Have you ever heard of the term mindfulness?
Mindfulness is one of the techniques you can use to help maintain your mental health. It has spread around the U.S. and gradually gained attention in Japan after Time Magazine published a special article titled “Mindful Revolution” in 2014.
Mindfulness has been shown to be effective in reducing stress responses including depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as increasing concentration and creativity. This practice can be helpful when you are feeling anxious and uncomfortable.
We’re going to introduce you what mindfulness is in this section.
Definition of mindfulness
The definition of mindfulness is as follows:
Paying attention in a particular way;
A moment-by-moment awareness,
without any additional evaluation or judgement,
and on purpose.
It may be difficult to understand that this is all, but don’t worry, We will explain it in detail.
A moment-by-moment awareness.
Usually, our attention shifts between the past and the future.
You might think about the past, “Oh, I shouldn’t have said that,” or “I’ve done something like this before,” and then think about the future, “What if it doesn’t work out,” or “I have to do this by next week”.
Mindfulness, in contrast, focuses your attention on the “here and now”.
Mindfulness is the focus on the present moment without any additional evaluation or judgment.
We live every day making evaluations and judgments.
Consciously or not, we are all making judgments one after the other about the things in front of us: “This is good”, “This is bad”, “This is important”, “I don’t need that”, “I can’t do it”, “It might not work”, “Maybe he/she doesn’t think well of me”, and so on…
On the other hand, the practice of Mindfulness requires you to accept what’s happening right in front of you, without judgement.
Paying attention on purpose.
Whenever we have a moment, we think “somehow” in a flowing way.
There are some things you can do automatically without even realizing it, such as taking a bath as part of your usual routine.
On the other hand, with Mindfulness you consciously bring your attention to the here and now experience without evaluating or judging it; you actively focus on the present moment
What do you think? Have you gotten an idea of what “Mindfulness” is so far?
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention and experiencing the moment without judgment, these are the core characteristics.
Mindfulness breathing
Here are some specific ways to incorporate Mindfulness into your everyday life. The first thing I recommend is training yourself to pay attention to your breathing.
Breathing is an action that sustains us every moment of our lives, so by simply paying attention to our breathing, we can naturally bring our attention to the here and now.
If you’re new to Mindfulness, Mindfulness breathing is a great way to get started.
So, let’s put it into practice. Follow the audio instructions and work on it for five minutes.
- Sit in a chair and adjust your posture.
- Stay in a stable position with your feet on the floor, not leaning on the back.
- After a few stretches, you can get into a position where you can breathe comfortably.
Let’s try!
Use the up and down arrow keys to adjust the volume.
Reflections
What did you think of your first Mindfulness experience?
It is easy to get anxious, feel down, or be influenced by outside information.
Didn’t Mindfulness bring back that feeling of being a little calmer and more grounded when you pay attention to your inner self?
Just five minutes a day is enough to make a difference.
Try practicing at a time that is easy for you, such as when you wake up in the morning, when you want to calm down after a day’s work, or before you go to bed at night.
When you heard the word Mindfulness for the first time, you may have thought, “This is difficult,” or “I don’t know if I’m doing it right.” But there is no need to be anxious or to be in a hurry.
Mindfulness is something you develop with practice, and little by little you’ll think, “This is mindfulness! It’s something that will become clear to me!”.
In the “Imacoco Care” program, we will introduce a variety of Mindfulness work, so please give it a try.
In my next post, I’ll introduce you to ‘body scan’ techniques that focus your attention on the sensations in your body.
