Mindfulness

"A form of meditation practised by some of Hollywood's biggest stars is becoming a major growth area within British psychology, as evidence grows of its effectiveness in dealing with anxiety and depression" said The Observer in January 2011.

My own introduction to Mindfulness meditation came in a class.  The lecturer walked round the room and gave each of us a raisin. ‘look at it’, she said. ’feel it in the palm of your hand; smell it.’ Then she told us to touch it to our lips, then to put it in our mouths and to be aware how it felt in the mouth before we finally chewed and swallowed.  ‘eating mindfully’.  It struck me then how easy it could be to eat less if every morsel of food were treated with this much attention! And that is certainly one way people are using mindfulness.  Ruby wax uses it to dispel anxiety, when presenting for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJHkYhEQ5nY)0

Mindfulness is about awareness, staying in the moment, fully paying attention to life itself. Becoming mindful means coming alive to possibilities; it leads to greater creativity and less acceptance of stereotypes. it  makes us healthier physically (in part because if you’re fully aware of your body, you’ll treat it well and you’ll notice before any problem gets out of control) as well as mentally; it makes us better parents; better  lovers, better employees and better colleagues.  It is extraordinarily simple and extraordinarily powerful.

I took an online course http://www.bemindfulonline.com/programme/ which taught me the basics.  I use them to deal with the stresses and strains of life and the mother-in-law!  I am also working on developing a mindful approach to daily life - walking mindfully, talking mindfully, listening mindfully and so on.  In fact there’s no area that can’t be improved by mindfulness.

If you think it sounds a bit Buddhist, you’re right.  Mindfulness meditation grew out of Buddhist meditation practices. The man who took it and embedded it in modern medical practice is called Jon Kabat-Zinn.  You can see an introductory talk he gave at Google, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

"How we see and hold the full range of our experiences in our minds and in our hearts makes an enormous difference in the quality of this journey we are on and what it means to us. It can influence where we go, what happens, what we learn, and how we feel along the way." -Jon Kabat-Zinn

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