Health Benefits Of Mindfulness

Based on the evidence, mindfulness could be expanded to be included in teaching individuals not only intrapersonal skills but also the

Effective mindfulness meditation requires training and practice and it has distinct measurable effects on our subjective experiences, our behavior, and our brain

This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was

Mindfulness is an incredible skill, it is a practice that is taking the world by storm and helping more and more people live in their present.

Mindfulness is another way of meditation. Meditation was used to seek to improve one’s psychological or physical health, or spiritual growth. (Brantley, 2007). The history of Mindfulness comes from Buddhism and his search for enlightenment and a foundation of the four noble truths. The Buddha teaching focus on the four noble truths which consist of knowing suffering exists, there is a cause of suffering, there is cessation of suffering and there is a path that leads to the cessation of suffering. (Van Gordon, 2015). The four noble truths were not only there to represent the Buddha’s experiential understanding of suffering, but also to express the truth (Van Gordon, 2015). Studies of Buddhism and the Four Noble Truths teach us that there is always going to be suffering in our life but to find ways to overcome suffering (Tsering, 2005).

Due to the composition of the sample, there are some limitations related to the generalizability of the study. Most of the participants were first-year undergraduate students (66%), women (80%), and whites (73%). Therefore, the results may not fully apply to men, nonwhites or non-traditional students. At the same time, the results may not be representative in individuals from non-Catholic religious beliefs. Despite the limitations, this study demonstrates the long-term positive effects of mindfulness

With Mindfulness training, individuals will be encouraged to intentionally attend in an open, accepting, and discerning way in distressing thoughts and feelings, and consistent engagement rather than avoiding it (Black, 2011). In addition, mindfulness will also allow an individual to consciously appraise situations in a non-judgmental manner, wherein their emotions and beliefs about the present situations are detached. With this, it will enable them to properly process the situation, which will give rise to their respective emotional responses and stop a person from having dysfunctional beliefs or distorted thought

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBI) piqued the Western world’s interests through; its beneficial capabilities in stress reduction while enhancing the practitioner’s overall well-being.  Margaret Cullen’s suggests MBI programs have created this lineage for a new American Dharma (p.190). This emerging trend incorporates Eastern philosophies and practices, in secularized settings, so that practitioners learn to incorporate these foundations in coping with their emotional, psychological, and physical challenges. In this context, the practice has the capability to liberate the mind from greed, hatred, and delusion (187). This involves a non-devotional space, that teaches “Brahma viharas, sampajanna and appamada, and suggests a very particular

“Mindfulness” takes on a slightly varied definition based on the practitioner and the researcher. The Oxford dictionary (2016) defines mindfulness as “A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.” Weijer-Bergsma et al. (2012) states, “Mindfulness is a form of attention training using meditation techniques, in which participants learn to pay attention in a specific way” (pp. 238-239). Mindfulness has also been described as “the process of engaging a full, direct, and active awareness of experienced phenomena that is spiritual in aspect and that is maintained from one moment to the next” (Van Gordon et al.,

Mindfulness is a relatively new phenomenon to the Western world although has been practiced in other countries across the world for thousands of years as a form of meditation. Thought to have first been introduced before Buddhism thousands of years ago, mindfulness was taught to Buddha as a way of alleviating suffering. Today, mindfulness focuses on helping people in secular ways to develop skills that can be used in daily life and

Mindfulness is a concept that emerged thousands of years ago within Buddhist mediation practices, but only recently has become popular as a meditative technique (Roberts & Danoff-Burg, 2010). Mindfulness can be defined as, “a way of paying attention, moment-to-moment and a non-judgmental awareness focusing on the experiences of the present moment” (Roberts & Danoff-Burg, 2010, p.165). The Eastern world suggests mindfulness can be attained through regular practices of meditation, and by embracing our thoughts, emotions and body sensations (Roberts & Danoff-Burg, 2010). In the general population today, any individual can practice mindfulness with little to no experience of meditation. Multiple studies have found greater mindfulness to be associated with perceptions of better physical and psychological health (Berndt, 2002; Harlow, 1983; Carmody & Baer, 2008; Chang et al., 2011;

Many attribute the widespread adoption of mindfulness in Western culture to Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine and creator of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical

Modern clinical investigators and meditation teachers have offered different explanations of mindfulness (Baer, 2003; Bishop et al., 2004; Kabat-Zinn, 2003b; Salzberg & Goldstein, 2001). Baer (2003) believes that mindfulness is all about awareness, which has a considerable role in individuals’ well-being. Flammia and Sadri (2011) claim that “if we are aware of the requirement to be sensitive to and considerate of the alikeness among cultures, we will be more hopeful to accomplish the crucial movements to achieve the proficiency needed to communicate mindfully” (p. 104). Likewise, according to Kabat-Zinn (1994), mindfulness is ‘‘paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally” (p.4).

Even though a few group members openly shared what they like to do to stay mindful, one way to engage the group a little more would have been to go around and ask members to share, if they felt comfortable, what they like to do to attain mindfulness. Opening this door to the conversation

Before taking the class, and before really understanding the benefits of mindfulness, I must admit, I did not really take mindfulness exercises seriously. I tried a few exercises, led by a phone application, but I constantly wondered what these exercises were supposed to achieve. I always thought to myself, “I know what happens around me, being mindful is great, but specific exercises for this seemed exaggerated.”