Excellent 10 minutes Mindfulness video, My clients love it!

Spend just 10 minutes doing this in the evening or when needed on your own or with a partner. Mindfulness helps you concentrate and focus your awareness back to the here and now instead of worrying about the future or the past.

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present moment—and accepting it without judgment. Mindfulness is now being examined scientifically and has been found to be a key element in happiness.

When you practice mindfulness meditation, you're sharpening your focus (usually by paying more attention to your breath) and training your brain to be more mindful long after you're done meditating. When you're exhibiting mindfulness, you're fully engrossed in whatever's going on around you.

But being engaged 100% doesn't come easy, especially in our world of distractions.

It means actively listening and not zoning out (even a little) when your co-worker tells the same story for the third time, it means using all your senses in even mundane situations like washing the dishes or walking to the bus stop.

Mindfulness has roots in Buddhist philosophy and religion, and is considered very important for the path to enlightenment.

•  Practicing mindfulness improves both mental and physical health.
• Mindfulness involves both concentration (a form of meditation) and acceptance. 
• Deliberately pay attention to thoughts and sensations without judgment.
• It takes practice to become comfortable with mindfulness techniques. If one method doesn’t work for you, try another.

Mindfulness improves well-being

• Increasing your capacity for mindfulness supports many attitudes that contribute to a satisfied life.
• Being mindful makes it easier to savour the pleasures in life as they occur, helps you become fully engaged in activities, and creates a greater capacity to deal with adverse events.
• By focusing on the here and now, many people who practice mindfulness find that they are less likely to get caught up in worries about the future or regrets over the past, are less preoccupied with concerns about success and self-esteem, and are better able to form deep connections with others.

Mindfulness improves physical health

If greater well-being isn’t enough of an incentive, scientists have discovered the benefits of mindfulness techniques help improve physical health in a number of ways. Mindfulness can:

• Help relieve stress
• Treat heart disease
• Lower blood pressure
• Reduce chronic pain
• Improve sleep
• Alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties

Mindfulness improves mental health

In recent years, psychotherapists have turned to mindfulness meditation as an important element in the treatment of a number of problems, including:

• Depression
• Substance abuse
• Eating disorders
• Couples’ conflicts
• Anxiety disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Some experts believe that mindfulness works, in part, by helping people to accept their experiences—including painful emotions—rather than react to them with aversion and avoidance.

It’s become increasingly common for mindfulness meditation to be combined with psychotherapy, especially Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. This development makes good sense, since both meditation and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy share the common goal of helping people gain perspective on irrational, maladaptive, and self-defeating thoughts.

Mindfulness Techniques         

There is more than one way to practice mindfulness, but the goal of any mindfulness technique is to achieve a state of alert, focused relaxation by deliberately paying attention to thoughts and sensations without judgment. This allows the mind to refocus on the present moment. All mindfulness techniques are a form of meditation.        

Basic mindfulness meditation – Sit quietly and focus on your natural breathing or on a word or “mantra” that you repeat silently. Allow thoughts to come and go without judgment and return to your focus on breath or mantra.      

Body sensations – Notice subtle body sensations such as an itch or tingling without judgment and let them pass. Notice each part of your body in succession from head to toe.

Sensory – Notice sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches. Name them “sight,” “sound,” “smell,” “taste,” or “touch” without judgment and let them go.      

Emotions – Allow emotions to be present without judgment. Practice a steady and relaxed naming of emotions: “joy,” “anger,” “frustration.”

Accept the presence of the emotions without judgment and let them go.           

Urge surfing – Cope with cravings (for addictive substances or behaviours) and allow them to pass. Notice how your body feels as the craving enters. Replace the wish for the craving to go away with the certain knowledge that it will subside.

If you are interested in learning more techniques to help you in life, don't hesitate to contact Sam at Therapy For Life in Southend-on-sea