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"Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity."
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Most of us are familiar with meditation, but what is mindfulness meditation? What are the benefits of doing it? And who can do it?
The discipline has grown a lot in recent years. The main reason is due to an increase in daily stress that many people are trying, often unsuccessfully, to beat. It can be difficult to get rid of everyday anxiety, let the good feelings in, or work out what is really best for our well-being.
According to a study, 85% of UK adults experience stress regularly and over a third of British residents feel stressed for at least one full day per week.
What better reason to try mindfulness meditation?
It’s a simple technique that doesn’t require any special equipment and it's great for stress reduction!
Are you familiar with mindfulness-based stress reduction?
Mindfulness is a practice that has gained considerable traction in recent years and when you look at the benefits of practising regularly, this trend is most definitely justified. It can also be helpful too for stress management and could help you to stay on track at the office or the classroom!
What Exactly is Mindfulness?
Not a lot of people actually know exactly what mindfulness meditation is. However, it's the most popular meditation practice. It's a common misconception that you have to be Buddhist or regularly attend a relaxation retreat to enjoy meditation!
Mindfulness is being aware of your emotions, feelings, and actions by focusing on the present, taking a step back, and analysing situations more objectively.
You’ll observe what’s happening around you, focus on it without judging or expecting anything, just observing thoughts as they arise.
There are several benefits to mindfulness meditation:
- Better understand ourselves
- Reduce stress and relax
- Combat negative thoughts and find happiness by being mindful of how both your mind and bodywork
- Feel more present in the here and now by letting go
- Learn to manage chronic pains through spiritual healing
- Stop smoking or other addictions that can cause suffering in our lives
This is the type of meditation that combines leisure and exercise. It’s a good idea to start off gently with a guided meditation to help you learn how to just let go.
There are three main things to focus on when you meditate:
- Being more aware of what’s happening around us, of where we are, and existing in the moment.
- Trying to not intervene, to not move to or focus on something that we’re thinking about or feeling.
- We’re not trying to define or analyse what we’re doing or feeling, we’re just observing what’s happening.
If you find yourself distracted by worry while breathing, try counting each breath. As you exhale, repeat the number "one" to yourself. Count "two" the following time you exhale, and so on up to "five." Next, start a fresh cycle by counting "one" on your subsequent exhalation. You'll be able to focus and practice mindfulness
Once you achieve these, you’ll find yourself freed, even when working, and you can start working towards feeling completely fulfilled.
You too could achieve peace through guided meditation...
The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
There are a lot of benefits to practising mindful meditation, many of which you’ll start seeing during your very first session:
- A better understanding of the world around us
- An instant feeling of relief
- Stress reduction over the long-term
- Mindfully focusing on the present moment with little distraction
- A state of inner calm
- Distancing yourself from negative elements and gaining compassion
- Understanding your own emotional reactions, cognitive processes, mood, and each psychological sensation
Unlike going into autopilot, mindfulness meditation makes us active in our everyday lives. If you work on your technique, it can help you to improve your well-being in the long term.
Find a place to take classes for yoga near me.
Everyone suffers from stress these days, and it is important to practice anything that can help you overcome that. Practising mindfulness can reduce stress naturally, as with most exercises, with a gentle, mindful, approach that can be practised in your spare time too. The importance of connection between body and mind is central to mindfulness.
If you would like to connect with mindfulness instructors all over the world. Live streaming can be a great way to practise. Many mindfulness teachers offer online classes which are suitable for people who prefer a more private approach.
1 on 1 classes are not only an amazing way to have an assessment about where you are with your goals. But you will also have someone who is partnering with you, to help you to achieve your goals.
You must find a video, press play, and follow along. The only downside is that you need to have the motivation, to practise. This is especially true for beginners who may not have experienced the amazing benefits of mindfulness exercises.
Our thoughts and our state of mind play important roles in our personal development, can help us reconnect spiritually, and also improve our self-confidence. Regular practice of mindfulness meditation can improve our concentration and reduce negative thoughts.
Taking a mindful moment can help you concentrate and focus, it will also strengthen your immune system and helps to switch your nervous system out of flight/fight mode and into a relaxed aware state.
You've probably heard all the take a deep breath quotes by now so find some yoga London classes near you.
Practise Guided Meditation with a Teacher
If you’re worried about starting meditation on your own, don’t panic! There are plenty of places all over the country where you can learn how to free your mind and spirit.
If you don’t feel comfortable with the idea of meditating in a group, don’t worry, either! Thanks to the internet, there are plenty of mindfulness meditation courses online that you can get for free to help guide you.
A good tutor will have you hooked right from the start. Tutors can help you slowly fall in love with a subject, regardless of what it is. In the case of mindfulness meditation, they play a vital role since they need to know how to best explain the process as well as be aware of how your mind works.
They’ll be a huge help when it comes to effectively achieving your goals! Furthermore, they can help you stay focused so that your interest doesn’t dwindle.
You can also find online tutorials which can be a good alternative to group classes so you can keep practising anywhere, any time. Whether you’re at home, at work, or on public transport, they’re accessible wherever you can get a good enough signal.
Don’t forget to read our other articles on meditation to help you learn more about the different types and get yourself motivated to start.
Put the deep breath quotes behind you and learn how you can meditate with YouTube...
Meditation Exercises You Can Do on Your Own
There’s nothing stopping you from doing mindfulness meditation on your own. You can manage stress, stop smoking, alleviate anxiety, or just focus on the essentials without somebody else’s help.
We’re all capable of focusing on the important things, being aware, and listening to our bodies and the world around us. If Emile Hirsch could do it in Into the Wild, why not you?
This can all be done with everyday actions that we do almost routinely without thinking about them. A simple exercise you can do is to think about what you’re doing when you’re brushing your teeth.
Focus on the movements you make with your hand, and how the brush feels in your mouth and on your tongue. Forget about everything else and focus on the details, the taste of the toothpaste, and everything you’re currently experiencing.
While it might seem simple since we breathe all the time, it’s one of the most important daily actions we do. Thinking about your breathing is one of the first steps when doing mindfulness meditation.
Discover these meditation techniques for beginners...
Finding a State of Mindfulness
So how can you achieve mindfulness?
Practising yoga can bring great benefits to you and your family. Some of these include allowing your family to live more spiritually and in the present. It brings us into the present moment by being more aware of our movements and breathing. Not to mention that it is a wholesome activity to practise regularly alongside your loved ones!
Whether you’re sitting or standing, with your eyes open or not, the most important thing is to feel comfortable. Once you’ve managed this, the goal will be to listen. You need to listen internally as well as physically.
Imagine that your thumb is pushing on various parts of your body and then do this over every part of your body. The aim is to not really do it, of course. This exercise can help you feel this fictional pressure.
As you will have gathered, this exercise is to help you focus on one solitary idea. In this case, you’ll be focusing solely on the present and you’ll be fully aware of what’s going on in the here and now.
This is what we call non-elaborative awareness, where we focus on what we’re feeling rather than analysing it. We listen and stop thinking about it while our mind focuses on the essential things. With this comes fulfilment.
Don't forget that you can be taught how to meditate! Just look for tutors offering mindfulness training or meditation on Superprof!
Are you familiar with transcendental meditation?
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