Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a form of meditation. It is designed to cultivate the skill of awareness, wherein you are vigilant aboutinner and outer experiences receiving themwith an open, composed and compassionate mind.

The origin of mindfulness has been traced back to a 2,500-year-old Buddhist practice, Vipassana which means insight meditation. Some claim that the practice goes further back in history; it is noted that in ancient Indian range of meditation techniques were practised, and mindfulness as one of them.

We may not know the precise moment of its birth, what we do know is mindfulness meditation is a quality of presence that is not inherent to a particular culture, but can be acquired by anyone, anywhere.

Benefits:

Heighten body awareness, regulate mood and gain higher energy-level

It is certain that our mind easily drifts and escapes the present. Negligently absorbed in the past or distressed about the future, we miss out the reality of the moment.  Imagine if you are able to maintain a constant state of awareness of your body, how will it be different from now? You would be observant of everything happening to your body – be it your breath, sensations, muscular tension or emergence and exit of emotions. Nothing escapes your vigilant mind.

Exercising mindfulness doesn’t just help you absorb everything but also regulate your response. You will consciously and effortlessly choose your reactions towards people and circumstances. Your body will automatically build an early warning process to detect fight, flight or freeze. It basically helps you perceive threat faster and decide the best option out of the three choices.

Just like you control your response, you can ease your physical self too. It is very common to slip into a dejected posture while at work, school or even relaxing in front of the TV. Your mind usually recognizes and associates such postures with negative sensations, invoking feelings like depression, fatigue and stress. Mindfulness meditation can help you release tense and tight muscles, and also revitalize you by bringing on a positive mood and higher energy level.

Win your mind and your body will heed naturally.

Better focus and productivity

Mindfulness is a focus training wherein you get rid of buzzing thoughts and open up your mind to awareness. Within 5-8 days of exercising mindfulness, you would start experiencing more concentration and less distraction. Eventually, you will be able to complete your tasks quickly, efficiently and accurately.

The form of meditation improves the functioning of your immune system allowing you to handle stressful situations, be it at home, work or school. Mindfulness meditation is not just a stress buster, but builds a stress resilient nature in you, enabling you to think with clarity, make better decisions and perform your tasks productively.

 Regulate stress and anxiety disorders

Mindfulness is considered as an effective practice for healing stress and anxiety disorders. Even medical practitioners regard the powerful meditation technique as a treatment strategy for individuals suffering from these disorders.

The modern lifestyle is accompanied by two undesired conditions – anxiety and stress. Mindfulness focuses on accepting and dealing with these disorders and its root causes rather than ignoring them.  These root causes could include physical pain, hectic routine or even emotional grief or trauma.

Being able to analyse and accept the present lets you create a space of tranquillity, which in turn helps you tolerate these negative states of mind.

Balance your sense of calm, achieve resilience and power up emotional intelligence

Our brain has the amazing capability of recognizing threats. Be it a hot stove or a speeding vehicle, you invoke a stress response to deal with danger.

Amygdala, a small region in your temporal lobe is aset of neurons responsible for interpreting these signs of danger. When the neurons start reacting rapidly and go out of control, you become hyper-anxious and restless. Mindfulness equips the prefrontal cortex to slow down your over-reactive amygdala allowing you to calm down and attain a relaxed state of mind.

With good practice, you can take control, slow things down and achieve resilience toward stress. Gradually, your parasympathetic nervous system starts functioning at an optimal level letting you confront difficult situations and rough patches in life with a balanced sense of calm.

As humans, we process information using our rational as well as emotional mind, it enables you to decide what is right and wrong. But only a balanced mind can help you make the best decisions. Exercising mindfulness increases brain activities and your brain starts processing higher levels of awareness. It, in turn, helps you tune into both your reasonable and emotional states,while building a wise mind and attaining greater emotional intelligence.

Boost neuromuscular coordination

Applying the techniques of mindfulness to yoga or other fitness programs heightens your body awareness and neuromuscular coordination improving flexibility, balance and postural alignment.

Slow and mindful movements present you the opportunity to observe the flow of your body and understand where it’s struggling. Soon you will realize the changes not only with respect to mobility, agility and stamina, but also the relief experienced in moderating physical pain and mental tension.

Whether you’re a mom, a desk-worker, an athlete, a student, mindfulness can be your pursuit both on the mat and off. It is a flexible practice that can be exercised through various proven techniques –seated, walking, standing, lying down, moving or even merged with other fitness regimes like yoga and sports.

At mindsupport, we identify what is most effective, beneficial and essential for you to reach your goals and make our lives better. Mindfulness doesn’t have anything to do with faith or belief; both science and experience unanimously agree that it is simply an innate quality of humans to acknowledge the present and exhibit its positive results on our health, interests, work, happiness and relationships.

Mindfulness equips you to be absolutely aware of the present – where you are, what you are doing and what’s happening around you. You will be able to absorb and observe all the information with complete focus, without being overwhelmed, judgmental or sensitive, and caring everything you do.

No matter how far we drift away, mindfulness meditation brings us right back at a snap!