Mindfulness Can Be Your Friend in a Stressful World

When we’re mindful, we reduce stress, enhance performance, gain insight and awareness through observing our own mind, and increase our attention to others’ well-being. Mindfulness gives us a time in our lives when we can suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness—to ourselves and others.  

Many people who practice mindfulness report an increased ability to relax, a greater enthusiasm for life and improved self-esteem. One NIH-supported study found a link between mindfulness and measurable changes in the brain regions involved in memory, learning and emotion.

Why is mindfulness so important ?

Studies suggest that focusing on the present can have a positive impact on health and well-being. Mindfulness-based treatments have been shown to reduce anxiety and depression. There's also evidence that mindfulness can lower blood pressure and improve sleep, and help people cope with pain.

Mindfulness can help you to make decisions and calm yourself in stressful circumstances. It is a way of feeling connected to yourself and your surroundings regardless of what is going on. Being aware in the present moment, aware of your gut, taking a break during a stressful argument to feel your feet, be aware of your breath and clear your head. Reflect before responding and not reacting.

Pay attention now, be more awake and alive in your daily life.

People are tired of being stuck in their heads and want to learn be alive and present in their bodies. They want to make choices from both their heart and their intellect.

How many of us really inhabit full body awareness?

The truth is we live and dream in the body. Consider the body as the source and inspiration for healing. We perceive the world around us
through our body responses. We can’t heal the body with the mind alone. Enhancing body awareness is a powerful tool for self regulation and resilience.  and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed. Mindfulness is a self-regulation skill to bolster resilience.  

Stress is seen as consequence of the failure of a person to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats, whether actual or imagined. Signs and symptoms of stress include a state of alarm/ adrenaline rush, short-term resistance as a coping mechanism, exhaustion and irritability, muscular spasm, inability to concentrate and a variety of physiological reactions such as headache and increased heart rate. An online survey carried out by American Psychological Association in September 2007 estimated stress levels among 1,848 adults. The results showed 79% agreed that “stress is a fact of life”. One–third of the people reported experiencing extreme levels of stress, and nearly 17% reported that they experience their highest level of stress 15 or more days per month. 

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developed for stress management, encompasses treatment of: anxiety, depression, skin diseases, pain, immune disorders, hypertension and diabetes. It employs mindfulness meditation to alleviate suffering associated with physical, psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders. Over 200 medical centers across the world offer MBSR as an alternative treatment option to clients.