What Is Mindfulness Essay

(Smith 109-112; Diamond Sutra scripture) Explain in detail the practice of mindfulness (step 7) giving two or more specific examples of its role in the Diamond Sutra scripture.

Almost everyone is preoccupied with happiness but yet the population seems to be increasingly unhappy. As society and human experience changes we can’t help but ask ourselves how can we fix an increasingly unhappy and dissatisfied society? Mindfulness meditation is a progressively popular solution to this issue. Mindfulness meditation stems from Buddhist tradition and is a practice that includes focusing one’s attention. Does mindfulness meditation have real psychological effects? And if so can they help improve quality of life? Many studies have been conducted proving that mindfulness meditation does have real psychological effects and can help individuals live a more meaningful and happy life. This can be proven through research related to neuroscience, depression and happiness.

Consciousness is a state of awareness. This includes a person’s feelings, sensations, ideas, and perceptions. There are many different states of consciousness.

Meditation is very difficult to describe and can only truly be explained once experienced. It is the practice of mental concentration leading ultimately through a sequence of stages to the final goal of spiritual freedom, nirvana. The purpose of Buddhist meditation is to free ourselves from the delusion and thereby put an end to both ignorance and craving. The Buddhists describe the culminating trance-like state as transient; final Nirvana requires the insight of wisdom. The exercises that are meant to develop wisdom involve meditation on the true nature of reality or the conditioned and unconditioned elements that make up all phenomena. The goal of meditation is to develop a concept in the mind.

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 act of learning to direct one 's attention to their experience as they unfolds moment by moment, with open-minded curiosity and acceptance. Katherin (2012) states that mindfulness trains us to respond skilfully to whatever is happening at that moment, be it good or bad, rather than worrying about what has happened or might happen. Studies of brain imaging have shown that the structures and function of the brain is reliably and profoundly altered to improve the quality of both feeling and thought by mindfulness practice.

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).

The podcast, “Stuffed”, states that eating is mindless. In other words, we tend to eat with our eyes not our stomach when it comes to multitasking. Combining eating with multitasking leads us to overeat because of two reasons: first, we do not pay attention to what to eat and secondly, we eat to the pace of what we are doing. I strongly agree that the environment in which I eat, affects my diet in terms of amount eaten. Majority of the meals I eat are in front of the television and the snacks I consume are during study sessions. Therefore, I am unaware of the amount of food I am consuming. As well, it also takes 20 minutes for your body to send signals to your brain saying that you are full. Unless I am in a social environment, such as a restaurant, I never take more than 20 minutes to finish meals (Eisen, 2015). I understand that the time period and the settings in which I eat, negatively impacts my eating

“Meditation is a means of transforming the mind” (The Buddhist Centre 2015). Buddhists practice and teach meditation to help enhance the concentration, clarity, positivity, and find a calming sense of the mind (The Buddhist Centre 2015). Buddhists believe that we have full control and power over our minds meaning that we have the power to change how we think and feel during situations through meditation. (ReligionFacts 2015). Buddhist’s believe dedicated meditation can encourage people to have a clearer, more positive, and peaceful world view. Buddhist’s believe people can alter negative perceptions of themselves and turn it into something positive through meditation/ (The Buddhist Centre 2015).

Mindfulness performs a main role within the teaching associated with Buddhist deep breathing where it's affirmed which "correct" or even "right" mindfulness may be the critical element in the road to liberation as well as subsequent enlightenment.

Many people think that mindfulness meditation consists solely of sitting still and thinking about nothing for twenty or thirty minutes and are put off by the thought. In fact, mindfulness

In this paper, I will describe my initial thoughts about the practice of mindfulness and my development regarding practicing it. Furthermore, I will explore the idea of being a mindful therapist and how I am hoping to apply this with patients in the future.

- Focusing - focusing attention is generally one of the most important elements of meditation. It helps to free the mind from thoughts that you turn away from meditation and cause only stress and worry. Concentrate on one particular object, image, or mantra only on your breathing.