Mindfulness + wellbeing

Mindfulness is about learning to train your attention to the present moment without dwelling on what has happened in the past or worrying about what will happen in the future.

Mindfulness provides many physical and psychological benefits. It has worked its way into modern day therapy and can be practiced in other non-therapy forms such as yoga and meditation.

Check out this fact sheet to find more information on how mindfulness works, what the benefits are, how meditation works into it, and where you can go if you are interested in trying it out.

What is mindfulness?

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School:

“Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment”

It is about training your attention to be able to rest in the present moment.

Thoughts about the past and future are acknowledged without necessarily being focused on.

In this way, you can avoid being caught up in dwelling on the past or worrying about the future and can instead truly experience life as it happens.

The word mindfulness can be used to refer to both the state of being mindful as described above and the daily practices (eg meditation) that help to bring it about.

History of mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness has been applied to human consciousness for thousands of years with origins in Eastern philosophy

Over the past 40 years, however, it has taken root in Western societies

In addition to people using it daily, in forms such as meditation and yoga, it has been incorporated into many types of therapy including:

• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), developed in the 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), developed out of MBSR as a way to treat and prevent depression.

Awareness, attention + mindfulness

Mindfulness involves paying attention to certain stimuli and disregarding others.

This blog post has an exercise that shows just how your awareness of stimuli can be limited, and how by focusing on different aspects of the images, you are able to see things in a different light.

Though we know the image can be seen in multiple ways, we can only perceive one of them at a time and that depends on how we focus our attention:

• In relation to thoughts, our minds participate in habitual thinking. This means it goes to places and thoughts that we usually think of out of habit.
• Our minds go to these thoughts simply because they have not been trained to focus differently.
• Mindfulness training allows you more control over where your thoughts become focused.

Mindfulness meditation

There are many different types of meditation with the two most common approaches being:

• Concentrative meditation: this focuses the attention on the breath, an image, or a sound (mantra), in order to still the mind and minimize thoughts.
• Mindfulness meditation: this involves training the attention to become aware of the continuously passing sensations and feelings, thoughts and images that make up your moment to moment experience. Additionally an attitude of simply ’noticing and letting be’ is cultivated towards what you become aware of.

In mindfulness meditation you learn to remain aware of what is happening and what you’re feeling in that moment, whether you like it, dislike it, or are confused about it.

You increase your tolerance for seeing the unpleasant - neither identifying with it, nor running from it.

As you become more and more familiar with the usual patterns in your mind, mindfulness allows you to CHOOSE what your mind focuses on by interrupting its habits (eg to put yourself down).

Who can practice it?

EVERYBODY!

Who does it help?

EVERYBODY!

Mindfulness + your wellbeing

Practicing mindfulness has benefits to both your psychological health and physical health.

Psychological benefits include:

• decreased anxiety
• decreased depression
• increased coping skills
• decreased irritability and moodiness
• improved learning ability and memory
• increased happiness
• increased emotional stability
• increase ability to effectively manage problems
• improved self-esteem.

Physical benefits include:

• improved breathing
• lower heart rate
• improved circulation
• improved immune function
• reduced physical stress responses
• better sleep
• better management of physical symptoms (eg pain).

Mindfulness + therapy

Due to all the benefits mindfulness has for your health, certain therapies (such as MBSR and MBCT) are incorporating mindfulness into the treatment of patients with depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder and other mental health issues and physical problems.

Where can you go?

If you are interested in learning more or participating in a mindfulness program here are some places to check out:

• Mindfulness Centre: Training in MBCT, mindfulness + mindful living
• Mindfulness.org.au.

Reach Out is currently setting up a mindfulness training program of its own. We would love to hear from you if you want to help us design it. Please send Dr Kaveh Monshat an email to mail@mateprogram.org and he will get you some more info about the project. 

Let us know how you go

Have you tried mindfulness?

How did you find it?

Do you have any tips for other people who might be thinking of trying it?

Let us know in the comments section below.

Additional resources

• Know Thyself by Craig Hassed
• Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn 
• Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn: YouTube video. This video starts out a little slowly, but feel free to watch the whole thing. The mindfulness exercise, however, starts at about the 20 minute mark and lasts about 20 minutes – remember though, mindfulness takes time and practice, don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work right away!

 

Acknowledgement: This fact sheet has been reviewed by Dr Kaveh Monshat, Lecturer in Psychiatry
University of Melbourne, Consultant Psychiatrist
Headspace Southern Melbourne, PhD Candidate
Orygen Youth Health Research Centre.