Mindfulness and mental health are irrevocably interconnected. This article goes over what mindfulness is, why using mindfulness techniques is so important for your mental health, and how you can fit mindfulness practices into your life, no matter how busy you are.
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and aware in the moment without judgment. Mindfulness helps you relate to your thoughts, emotions, and surroundings with curiosity rather than reactivity. Simple practices like deep breathing, mindful eating, walking and focusing on being present, or meditation can train your brain to slow down, which reduces stress, and improves your overall health. Mindfulness is not about clearing your mind or meditating for hours. Mindfulness, instead, creates space between yourself and your thoughts and emotions, so you can feel steady, act in meaningful ways, and move through life in alignment with your values.
The science behind mindfulness and how it works is based on the neuroplasticity of the brain, which allows us to actually change our thought patterns. When we change our thought patterns, we have the ability to change our life and the lives of those around us.
Why is Mindfulness Important?
Several studies have shown that mindfulness practices reduce stress, improve focus, and strengthen emotional regulation. Mindfulness improves mental and physical health by supporting better sleep, lowering anxiety levels, and reducing the risk of chronic illness. Mindfulness also strengthens self-awareness and resilience, helping you navigate daily life with a greater sense of calm and balance. In a world of chaos, mindfulness creates the internal space for peace.
The Connection Between Mental Health and Physical Wellness
Regular exercise has been shown to be as effective or more compared to antidepressants for treating depression and anxiety. Inversely, inactivity is correlated to poor mental health, which increases the risk of chronic physical conditions. Whether you workout or not, you’re creating a feedback loop. Working out supports a positive feedback loop, while non-movement supports a negative feedback loop.
When you integrate mindfulness practices in your life, you also create a positive feedback loop. Mindfulness improves sleep quality (which is one of the greatest allies your body has for both physical and mental health), reduces stress, improves heart health, and strengthens the immune system. Which, in turn, improves mental health. Mindfulness and meditation support cognitive function by reducing age-related brain degeneration and increasing attention, working memory, spatial abilities, and long-term memory.
Types of Mindfulness and Meditation
Meditation and mindfulness can be boiled down to concentrative and awareness techniques. Different practices incorporate aspects of each.
Concentrative Mindfulness and Meditation
Concentrative techniques focus on a specific sound, image, or bodily sensation. These practices are extremely accessible and are great to start with.
Awareness Meditation
Awareness meditation refers to being “the watcher”. In these meditations, you essentially create a nonjudgmental state which allows you to watch your thoughts and feelings as they arise. Awareness meditation can be traced back to various philosophies of Dualism and Samkhya Yoga traditions.
Awareness meditation is based on the awareness of Prakriti and Purusha: the truth that you are both the experiences you have in life (everything you feel, think, and identify with) and witness consciousness itself, or Purusha.
An analogy to better understand Prakriti and Purusha is the imagery of the ocean and waves. We, as humans, go through life believing that we are the waves of the ocean; identifying with our past experience, our emotions, and what we feel and do. This is Prakriti. But in reality, we are the ocean: an ever-present powerful calm water. The waves exist within the ocean, moving and changing, but the ocean itself is vast and constant, far greater than the waves it carries.
By meditating on Purusha or, our awareness, can teach us to interact with the world in a “non-reactive” manner in daily life. It’s an extremely powerful way to meditate that helps us identify the space between stimulus and response.
5 Mindfulness Practices For Busy People
Mindfulness practices are accessible and can be done at any time and in any time frame. Even simply taking ten deep diaphragmatic breaths while in the middle of traffic is a mindfulness practice. Here are more techniques that can be incorporated into a tight schedule.
Body Scan
Sit for 5 minutes or however long you have time for. Close your eyes and bring each part of your body into your awareness, slowly move your awareness from your sit bones to the crown of your head. Notice how each part of your body feels. Focus on sending your breath to the areas of the body you are focusing on.
Mindful Eating
Try to eat your meals with no distractions: no tv, phone, books, etc. Focus on the taste and texture of each bite, making sure you completely chew before swallowing. You’ll notice that you’ll become more satiated more quickly. This is also a great way to maximize the enjoyment of indulgent food choices.
3 Things You’re Grateful For
Everyday, think of (and maybe write down) three things you’re grateful for. You can do this as you’re drinking your morning coffee, during your morning workout, or any time you think of it. Allow the feeling of gratitude to really sink in; feel it in your heart and allow your breath to expand in response.
By shifting your focus to what you already have, you foster a positive mindset that focuses more on positive experiences and opportunities, and less on what is wrong in your life. This creates a sense of richness and turns setbacks into opportunities.
Stretch
Static stretching at the end of day before bed can help relax the body in preparation for sleep. Try to be present with each movement and breath, move slowly and allow your belly to fill with breath.
Workout Without Distractions
There’s so much research on the mind-muscle connection, and how working with it improves strength, muscle maturity, and so much more. Implementing it in your routine is actually a mindfulness technique. In fact, being present for your movements by working with your breath, focusing on your form and muscles as they engage is also a mindfulness practice. To continue mindfulness between sets, don’t go to your phone or walk around. Just sit and be with your breath.
The Power of Mindfulness
It’s important to remember that mindfulness and meditation are a practice. You can’t just “switch your mindset.” It’s going to take time, practice, intention, and self study. However, mindfulness and meditation are easy to access at any time and with any schedule. When you start implementing time to breathe and be present, you’ll notice a shift in your stress and capacity to navigate life in a much more steady way.
