Mindfulness

At the beginning of this year I read a book about mindfulness.  Reading the book and following the practices based on Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy really helped me to gain a new perspective on the world.  It introduced the concept of mindfulness meditation and helped me to understand the reasons behind thought patterns, particularly negative ones that can be so destructive. It was a relief to know I wasn't alone in this thinking and there was a way to tackle it which has been clinically proven to work. We all have normal feelings of anxiety, stress and sadness, but mindfulness meditation helps prevent these from spiralling downwards leading to prolonged periods of unhappiness and exhaustion.

Meditation is not necessarily about religion or looking for enlightenment, at it's simplest it involves just focusing on the breath, and when your mind wanders bringing the attention back to the breath.  This allows you to observe your thoughts instead of getting caught up in them, and realise they are just thoughts that come and go.  This realisation was a big turning point for me, ultimately I had a new perspective which meant I had a choice on whether to act on them or not.  Mindfulness is about observation without criticism and being compassionate with yourself.  In my last post I talked about compassion,  but up until I read this book that concept hadn't even occurred to me before.  It gave me a greater mental clarity and helped me to break some of my unconscious habits of thinking and behaving.

The terms mindfulness and meditation are often used interchangeably.  Basic meditation involves focusing on the breath which simply allows the mind to rest, but mindfulness meditation involves training the mind to observe things non judgmentally.  Mindfulness is a way of living day to day consciously and mindfully of which the ultimate goal is to make choices and have all our actions and reactions reflect those choices.

When I tried meditation I felt a calm and stillness in my mind which encouraged me to keep going with the practice.  It is what made me realise that I was running on autopilot a lot of the time, it's what inspired me to start this blog and what prompted the search for my smiley face.  It's still a work in progress, and this is just the beginning.

Further reading:
Mindfulness, a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world.  Mark Williams and Danny Pennman, 2011, Piatkus