Mindfulness Meditations

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.

Mindfulness also involves acceptance. This means that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

Why practice mindfulness?

For some people, mindfulness is primarily a way to enhance health or performance. For others, mindfulness is a tool for self-exploration.  And for yet others, mindfulness is part of a spiritual path, a way to develop insight into the human condition and freedom from suffering.

Regardless of the motivation, scientists find that practicing mindfulness is associated with changes in the structure and function of the brain as well as changes in our physiological responses to stress, suggesting that this practice has important impacts on our physical and emotional health that are worth exploring. 

What does the evidence indicate?

From the various sources, some consensus is emerging on the effectiveness of mindfulness for specific conditions:

✅ Recent reviews agree that mindfulness has a moderate to “robust” effect on depression, stress, and anxiety, which is a strong finding in the world of medical research! One group of researchers liken the effect of mindfulness for depression to that of anti-depression medications—without the side effects

✅ There is moderate evidence that mindfulness has an impact on pain, particularly with the psychological experience of pain. A 2014 review in the Journal of the American Medical Association found moderate evidence of the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions for pain, but the relief varied across pain conditions.  Another recent critical review of the literature in the journal Pain Medicine found that most studies show a positive connection between mindfulness-based practices and pain intensity.

✅ A 2014 “evidence map” done by the Veterans Administration in the US also found effects on overall health and chronic illness for those who went through an MBSR program (as compared to control groups that did nothing).

✅ Research has suggested that practicing mindfulness may be associated with enhanced attentional control and working memory, and may improve cognitive performance, such as problem solving and decision making. In addition, the practice of mindfulness is associated with greater self-awareness and emotional control, which can contribute greatly to teamwork and conflict resolution.

Practice awareness in daily life

Mindfulness is as simple as picking a task and paying attention, bringing a fresh sense of curiosity to the activity.

The most basic way to practice mindfulness is to focus your attention on your breath, the inhale and exhale. You can do this while standing, but ideally you’ll be sitting or even lying in a comfortable position. Your eyes may be open or closed, or you can maintain a soft gaze, with your eyes partially closed but not focusing on anything in particular. It can help to set aside a designated time for this exercise, but it can also help to practice it when you’re feeling particularly stressed or anxious. Experts believe a regular practice of mindful breathing can make it easier to do in difficult situations. 

Sometimes, especially when trying to calm yourself in a stressful moment, it might help to start by taking an exaggerated breath: a deep inhale through your nostrils (3 seconds), hold your breath (2 seconds), and a long exhale through your mouth (4 seconds). Otherwise, observe each breath without trying to adjust it; it may help to focus on the rise and fall of your chest or the sensation through your nostrils. As you do so, you may find that your mind wanders, distracted by thoughts or bodily sensations. That’s OK. You can notice that this is happening and try to gently bring your attention back to your breath.

To provide even more structure, follow along with this short guided mindful meditation:

To learn more and go deeper into this practice, I offer several online programs, from a fun 5 day challenge, to a 2 hour workshop, to a 4 week course, to a daily intensive for 2 weeks to get you in the habit of calming your brain and body with mindfulness.

Click here to learn more about our mindful journeys to help calm your mind and soul.