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What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness helps to press the “pause button” on life to help oneself calm and become aware of thoughts and emotions. Practicing regularly can help increase self-awareness of surrounding stressors as well as increase focus and concentration. A goal of mindfulness is to help be fully present in the moment without emotional reactivity to the chaos around us.

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How to start—

Practicing mindfulness involves shifting your awareness from “thinking” to noticing the present at any time. It may be while you are walking your dog in the morning and you breathe in the fresh air and listen to the birds singing. It could also be during a meal when you take a moment to pause and savor the smell and taste of your food and drink. Other ways to practice mindfulness can include meditations such as mindful breathing, body scan awareness, loving-kindness mediation, and mindful listening.

Within the field of mental health, practicing mindfulness has been shown to reduce anxiety, depression, fear, and panic while improving concentration, self-compassion, and life-satisfaction. Within the realm of physical health, mindfulness has been shown to reduce measures of stress, pain, blood pressure, while improving sleep and memory. These benefits have even been tracked by imaging on the brain showing improvements in areas of cognition and memory, and less activation in areas related to stress and anxiety. Additional studies have shown that mindfulness can help fight addiction, increase job satisfaction, empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and strengthen relationships.