There is much talk in health circles about mindfulness and mindful practices, writes MARGARET LAMBERT in her latest Voice in Macarthur column.
How can mindfulness improve our wellbeing? When we are mindful, we pay attention to the present moment in a way that is non-judgmental.
Being mindful enables us to view the moment just as it is without any investment in the outcome.
It invites us rather to observe the situation with detachment and curiosity.
Mindfulness has been shown to help with mental and emotional states and with our general sense of wellbeing.
Specifically, mindfulness has been shown to improve:
• stress, anxiety and depressive states
• coping ability
• energy and motivation
• our feelings of being connected to ourselves, others and the world
• self-awareness and self-compassion
• physical healing
Mindfulness practices also help us to become more objective and less reactive to situations that disturb us – and we become nicer people to be around when we are more curious and less judgmental!
How can I engage in Mindfulness practice?
There are many ways to improve mindfulness practice.
One simple method is to focus on the breath.
Watch your in-breath and your out-breath over several minutes.
Whenever your attention wanders, bring it back to the breath.
Start with doing this for five or ten minutes (whatever is manageable), and work up to watching the breath for around 20 or 30 minutes.
Keeping your attention directed in this way is the essence of mindfulness practice.
You may prefer to do a mindfulness meditation where you can focus your attention on a particular mantra.
A mantra is simply a word or a phrase that is repeated slowly over a period of time.
You can choose any word or phrase at all, but it makes sense to choose something that is soothing to you such as “peaceful” or “relaxing” or “calm”.
Focus your complete attention on saying the word or phrase repeatedly, perhaps in time with your breath. Again, when your attention wanders, just bring it back again to focusing on the mantra.
With practice, you will improve your level of attention and mindfulness.
There are many other ways to engage in mindfulness practices: activities such as yoga and chi gung use mindfulness and meditation as core aspects of the exercise.
Find a mindfulness method that works for you and your body will thank you for it!
Until next time…
