Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves learning to pay attention to the present moment in a particular, non-judgmental and deliberate way to lessen the damage and unhappiness caused by intrusive, distressing thoughts and memories. We are often unaware of what we are doing. For example, when driving a car or doing everyday tasks we tend to be thinking of other things such as what we need to do tomorrow or what we have done in the past rather than on the details of the present activity. By becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations from moment to moment we give ourselves the possibility of greater freedom and control of our thoughts.  We can avoid relapsing into ways of thinking that may have caused problems in the past. Mindfulness aims to bring our attention back to the current moment and to notice the sensations associated with the current action. The therapy used to achieve this is Mindfulness Meditation which focuses primarily on breathing.  Every time the mind wanders and other thoughts intrude, the attention is brought back to focus on the act and physical sensations of breathing.  With regular practice, once we have learnt how to be mindful of our breathing, physical sensations and routine daily activities, we can then learn to be mindful and more accepting of even our most disturbing or distressing thoughts and feelings which can greatly increase our ability to enjoy our lives.

The Power of Breathing with Awareness

In our post on stabilisation and resource building at the start of therapy we touched on the empowering potential of tuning into our breathing, and the positive physiological implications which this can have to help calm the body and mind. We referred specifically to a technique which we teach our clients called Coherent breathing. By [...]

2017-05-10T13:37:55+00:00By |Categories: Mindfulness, Wellbeing|

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy As Effective As Antidepressants

A study run by the University of Exeter shows that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can be as effective as maintenance antidepressant medication in reducing the rate of relapse in depression. This corroborates other studies' findings, and helps to provide a new choice for the millions of people with recurrent depression, who currently rely on medication. The [...]

2017-05-03T14:38:43+00:00By |Categories: Mindfulness, Wellbeing|

New Mindfulness Study On 7000 Students

Mindfulness has recently been receiving a lot of attention in the media, and now there are new investigations underway to explore further the benefits which it might be able to bring within our society. The latest is a seven year study into whether mindfulness could be used by adolescents to increase their mental resilience. The [...]

2017-05-10T13:39:41+00:00By |Categories: Mindfulness, Psychology News, Wellbeing|

Headspace founder Andy Puddicombe explains Mindfulness to Radio 2’s Steve Wright

Mindfulness was the topic for discussion earlier this week on BBC Radio 2's programme Steve Wright in the Afternoon.  Presenter Steve Wright interviewed mindfulness and meditation expert Andy Puddicombe, founder of Headspace, a digital site offering guided meditation training. Andy explained how taking just 10 minutes a day away from texting, phone calls, conversation and work to [...]

2017-05-10T13:41:17+00:00By |Categories: Mindfulness, Psychology News, Wellbeing|
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