Mindfulness

The beneficial effects of meditation and mindfulness-based therapies are supported by a growing body of evidence. Over two decades of clinical research has shown that it can benefit people suffering from anxiety, recurrent depression, chronic pain, substance abuse, emotional eating, sleep problems, and other conditions.

Mindfulness is about developing our ability to pay attention to the present moment intentionally and with an attitude of acceptance. Much of the time, our thoughts and judgments are running rampant in our minds and disconnecting us from experiencing life in the present. For instance, have you ever had the experience of arriving home and not remembering anything about the trip because you were so caught up in your thoughts? Not only are we often disconnected from the present because of our thoughts, but much of our stress and pain is caused by our thinking. We may get caught up in regrets about the past, worries about the future or judgments about the present. When we connect with the present moment mindfully and with an attitude of acceptance, we become aware of these habitual thought patterns. Mindfulness teaches us how to change our relationship to our thinking by becoming less attached to our thoughts as well as less reactive to our thoughts. This enables us to create new, healthier ways of responding to life’s challenges.

Mindfulness training often begins with learning how to focus our attention on one thing (such as the breath) for a period of time. Although this sounds very simple, in practice it is actually quite difficult to stay focused on one thing. Typically our minds come up with all sorts of distractions to pull our attention away from our point of focus. For instance, judgments can pop into our mind, such as “I’m terrible at this!’ or “This is boring and a waste of time” or maybe our mind pulls us into planning what we need to pick up from the store later that day. Or perhaps the memory of a fight with a family member may get replayed when we are trying to focus. All of these experiences are very normal. Many people think they are not able to meditate because they cannot “clear” their mind. But in fact, it is not really possible to completely clear the mind. Our minds are always producing thoughts. Mindfulness can teach us how to notice when our attention has been pulled away from our point of focus, and then we can choose to gently bring our attention back. The more we practice this, the better we get at being able to control our attention – to catch our attention when it wanders, notice where it went, and then return our focus on the present moment.

The Mindfulness Meditation video below was created by Jason Stephenson to assist with falling asleep. The first 16 minutes of the video contains the guided mindfulness meditation and the remaining 45 minutes contains calming music: