I’m going to start right off by saying that mindfulness probably isn’t for everyone.
Though I’ve personally found it beneficial in reducing stress and anxiety, I accept that the research is limited and we don’t yet have a full understanding of the benefits of mindfulness.
But if you’ve never given it a shot before now, it might just be worth a try!
The Benefits of Mindfulness
The goal of mindfulness is simply to become aware and mindful of the present moment. This involves “taking a step back” and noticing when a negative thought begins to control our mind.
Taking a step back is also known as cognitive distancing and has become a staple of modern therapy. By identifying our negative feelings and the triggers that cause them, we can begin to take control of our minds and improve our quality of life.
Benefits of mindfulness include relieving stress, treating heart disease, lowering blood pressure and improving sleep. A study from 2011 even showed mindfulness helps emotion regulation, emotional reactivity and increased compassion.
The same study also pointed out a suite of interpersonal benefits. These included relationship satisfaction, the ability to respond constructively to relationship stress, the ability to identify and communicate emotions to one’s partner. Additional interpersonal benefits included a decrease in relationship conflict, a decrease in negativity, and an increase in empathy.
Rather than living in a state of negativity, mindfulness helps us understand that external events are neither good nor bad. Only our judgments of these events can be good or bad.
Mindfulness has a whole range of additional benefits from overcoming cravings and bad habits to
Mindfulness benefits also largely overlap with the benefits of yoga.
Cultivating a healthy mind
The benefits of mindfulness tend to revolve around cultivating a healthy mind, in other words mental health. Everyone thinks, and everyone has negative thoughts, at least once in a while. Though they may not seem too harmful in the moment, negative thoughts are incredibly destructive, and can even become debilitating if not properly managed.
Negative thoughts include anxiety and stress from work or anger at the person who cut you off on the highway. In these situations, we allow our minds to fall victim to external events. By going with the flow, we ruin our quality of life by simply letting the negative thoughts occupy our mind.
After we’ve internalised the idea that external events cannot determine our happiness and well-being, our minds become a blank slate. By living in the moment, we allow ourselves to live every moment joyously and without anxieties.
The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
Meditation is one of the best ways to cultivate mindfulness, and it can take many forms. The idea is that we spend a large portion of our lives (if not all) by reacting to external stimuli.
Meditation is a mental exercise where we train our minds to not react to anything. Instead we focus on a single thing, thought or image. For beginners, this focus item will be our breathing during meditation.
Meditation helps us focus our minds inhaling through our nostrils and exhaling through our mouths. We learn to slow the hamster wheel of anxiety, grief, anger or any other emotion that becomes out of control.
Meditation might be the most important practice in mindfulness, which is why we put together a beginner’s guide to meditation. To relieve physical symptoms of stress, try out a body scan meditation.
Mindfulness in the post-COVID world
Many people have found the simple act of living difficult during these “unprecedented times”. With a full-blown pandemic, several lockdowns and constant social distancing, it’s no wonder mental health is on everyone’s minds right now.
Not only did the world seem to change overnight, but many of us have seen our futures become ever more uncertain. We’ve even been forced to cut out many of the things we’ve relied on to bring us joy. Dinner parties, working out at the gym, dancing in a room full of people, watching the latest blockbuster films at the cinema. These are all things of the past and hopefully, the future.
I’m not saying that picking up a regular mindfulness practice will make your problems go away. But they will help you distance yourself from any pain in your life and approach it calmly with equanimity. Rather than reacting emotionally when things get tough, we can take a step back. We learn that our response is always within our control. So why would we not want to reduce our stress and anxiety – especially when times are tough?
In such trying times, we need great routines to keep sane. That’s why I developed my own optimal pandemic routines.
The concepts of mindfulness and mental health have never been more important, and that’s why we’re here… talking about mindfulness.
Mindful Philosophies
There isn’t one specific philosophy related to mindfulness. Many ancient civilisations adopted similar practices of meditation and reflection, all isolated from one another. It just goes to show that mindfulness isn’t a fad. The first documented evidence of meditation is from around 5,000 BC. That’s nearly 5 millenia before the Buddha first began his quest!
That’s why we’ve decided to take a philosophy/religion-agnostic approach to mindfulness. Whether you lean towards the spiritual end of Buddhism and Vipassana or the ultra-rational thoughts of Stoicism, feel free to choose the philosophy that’s best suited for you.
Mindfulness is so much more than Buddhism or Stoicism. I truly believe that anyone can cultivate their own style of mindfulness to best suit their needs. Whether your goal is happiness, productivity or even improved sleep and relaxation. The benefits of mindfulness are far-reaching and we’re here as a resource to guide you through it!
We aim to boil down the most important information on mindfulness so you don’t have to!
Leave a comment and let us know if there’s anything specific about mindfulness you want us to cover in one of our next posts!
The idea is that we must first learn how to live our best lives. Then we can actually put these theories to the test. Learn the benefits of mindfulness with Mind & Practice.