Mindfulness 330

[Patrice Mieczkowski]

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.

Spending too much time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming, or thinking negative or random thoughts can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression. Practicing mindfulness exercises can help you direct your attention away from this kind of thinking and engage with the world around you.

For more structured mindfulness exercises, such as body scan meditation or sitting meditation, you'll need to set aside time when you can be in a quiet place without distractions or interruptions. You might choose to practice this type of exercise early in the morning before you begin your daily routine.

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To live mindfully is to live in the moment and reawaken oneself to the present, rather than dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. To be mindful is to observe and label thoughts, feelings, sensations in the body in an objective manner. Mindfulness can therefore be a tool to avoid self-criticism and judgment while identifying and managing difficult emotions.

As mindfulness shifted into mainstream science and medicine, it became a pivotal therapeutic technique; it was integrated into Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, among others.

Mindfulness is one form of meditation. Meditation utilizes various practices to quiet the mind or achieve a higher level of consciousness, one of which is mindfulness. Mindfulness can be cultivated within or outside of formal meditation and woven into any activity, such as taking a walk or being engaged in conversation.

Mindfulness can take place through meditation sessions or smaller moments throughout the day. To cultivate a state of mindfulness, you can begin by sitting down and taking deep breaths. Focus on each breath and the sensations of the moment, such as sounds, scents, the temperature, and the feeling of air passing in and out of the body.

Mindfulness can help bring you into the present moment throughout the day. As you wake up, you can focus on your breathing and the way your body gradually becomes more energized. You can incorporate a brief meditation into your work day, perhaps on your lunch break, and focus and appreciate the experience of eating during meals.

Mindfulness is frequently used in meditation and certain kinds of therapy. Its benefits include lowering stress levels, reducing harmful ruminating, and protecting against depression and anxiety. Research even suggests that mindfulness can help people better cope with rejection and social isolation.

Review studies suggest that mindfulness-based interventions can help reduce anxiety, depression, and pain. To a lesser extent, they can alleviate stress and improve quality of life. However, inconsistencies in the way mindfulness is defined and measured make it difficult to determine whether mindfulness really provides other benefits.

Mindfulness encompasses awareness and acceptance, which can help people understand and cope with uncomfortable emotions, allowing them to gain control and relief. To cultivate these skills, concentrate on breathing to lengthen and deepen your breaths. Foster an awareness of the five senses. Notice your thoughts and feelings, and practice curiosity and self-compassion.

Mindfulness can play a role in helping people break habits such as smoking or overeating. When a habit has developed, the trigger (hunger) prompts a behavior (eating) that leads to a reward (satisfaction). Becoming aware of the behavior and what is derived from it can help alter the reward and replace it with a healthier behavior.

Mindfulness is the cognitive skill, usually developed through meditation, of sustaining meta-attention on the contents of one's own mind in the present moment.[1][2][note 1][3][web 1][2][4][5] Mindfulness derives from sati, a significant element of Hindu and Buddhist traditions,[6][7] and is based on Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan meditation techniques.[8][9][note 2] Though definitions and techniques of mindfulness are wide-ranging,[15] Buddhist traditions describe what constitutes mindfulness, such as how perceptions of the past, present and future arise and cease as momentary sense-impressions and mental phenomena.[6][16][web 2] Individuals who have contributed to the popularity of mindfulness in the modern Western context include Thch Nhất Hạnh, Joseph Goldstein, Herbert Benson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Richard J. Davidson.[17][18]

Clinical psychology and psychiatry since the 1970s have developed a number of therapeutic applications based on mindfulness for helping people experiencing a variety of psychological conditions.[18] Mindfulness practice has been employed to reduce depression,[19][20][21][22][23] stress,[20][24][23] anxiety,[19][20][25][23] and in the treatment of drug addiction.[26][27][28] Programs based on mindfulness models have been adopted within schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans' centers, and other environments,[29][30] and mindfulness programs have been applied for additional outcomes such as for healthy aging, weight management, athletic performance,[31] helping children with special needs, and as an intervention during early pregnancy.

Clinical studies have documented both physical- and mental-health benefits of mindfulness in different patient categories as well as in healthy adults and children.[32][33][34] Studies have shown a positive relationship between trait mindfulness (which can be cultivated through the practice of mindfulness-based interventions) and psychological health.[35][36] The practice of mindfulness appears to provide therapeutic benefits to people with psychiatric disorders,[37][38][39] including moderate benefits to those with psychosis.[40][41][42] Studies also indicate that rumination and worry contribute to a variety of mental disorders,[43][44] and that mindfulness-based interventions can enhance trait mindfulness[45] and reduce both rumination and worry.[44][46][47] Further, the practice of mindfulness may be a preventive strategy to halt the development of mental-health problems.[48][49][50] Mindfulness practices have been said to enable individuals to respond more effectively to stressful situations by helping them strike the balance between over-identification and suppression of their emotional experiences by finding the middle point which is recognition and acceptance.[51]

Evidence suggests that engaging in mindfulness meditation may influence physical health.[52] For example, the psychological habit of repeatedly dwelling on stressful thoughts appears to intensify the physiological effects of the stressor (as a result of the continual activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) with the potential to lead to physical health related clinical manifestations.[53][54][55] Studies indicate that mindfulness meditation, which brings about reductions in rumination, may alter these biological clinical pathways.[53][44][56] Further, research indicates that mindfulness may favorably influence the immune system[57] as well as inflammation,[3][58][59] which can consequently impact physical health, especially considering that inflammation has been linked to the development of several chronic health conditions.[60][61] Other studies support these findings.[56][62][63]

There are several exercises designed to develop mindfulness meditation, which may be aided by guided meditations "to get the hang of it".[8][69][note 3] As forms of self-observation and interoception, these methods increase awareness of the body, so they are usually beneficial to people with low self-awareness or low awareness of their bodies or emotional state. However, it may provoke anxiety, panic attacks, depression, and dissociation,[70] in people who are very focused on themselves, their bodies, and their emotions.[71]

In a Buddhist context the keeping of moral precepts is an essential preparatory stage for mindfulness or meditation.[77][78] Vipassana also includes contemplation and reflection on phenomena as dukkha, anatta and anicca, and reflections on causation and other Buddhist teachings.[79][80]

The Buddhist term translated into English as "mindfulness" originates in the Pali term sati and in its Sanskrit counterpart smṛti. It is often translated as "bare attention", but in the Buddhist tradition it has a broader meaning and application, and the meaning of these terms has been the topic of extensive debate and discussion.[83]

According to Bryan Levman, "the word sati incorporates the meaning of 'memory' and 'remembrance' in much of its usage in both the suttas and the [traditional Buddhist] commentary, and ... without the memory component, the notion of mindfulness cannot be properly understood or applied, as mindfulness requires memory for its effectiveness".[84]

According to Robert Sharf, smṛti originally meant "to remember", "to recollect", "to bear in mind", as in the Vedic tradition of remembering the sacred texts. The term sati also means "to remember". In the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta the term sati means to remember the dharmas, whereby the true nature of phenomena can be seen.[83] Sharf refers to the Milindapaha, which said that the arising of sati calls to mind the wholesome dhammas such as the four foundations of mindfulness, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven awakening-factors, the noble eightfold path, and the attainment of insight.[85] According to Rupert Gethin,

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