What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention with gentleness, curiosity and acceptance. It helps us live more fully in the present moment. This means paying deliberate attention to what is happening in our bodies, and to what we are doing, feeling and thinking, without judging or trying to change our experience. Mindfulness incorporates mindful breathing, bodyscan practices, mindful eating and mindful movement.

By exploring these practices we begin to observe our thoughts as they arise moment by moment without judgement. Allowing thoughts to come and go we can come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings are transient. We are more than our thoughts. Through the practice of mindfulness we come to realise that we have a choice about whether to act on our thoughts or not.

Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress take hold in our lives we can observe our thoughts with friendly curiosity and allow them to pass. In essence, mindfulness allows you to catch negative thought patterns before they tip you into a downward spiral. It begins the process of putting you back in control of your life.

Over time, mindfulness brings about long-term changes in mood and levels of happiness and well-being. Scientific studies have shown that mindfulness not only prevents depression, but that it also positively affects the brain patterns underlying day-to- day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability so that when they arise, they dissolve away again more easily. Other studies have shown that regular mediators see their doctors less often and spend fewer days in hospital, memory improves, creativity increases and reaction times become faster.

Mindfulness is the capacity to be fully with ourselves from one moment to the next and to be available for life as it unfolds in this particular moment. Mindfulness is not about trying to get somewhere; rather it is about recognising what is already here and giving ourselves the space to be where we are and as we are.

Despite the proven benefits, however, many people are still a little wary when they hear the word meditation. Before embarking on a Mindfulness course it is important to dispel some of the myths:

• Mindfulness is not a religion. Mindfulness, at its most simple is a method of mental training that can become a way of being.
• You don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor but you can if you want to. Mindfulness is something you can practice anywhere, on buses, trains or walking to work.
• Mindfulness practice does not take a lot of time, although some patience and persistence are required. Many people soon find that mindfulness liberates them from the pressures of time, so they have more of it to spend on activities that they enjoy.
• Mindfulness is not complicated. Nor is it about ‘success’ or ‘failure’. Even when mindfulness practices feel difficult, you’ll have learned something valuable
  about the workings of the mind and noticing this is an important part of any mindfulness practice.
• It will not deaden your mind or prevent you from striving towards important career or lifestyle goals; nor will it trick you into falsely adopting a Pollyanna attitude to life. Mindfulness is not about accepting the unacceptable or becoming bland and without opinions. It is about seeing the world with greater clarity so that you can take wiser and more considered action to change those things which need to be changed. Mindfulness helps cultivate a deep and compassionate awareness that allows you to assess your goals and find the optimum path towards realising your deepest values.