Mindfulness is defined as “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.” In simple words, it is a technique that helps an individual in observing, acknowledging, and accepting their ‘present’ feelings and thoughts without judging them. For example, I notice how many sweets I am consuming, but I don’t say that it is terrible to think about it. The roots of mindfulness come from the teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddhism focuses on how mindfulness helps achieve enlightenment through our state of being present, attention, and awareness.
The main aim of practising mindfulness is to understand and achieve a state of peace and relaxation by focusing on our thoughts. It helps improve our well-being. Mindfulness focuses upon two core elements which are acceptance and awareness. Acceptance is defined as the ability to recognize the reality of a situation and accepting it without attempting to avoid or judge it. Attention is defined as a state or ability to perceive, feel and focus on a case, experiences or feelings. In this busy world, we get up and check our mobile, on the one hand, and do our laundry simultaneously. Have you ever felt you are missing out on the feeling of how you are doing or what are you even doing? An individual who practices mindfulness tends to relieve stress and pain and focus on the present and improves well-being.
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There are various benefits of mindfulness, a few of them are mentioned below-
Relives anxiety- Since mindfulness helps create awareness; individuals tend to easily adapt and cope with their unwanted or uncomfortable thoughts and emotions, which helps them relax. It also allows the individual to concentrate on their breathing and increases self-compassion.
Improves physical health- Various studies have shown that an individual who regularly practices mindfulness has better physical health than those who do not practice. Mindfulness helps in reducing pain, decreases insomnia, maintains blood pressure, and improves gastrointestinal problems.
Improves well-being- An individual who is conscious experiences more and better pleasures in their life. They tend to become fully engaged in the activities. Mindfulness even helps an individual face and accept adverse experiences and incidents rather than avoid them, which improves their healthy being. Mindfulness helps focus on the present, an individual doesn’t get hooked up to the future’s past or worries. This increases their self-esteem and self-confidence. Therefore, mindfulness helps improve our well-being, and individuals can form a better deeper connection with everyone around them.
Improves in developing strengths - Mindfulness helps individuals in expressing and discovering their personality traits. Mindfulness helps in developing positive characteristics like wisdom, compassion, self-esteem. When an individual is practising mindfulness, at that time, their transcendence strengths become more active and meaningful, which connects the mind to the spiritual meaning.
Improving resilience- Resilience refers to the ability to recover from traumas and difficulties. When individuals practise mindfulness, the brain promotes better decision-making. It improves self-regulation and the ability to make wise decisions.
There are various mindfulness techniques that you can quickly try. A few of them are –
Raisin exercise- This exercise is specially built for beginners. In this, individuals have to pay close attention to the raisin in their hand and pretend that they haven’t seen it before. They can see raisin and notice how it feels, looks, taste, smell, and skin response. This will help individuals focus on their present and spend their energy on what is present in front of them rather than worrying and thinking about other parts.
Mindfulness meditation- In this an individual, focuses upon their deep breathing. This helps in allowing thoughts to enter and exit our minds but without judgment. During meditation, an individual will enable them to accept and allow emotions to pass through their mind.
Leaf exercise- This exercise helps in aligning your thoughts with present experiences. An individual should pick a leaf and spend at least five minutes looking at it. An individual should notice patterns, shapes, and textures which will help them become aware of what is going on in their mind.
That's why Mindful Mesmerisms was named the same, to highlight and emphasise the importance of mindfulness in each of our lives. Let us know what mindfulness means to you.
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