Peace of Mindfulness
What are the benefits of mindfulness?
Improves mental health
Mindfulness practices can reduce stress, anxiety and can be just as effective as medication for treating depression in some cases. There is more and more scientific evidence backing up the perceived benefits of regular mindfulness practices. Some experts believe that mindfulness works, in part, by helping people to accept their experiences including painful emotions rather than react to them with aversion and avoidance. It can help with:
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depression
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substance abuse
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eating disorders
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couples’ conflicts
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anxiety disorders
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obsessive-compulsive disorder
Improves well-being
Increasing your capacity for mindfulness supports many attitudes that contribute to a satisfied life.
Being mindful makes it easier to savor the pleasures in life as they occur, helps you become fully engaged in activities, and creates a greater capacity to deal with adverse events.
Improves physical health
Regular practice can also bring about physical health benefits too such as:
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help relieve stress
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treat heart disease
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lower blood pressure
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reduce chronic pain
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improve sleep
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alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties
What is Mindfulness?
In 1979, Jon Kabat-Zinn recruited chronically ill patients not responding well to traditional treatments to participate in his newly formed eight-week stress-reduction program, which we now call Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Since then, substantial research has mounted demonstrating how mindfulness-based interventions improve mental and physical health comparably so to other psychological interventions.
“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally,” says Kabat-Zinn. “It’s about knowing what is on your mind.”
Mindfulness can be cultivated through mindfulness meditation, a systematic method of focusing your attention.