What is it?
Mindfulness is a way of befriending yourself and your experience so that you can really embrace what is good in your life and turn towards the difficult with greater resilience.
The definition I usually work with is borrowed from Jon Kabat-Zinn (the man behind the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR course): it’s the practice of “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”.
This kind of attention allows for an open, friendly awareness of what’s going on inside us, our thoughts, emotions and body sensations, even when we don’t like what we find!
Practices can be formal meditations, or they can be informal. A “formal” practice might involve, for example, sitting and focusing on the breath in one particular place and bringing the attention back whenever it wanders off. And it will – over and over again! Informal practice could take the form of intentionally noticing sensations in the body and any accompanying thoughts and emotions whilst taking a hot shower or washing up. Whatever the form of “meditation”, regular practice of this kind of noticing without judgment can allow us to find the beauty in everyday life and the space to respond to our more challenging experiences in a different way.
How can it help me?
Mindfulness is not a therapy as such but it can have many therapeutic benefits. Although it can be argued that the science of mindfulness is still in its infancy, peer-reviewed papers provide some evidence that mindfulness enhances mental and physical wellbeing and reduces chronic pain. For example, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Professor Emeritus of medicine and the founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, devotes two whole chapters in his book, “Full Catastrophe Living” (revised edition 2013) to exploring the beneficial impact of practising mindfulness on physical pain through his MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) course. It is also worth mentioning that in the UK, Vidyamala Burch, the co-founder of Breathworks in 2004, developed the Mindfulness-based Pain Management course which has helped many people change their perception of and relationship with pain.
Similarly, it has been found that, with regular practice, mindfulness can also alleviate:
- Stress
- Anxiety and depression (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to treat less severe depression)*
- Sleep problems
Positive Effects of Mindfulness
Studies also show the many positive effects of mindfulness on:
- Concentration
- Creativity
- Relationships
- Communication, including listening.
*Mindfulness - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Whatever it is that you want to work on, a course or session can focus on your particular interests.
