuals growing up in the West, meditation is not a simple thing to learn. I have found it is easier to teach you using a guided meditation, then to tell you to just focus on your breath in silence. Often monkey brain kicks in (that’s when stray thoughts flood your mind while you are trying to think of nothing), and it’s easy to get frustrated and quit.
The bottom line is meditation is not easy or it would be called picnic! However, I can promise it does get easier and if you practice you will feel better every day.
Sometimes achieving a completely relaxed state with mediation takes a while. What I will begin teaching you is how to use your ability to focus on the breath to reduce your anxiety. This is a great technique because you can do it with other people around and no one will realize you are doing anything unusual.
Many people aren’t interested in the touchy feely part about Mindfulness Stress Management, they want the science of it. This video explains Meditation and Neuroplasticity.
