Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're feeling and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment.
Practicing mindfulness
involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax your body and mind and help reduce stress. The core of mindfulness then expands its lens from being a mere meditation technique or of being present, always. If you're obsessed with being aware, by definition, you're not being aware, you're just obsessed.Meditation is like a daily massage for the mind. In a practical sense, it helps you distance yourself from your thoughts and emotions, like a third person watching your thoughts in emotions as they pass. Gaining this distance can mean the difference between plunging into anxiety and recovering quickly instead of drowning in a sea of emotional reactions. Mindfulness becomes your conservator of sanity, so to speak.
Martin Scorsese, Jerry Seinfeld: they use a personalized mantra or a series of Sanskrit words to help the practitioner concentrate during meditation rather than simply following the breath. At its core, The Five Minute Journal is about gratitude. Based broadly on positive psychology research, it was designed as a simple, effective and efficient way to focus on the good, establish the intention of the day and reflect. Pat Flynn - I do The Five Minute Journal every morning and it puts me in the right frame of mind to start the day.
Morning Pages is just that. Keep writing until you reach 3 pages. Many days I would just write gibberish, but from time to time I have incredible vision or put feelings on paper that I didn't know I had. Similar to the number of report ideas they come up with in the shower, long walks have a similar magic.
With a cushion or chair, sit straight but not stiff; let your head and shoulders rest comfortably; place your hands on your upper legs with your upper arms at your sides. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and relax. Feel the fall and rise of your chest and the expansion and contraction of your abdomen. With each breath, notice the coolness when you enter and the heat when you go out.
Do not control your breathing, but follow your natural flow. Thoughts will try to divert your attention away from breathing. Look at them, but don't judge them. Gently return to focusing on your breathing.
Some people count their breathing as a way to stay focused. S — Stop doing what you're doing, leave things for a minute. Breathe normally and naturally and follow the breath that goes in and out of your nose. You can even tell yourself to “come in” as you inhale and “exhale” when you breathe out, if that helps you focus.
Techniques may vary, but in general, mindfulness meditation involves deep breathing and awareness of the body and mind. Mindfulness meditation is a technique, but daily activities and tasks provide many opportunities to practice mindfulness. If you're interested in learning more about mindfulness techniques for treating depression, you can check out mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. I hope I have provided you with enough techniques, exercises, and activities to provide you and your clients with the benefits of mindfulness.
Melanie Denham, head coach of the Harvard women's rugby team, recently attended a mindfulness workshop, intrigued by the idea of incorporating techniques into her players' training regimen to help them cope with the pressures of “expectations” and performance. Now, although this isn't a traditional mindfulness technique, its method has been shown to help alleviate depression, anxiety, and PTSD. The trick is to persevere, approach the process with self-compassion and allow reflection, change and flexibility between different techniques and interventions. It's clear that DBT has something to teach us all in applying a wide range of mindfulness techniques and exercises.
Mindfulness techniques can also help an undiagnosed person suffering from occasional (or not so occasional) anxiety. . .
