MINDFULNESS

Have you ever driven your car somewhere and arrived at your destination only to realise you remember nothing about your journey? Or started eating a packet of chips and then suddenly noticed all you had left in your hands was an empty packet? Most of us have!
These are some common examples of ‘mindlessness’ – A state we also often refer to as being on ‘autopilot.’
When we slip into autopilot (and research shows that the average person is in autopilot 47% of the time) our attention is absorbed in our wandering minds and we are not really ‘present’ in our own lives.
In this busy, hyper connected world we live in it’s all too easy to lose ourselves in autopilot for much of the day….every day.
On autopilot we tend to get lost in ‘doing’ so we find ourselves constantly striving and struggling and ‘getting stuff done’ instead of really living.
We also become vulnerable to anxiety, stress, depression and reactivity. Research shows, in fact, that the more our minds wander, the less happy we are.

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What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the opposite of mindlessness.
It means waking up out of autopilot and ‘taking the steering wheel’ of our attention again.
We practice mindfulness by maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and the surrounding environment.
Mindfulness also involves non-judgment, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings with the attitude of an impartial witness — without believing them or taking them personally.

When we practice mindfulness firstly our attention is held…

1. On Purpose

Mindfulness involves the conscious and deliberate direction of our attention.
When we’re on autopilot our attention is being swept up by a never ending (and not always positive) current of thought processes but when we’re mindful we ‘wake up’ and step out of that current, placing attention where we choose.
Another way of saying ‘on purpose’ is consciously. We are living more consciously, more awake, more fully ourselves when we pay attention in this way.
Secondly our attention is immersed…

2. In The Present Moment

If we leave it to it’s own devices our mind habitually wanders away from the present moment. It constantly gets caught up in the replaying the past and the projecting into the future. In other words, we’re very rarely fully present in the moment.
Mindful attention, however, is completely engaged in the present moment experience – the here and now. We let go of the tension caused by wanting things to be different, the tension of constantly wanting more, and instead we accept the present moment as it is.
And third, our attention is held…

3. Non Judgmentally

When practicing mindfulness we’re not aiming to control or suppress or stop our thoughts.
We simply aim to pay attention to our experiences as they arise without judging or labelling them in any way.
Mindfulness then allows us to become the watcher of sense perceptions, thoughts and emotions as they arise without getting caught up in them and being swept away in their current.
Becoming the watcher in this way, we’re less likely to mechanically play out old habitual ways of thinking and living. It opens up a new freedom and choice in our lives.

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What Can Mindfulness Do For You?

Here are some of the proven ways that mindfulness can benefit you…

-Mindfulness reduces stress, anxiety and other destructive emotions (Mindfulness actually shrinks the brain’s “fight or flight” center, the amygdala. This primal region of the brain, associated with fear and emotion, is involved in the initiation of the body’s response to stress. this is the part of the brain responsible for so many destructive emotions like fear, unhappiness and anger.)
-Mindfulness reduces depression
-Mindfulness reduces insomnia, increases your sense of well being, reduces lethargy and increases energy both mentally and physically.
-Mindfulness is also very effective for pain management.
-Mindfulness sharpens your memory and increases your focus and attention.
-Mindfulness improves your emotional and social intelligence and develops your empathy and compassion. It is also shown to improve relationships.
-Mindfulness improves health and boosts immunity.
-Mindfulness creates clearer, more focused thinking and improves efficiency at work and at home .
-Mindfulness improves confidence and emotional resilience.

In other words, the more mindful you are the happier you are