The Benefits Of Mindfulness

Mindfulness:
Mindfulness in popular culture and psychotherapy has increased in the past decade (Didonna, 2009a; Shapiro & Carlson, 2009).  The term “mindfulness” is used to refer to a psychological state of awareness (Brown et al., 2007; Germer, Siegel, & Fulton, 2005; Kostanski &Hassed, 2008; Siegel, 2007).  Simply put, mindfulness is simply “moment-by-moment awareness one’s experience without judgment" (Germer et al.,2005, p. 6).  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) utilized specialized techniques to promote mindfulness and has been shown to lower stress, reduce anxiety, and even alleviate symptoms from PTSC (Shapiro & Carlson).    

Stress Reduction:
Jha et al. (2010) examined working memory capacity and emotional experience among a military group who participated in an eight-week mindfulness training program.  Those who parti opted in the mindfulness group experienced an increase in working memory and reduced stress over the group that did not participate in the mindfulness training.  Life is stressful but mindfulness can help, and you don't have to spend much time implementing mindfulness into your life.  Incorporating mindfulness into things you already do such as, walking, eating, etc is a great way to leverage mindfulness and reduce stress in your life without adding another thing to do.   

Improved Mood:
There is evidence that mindfulness helps develop effective emotion regulation in the brain (Corcoran, Farb, Anderson, & Segal, 2010; Farb et al., 2010; Siegel, 2007b).  Mindfulness promotes awareness, decreases rumination, and enhances attention through gains in working memory.  

Who Should Try Mindfulness:
A recent meta analysis of 39 studies supports the efficacy of mindfulness-based therapy for reducing anxiety and depression symptoms (Hoffman, Sawyer, Witt, & Oh, 2010). Research indicates that meditation may elicit positive emotions, minimize negative affect and rumination, and enable emotion regulation. Even eight weeks of mindfulness meditation practice may alter the ways in which emotions are regulated and processed in the brain (Williams, 2010). 

Mindfulness Meditation: 

This is one of the components taught in MBCT, but anyone can practice mindfulness meditation. Meditation can help facilitate nonjudgmental awareness in everyday life. Talk to your therapist about incorporating mindfulness into your therapy or try a free guided meditation online or with an app.