Mindfulness Practice | Mindfulness Therapy | Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention in the present moment without evaluation. Mindfulness practice involves the process of developing the skill of bringing one's attention to whatever is happening in the present moment. Becoming more aware of the present moment can help us enjoy the world around us more and understand ourselves better.

When we become more aware of the present moment, we begin to experience afresh things that we have been taking for granted.

Many of us spend large parts of our lives on auto pilot, not aware of what we are experiencing, missing out on all the sights and sounds and smells and connections and joys we could appreciate. Some of that time our minds seem "switched off," and other times caught in thoughts from the past (often regrets) or plans for the future, much of which is repetitive.

When we do notice something in the present, our habit is often to judge instantly and react quickly, often working from a faulty or limited perspective that restricts our options or creates issues.

Mindfulness helps us be present in our lives and gives us some control over our reactions and repetitive thought patterns. It helps us pause, get a clearer picture of a situation, and respond more skillfully.

More specifically, research on mindfulness has identified these benefits:

Reduced rumination. Several studies have shown that mindfulness reduces rumination. In one study, for example, Chambers et al. (2008) asked 20 novice meditators to participate in a 10day intensive mindfulness meditation retreat. After the retreat, the meditation group had significantly higher selfreported mindfulness and a decreased negative affect compared with a control group. They also experienced fewer depressive symptoms and less rumination. In addition, the meditators had significantly better working memory capacity and were better able to sustain attention during a performance task compared with the control group.

Stress reduction. Many studies show that practicing mindfulness reduces stress. In 2010, Hoffman et al. conducted a metaanalysis of 39 studies that explored the use of mindfulnessbased stress reduction and mindfulnessbased cognitive therapy. The researchers concluded that mindfulnessbased therapy may be useful in altering affective and cognitive processes that underlie multiple clinical issues.

Meditation has been studied in many clinical trials. The overall evidence supports the effectiveness of meditation for various conditions, including:

Stress
Anxiety
Pain
Depression
Insomnia
High blood pressure (hypertension)
Preliminary research indicates that meditation can also help people with asthma and fibromyalgia.

Meditation can help you experience thoughts and emotions with greater balance and acceptance. Meditation also has been shown to:

Improve attention
Decrease job burnout
Improve sleep
Improve diabetes control

Mindfulness has been shown to enhance selfinsight, morality, intuition and fear modulation, all functions associated with the brain's middle prefrontal lobe area. Evidence also suggests that mindfulness meditation has numerous health benefits, including increased immune functioning (Davidson et al., 2003; see Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004 for a review of physical health benefits), improvement to wellbeing (Carmody & Baer, 2008) and reduction in psychological distress (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Ostafin et al., 2006). In addition, mindfulness meditation practice appears to increase information processing speed (Moore & Malinowski, 2009), as well as decrease task effort and having thoughts that are unrelated to the task at hand (Lutz et al., 2009).

Pay attention. It's hard to slow down and notice things in a busy world. ...

Live in the moment.
Try to intentionally bring an open, accepting and discerning attention to everything you do.
Accept yourself.
Treat yourself the way you would treat a good friend.
Focus on your breathing