If you’ve spent any time Googling about your mental health, you’ve probably run across the concept of mindfulness. Mindfulness may have even been recommended as a strategy to improve your particular mental health condition. It’s got great research support as an intervention for a variety of mental health conditions, ranging from depression to anxiety to insomnia to stress and many more. But what is it really, how is it useful, and how does it impact your health? Today, I’m refreshing an article I wrote nearly three years ago. This article is Mindfulness: Explained.
1. Mindfulness is “Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”
My education in mindfulness began with Jon Kabat-Zinn, a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who defines mindfulness as
“Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.”
Read that definition again. Very slowly.
Paying attention
In a particular way (i.e., on purpose).
In the present moment.
And non-judgmentally.
You know that experience where you’ve been driving for a while and suddenly realize you haven’t been paying attention for the past 5 miles and don’t know how you got where you’re going? It’s the opposite of that.
It’s very different from how we normally pay attention, and it’s the opposite of the “autopilot” we spend much of our lives on. It’s deliberately paying attention in the present moment to whatever our experience is and noticing that experience without judging it as either good or bad, right or wrong.
Even when we’re paying attention to our experience, we tend to judge the experience. “I’m anxious; that’s bad.” “I’m worried; that’s stupid.” “I’m uncomfortable; that’s intolerable.”
Mindfulness is about noticing what you’re thinking, feeling, doing, and otherwise experiencing…without judging it.
2. Paying attention to our feelings (i.e., using mindfulness) actually helps us manage our feelings better.
Have you ever sat in silence and felt uncomfortable? That’s a common experience, especially for people with anxiety or other mental health conditions. And because it’s so uncomfortable to be alone with our thoughts and feelings, most of us avoid that experience — that helps us avoid the discomfort, but it means we never actually deal with the issue.
When we can learn to not judge our thoughts and feelings but to observe them from a safe distance, we can more safely experience that distress and watch it dissipate. It’s a way of providing stability and grounding, even in the midst of tremendous emotional distress. Mindfulness is a key strategy in learning how to be alone with yourself.
3. Mindfulness is different than relaxation.
Sometimes people equate mindfulness to relaxation. While you might feel more relaxed as you practice mindfulness, it is explicitly an active exercise. Active in the cognitive and emotional sense. It’s not about changing your state of mind or changing anything at all. Quite the opposite – it’s about accepting your reality just as it is, again without labeling or judging it as positive or negative. With mindfulness, we can get closer to our emotions and thoughts without getting caught up in the spiral, and that helps us actually gain some control over them in the long term.
4. Mindfulness can improve immunity.
Stress impairs our immune system, which is why we are more likely to get sick when we’re stressed out (and why people with depression and other mental health conditions tend to get sick more often than people without mental health conditions). Stress is linked to all kinds of negative physical health outcomes — check out my prior article about how stress specifically impacts women. There’s also some evidence mindfulness can improve how our immune systems function (presumably by improving our stress management). For example, people who practice mindfulness take fewer sick days and are sick for a shorter time period. Plus, mindfulness appears to improve quality of life for people with conditions like fibromyalgia, IBS, breast cancer, and even psoriasis. In this paper, Dr. David Creswell, PhD, of Carnegie Mellon University reviews what research has taught us about mindfulness so far, including how it affects immunity and other aspects of physical health.
5. Mindfulness can reduce pain.
Stress triggers pain, and mindfulness helps reduce pain and how pain interferes in people’s lives (meaning people can get back to some of their normal activities because they are in less pain or can tolerate the pain better).
6. Mindfulness improves mental health.
Mindfulness helps people with depression have fewer episodes of depression in the future (i.e., it reduces relapse), including for people with a long history of depression and a trauma history. It also reduces current symptoms of depression and seems to also have a positive impact on anxiety and PTSD symptoms. Plus, it’s been shown to help treat addictions and reduce drug relapse.
7. Mindfulness helps you stop overthinking.
Mindfulness reduces “ruminating,” which is when you have the same series of thoughts over and over and over again (like when you replay an embarrassing conversation repeatedly, or when you can’t stop thinking about the bad things that keep happening to you).
8. Mindfulness might help your relationships.
Admittedly, we don’t know a ton yet about how mindfulness impacts relationships, but people who practice mindfulness tend to be less lonely, more satisfied with their relationships, and more likely to engage in helpful, compassionate behaviors.
HOW TO PRACTICE MINDFULNESS
Now that you know a bit about mindfulness, it’s time to establish a practice.
Mindfulness Exercise
Here’s a mindfulness exercise to get you going today:
Set the timer on your phone (or watch or …microwave?) to 3 minutes.
During the first minute, focus on your thoughts, feelings, and any physical sensations you notice in your body and label each as you experience it, noticing how you are doing and feeling.
During the second minute, try to focus your attention on your breath, refocusing each time you notice your mind has wandered.
During the final minute, gradually broaden your attention from your breath to how it feels in your body to breathe. When the timer expires, proceed with your day as you were.
Source: Positive Psychology Program
MINDFULNESS RESOURCES
Here are some resources that include some of my favorite ways to practice and learn more about mindfulness:
Websites
UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center – Free Guided Meditations
Apps
Books
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
10 Percent Happier by Dan Harris
UP NEXT
Now that you know the basics of mindfulness, next week I’ll introduce you to 3 mindfulness strategies you can use to manage your anxiety. These strategies are for you if
- You feel uncomfortable when you’re alone with your thoughts
- You’re not sure how to get started with mindfulness
- Your medication is helpful, but you still have some extra anxiety to manage
- You want to learn how to manage your anxiety without medication (if this is you, you’ll also want to make sure you check out my 9 ways to manage anxiety without meds)
Talk to you soon,
Dr. Finch
P.S. Remember, this is education, not treatment. Always consult with a psychologist or therapist about your mental health to determine what information and interventions are best for you. See the disclaimer for more details.
Dr. Hayden Finch is a licensed psychologist providing therapy in Iowa & Arkansas dedicated to bringing you evidence-based strategies to master your mental health.
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