Why do I keep hearing about mindfulness?
What is mindfulness?
As Jon Kabat-Zinn says, mindfulness is “paying attention, with intention, to the present moment, without reacting to judgment.” To break that down a bit, mindfulness is about building awareness of what’s happening in the present moment and responding to that moment, rather than reacting impulsively. Mindfulness can be described as a method of building self-awareness and gathering data about how you react to what’s going on.
By paying attention, you’re attempting to increase your observations of what’s happening both within yourself and in your environment. You can engage in observing by noticing information you’re taking in through the five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell).
Also, when you’re paying attention, you’re doing it with intentionality, meaning you’re doing it on purpose. So, mindfulness is not daydreaming or allowing the mind to wander; instead, it is a deliberate and purposeful noticing of your where your attention is.
When you’re noticing, you’re attempting to do so in the present moment, as that is the only moment you can create any change. You can’t change the past (as much as you might yearn to) and you can’t predict what’s going to happen in the future. But you can change where your attention is at right here, right now.
Finally, you’re not reacting to any judgments that might come up about the things you’re noticing. The rationale for that is simple: judgments can pull you into emotions that cause your mind to drift away from what you’re trying to anchor your noticing in. For instance, if you’re trying to bring your attention to your breath but you keep focusing on the judgments you’re having about that break-up you just went through, chances are your judgments, sadness, grief, and anger are going to increase your distress and keep your attention off of your breath.
If you think of your mind as a boat adrift and being carried wherever the ocean wants to take it, think of mindfulness as your chain that connects your mind to whatever anchor you want to focus your attention on. When your boat starts to drift off from the anchor, the chain catches the boat before it drifts too far and reorients it to the anchor.
Why Do I Keep Hearing About Mindfulness?
While the effects of mindfulness have been known to various religious, philosophical, and self-care practices for millennia, science has just begun to understand the benefits of practicing mindfulness over the past 40 years or so. Decades of research now demonstrates that mindfulness can help alleviate gastrointestinal distress, lower heart rate, decrease blood pressure, improve sleep hygiene, alleviate stress, manage chronic pain, and alleviate muscle tension.
In addition to those physiological benefits, mindfulness can also help you to reduce rumination, increase focus and attention, mitigate distractions, and manage distress like anxiety, depression, and racing thoughts. Also, it helps you to build self-awareness and gather more information about how you operate in the world, which can lead to you engaging in more values-based, effective decision-making. Mindfulness can also support you in building relationship satisfaction, increase connection to others, help you assert yourself more effectively, and lead you to experience greater self-respect.
With all these benefits, mindfulness has really emerged on the health and self-care scene over the past decade or two. More and more therapists, sports coaches, teachers, physicians, websites, phone apps, corporations, and digital health platforms are incorporating mindfulness into everyday life to achieve these far-reaching gains.
Myths Of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is about being peaceful – Actually, mindfulness is just about building awareness. So, if your current experience is quite tense, anxious, stressful, or uncomfortable, chances are you probably aren’t going to feel very peaceful. So why practice mindfulness then? Because it helps you to figure out what you need at that moment to manage your stress and create more peace. It also helps you to watch when your mind goes back to focusing its attention on whatever is stressing you out and redirect your attention to whatever you want to focus it on.
“I’ve never practiced mindfulness before, I have no idea how to do it” – While you may not be sure how to practice it formally or intentionally, chances are you are already practicing mindfulness in your day-to-day life. And the great thing about mindfulness is that just about anybody can do it! Anytime you try to focus your attention on something and notice when it drifts, that’s mindfulness. For instance, if I’m trying to focus on writing this blog post but my brain wants to think about what to make for dinner and I catch my attention drifting to my dinner, then I’m practicing mindfulness by calling my focus back to writing this blog post. So, what we’re doing in therapy is attempting to identify those moments when it can be helpful to you to practice mindfulness more. We’ll find those moments when you’re not doing it (even though you might like to) and increase awareness in those moments.
Mindfulness will make me concentrate more – You might have that image of mindfulness in your head of a Tibetan monk looking peaceful on a mountainside deep in meditation. Wow, that person can really focus and concentrate on their thoughts! In actuality, mindfulness is not about concentrating. In fact, it’s unnatural for your brain to concentrate on anything for more than just a little while. Instead, your brain is designed to constantly be taking in, scanning, and organizing information, meaning your attention is often rapidly shifting from thing to thing. So rather than building concentration, mindfulness can help you instead to notice when your attention drifts to unhelpful subjects. That way, you can then redirect your attention to whatever is effective for you to focus on at that moment.
Mindfulness is only for those practicing Eastern religions – While many Eastern traditions are associated with and incorporate elements of mindfulness into their practices, mindfulness is accessible to anybody. Mindful practices have, more recently, expanded in Western consciousness over the past several decades. Mindfulness can be incorporated into religion (prayer, meditation, etc.), but you can also practice mindfulness without elements of religion or spirituality entwined as well.
“I have to meditate to practice mindfulness” – Wrong! Meditation can be a way to practice mindfulness, but there are countless other ways to practice mindfulness too. See below for a list of other ideas!
Ways To Practice Mindfulness
Deep breathing
Journaling
Jump on YouTube and find a guided imagery exercise
Wash dishes and pay attention to the smell of the soap or warmth of the water
Utilize mindfulness apps to engage in directed exercises
Attempt to identify all the different flavors in a complex meal
Engage in stretching and notice the sensations in your body as you do
Listen to your favorite song and try to identify all the different instruments being played
Find and follow a body scan exercise online
Imagine your thoughts as leaves floating down a stream, one by one, until they are out of sight
Try to listen to all the creaks and groans of your home
Listen to a thunderstorm and when your mind drifts, bring it back to focusing on the thunder
Light a candle and focus your attention on the flame; when your mind drifts, come back to the flickering
Take a walk and pay attention to all the curves and lines in different leaves you see
If you need more ideas, set up an appointment with CPGR and get started on your practice!
