You must’ve heard the term mindfulness before but have no idea what it means. Perhaps, you did not even bother knowing what it is. What if I tell you that it is something that can bring a lot of good things into your life and even help you improve your entire being?
Mindfulness means retaining awareness of your surroundings, bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts in each passing moment through a tender, nurturing lens. To practice mindfulness, you must try to learn to accept things unconditionally. You must be able to pay attention to your feelings and thoughts as they come.
Let mindfulness change your life for the better, and look forward to a bright future.
Definition of Mindfulness that Scientists Use
When you practice being mindful, your thoughts must be in tune with what you’re sensing now. You should avoid remembering the past or imagining the kind of future that you may have due to the actions that you take today.
Mindfulness has taken its roots from Buddhist meditation, and it has entered the American mainstream not long ago. In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn from the University of Massachusetts Medical School launched his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Since then, thousands of studies have been conducted and documented the mental and physical health benefits of this practice.
Countless programs adapted the MBSR model and used it for veterans’ centers, hospitals, schools, and others. Believe it or not, this practice is backed by science. In fact, there are three mindfulness definitions that scientists use.
These definitions can help you to further understand the benefits that being mindful can bring to your mind and body.
Mindfulness is Appreciation
Mindfulness has the power to let yourself appreciate a lot of things and avoid taking these things for granted. Mindfulness can make you appreciate the little things that you receive or come your way and free your mind from the notion that everything will or should remain the same.
Some people may find this a bit challenging, especially when you need to alter most of your habits to obtain the elusive victory. However, this definition falls a bit short regarding the things that may precisely happen when you practice it.
Mindfulness is living existing moments
Mindfulness means to go back to the existing moment. This definition quashes the common belief that the meaning of mindfulness is to remain at the present moment.
People who practice meditation, which is also one of the best self-improvement tips, may become frustrated when their minds kept wandering somewhere and refuse to stay in the present moment. You and many others may state that you can’t be mindful because it would be difficult for you to remain at the present moment.
You are right about that since it is true that your mind is incapable of staying in the present moment. A human mind keeps processing and computing in each passing moment.
It is quite challenging to control your mind to stay put and remain at the present and not wander off somewhere. However, you have the power to command your mind to return to the current moment, which this definition deeply emphasizes.
Mindfulness is attention and curiosity
Mindfulness is attention, self-regulation with an attitude of acceptance, openness, and curiosity.
This definition came from the consensus of a distinguished group of mindfulness researchers who wanted to provide a clear understanding of the practice. The future consumers, practitioners, and researchers of this practice will benefit a lot from this. It shows potential in becoming a popular practice.
The experts try to provide a concise understanding of the practice to prevent possible confusion in the future. If there are more than 100 ways to describe the process or meaning of mindfulness, everyone may not be able to look on the same page.
Future researchers will likely study the same thing over again. Practitioners could be teaching something different based on their understanding. The poor consumers are the ones to suffer due to confusing or misleading practices.
Misinformation and misconception are likely to occur when there are different descriptions and suggestions about this practice.
Self-regulation, as used in the third definition, refers to the manner in which you can control your attention and regulate your focus. You may deliberately shift your attention to a colleague who’s trying to grab something or the way the speaker uses his hands to stress a point.
You may even divert your attention to your future goal or a memory of your past.
You also need to be open to anything that you put your attention to and become curious about the thing that you might discover. Your discovery may bring a pleasant or horrible experience, or it could be uninteresting.
In any case, you can deploy your acceptance, curiosity, and openness to broaden your experience or knowledge.
Each definition provides helpful and interesting insights. If you want to advance your research and practice of being mindful, the third definition can lead you to your goal.
Life-Changing Benefits of Mindfulness
You and anyone can practice mindfulness, which brings many benefits to your body and well-being. You can benefit a lot from it if you are someone with any of the following conditions:
- Suffering from stress-related psychological and physical symptoms.
- Wish to boost your overall well-being without using drugs.
- You often experience sadness, depression, and anger.
- You always have negative thoughts or have always been cynical.
- A business magnate, celebrity, athlete, student, or someone with a busy schedule.
- You aim to gain mental composure and peace of mind.
- You want to increase your productivity and overall health.
Big companies like Target, Apple, and Google have included meditation as part of their employees’ daily work schedules. These companies believe that it can help improve the fitness and productivity of their workers.
Savvy CEOs have recognized the ability of mindfulness in allowing the brain to come up with fresh ideas that can bring a lot of benefits to the company. They also believe that it can enhance employees’ accuracy and mental capacity. Your brain becomes more attentive than before when you practice being mindful.
According to a nationwide survey, there’s an increase in the number of ordinary people who practice the mind-body approach to help improve their physical and mental health. The rich and famous are not the only ones who practice mindfulness today.
You should brace yourself and expect to encounter more hurdles and struggles in each passing day in this busy world. That’s enough reason for you to practice being mindful.
The different forms of physical fitness can give you good training for your body, while mindfulness can provide decent training for your mind. The following are some of the most important benefits of being mindful:
It can boost psychological and mental health.
Each day, you can generate around 50,000 thoughts. Your mind wanders off incessantly to different subjects. In a busy street, your eyes keep observing various things. Your attention keeps diverting, whether the subject of interest is essential or something insignificant.
The persistent mind chatter creates added anxiety and stress. Most of the time, these thoughts tend to make you worry about things that are less likely to happen.
Mindfulness can help you sharpen your mind and be able to discern the things that will likely happen and those that are less likely to occur. You get to develop your critical thinking skills.
You will also be able to deepen your focus and attention span. It has the ability to fire up your neurons, cultivate your creativity, boost your learning ability, and enhance your self-esteem.
Not long ago, psychotherapists have included mindful meditation in treating various problems that include:
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Anxiety disorders
- Conflicts between couples
- Eating disorders
- Substance abuse
- Depression
It helps enhance physical health.
In western culture, more and more people are using mindfulness and relaxation techniques. These people regard the practice as an effective alternative treatment to some health conditions.
If you practice mindful meditation regularly, you will notice a favorable effect on your physical health. In fact, scientists have discovered that you can improve your physical health in many ways when you practice its techniques.
Mindfulness can help alleviate gastrointestinal problems, lessen chronic pain, bring down blood pressure, and relieve stress. It can also help you achieve better sleep quality.
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and the MBSR program are well-known at the University of Massachusetts, where he created the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. The MBSR program provides beneficial assistance to people suffering from pain, stress and anxiety, and illness. Even though the program may not be able to help cure the disease, it can help improve the patient’s overall quality of life.
It can help improve your well-being.
It would be easier to savor life’s pleasures as they come when you are mindful. It helps you to completely immerse yourself in your activities and be able to deal with adverse events without trouble.
When you focus on the things that are currently happening in your life, you may likely leave the past worries and regrets behind.
You may also be less likely to think about the things that the future may bring. Without thinking about any unfavorable events that happened or may occur in your life, you will be able to form deep and better relationships with others.
Mindfulness can do lots of wonders for you, and you should not delay practicing it any longer. Let mindfulness change your life and live to the fullest while going on a journey to self-improvement.
