How To Fully Harness The Power Of Mindfulness( A Simple

Guide For Beginners)

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This simple guide will show you

everything you need to know
about mindfulness, it's benefits
and how to practice it.

What is Mindfulness?

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR):

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“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present
moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

Mindfulschools goes further to explain that mindfulness can be considered a state, a trait or
a practice. We can have a moment of mindfulness (state) but also have a habitual tendency
of mindfulness (trait). We can do the intentional formal practice of mindfulness using
different postures and activities.

According to Nick Wignall:

Mindfulness is the mental habit of paying attention without thinking.

Mindfulness is mental, which means it has to do with what’s inside your head not what you
do physically or your environment.

You can be just as mindful in your car on your way home from work as you can sitting cross-
legged on a peaceful mountain top in Tibet.You can be mindful when things are loud and
chaotic or quiet and serene.You can be mindful when you’re doing deep breathing in a yoga
studio or when you’re out of breath on the treadmill.

Mindfulness is also best thought of as a habit—something you can do deliberately but with
enough practice can also become relatively automatic, at least in certain situations.

Think of driving a car:

When you first learned how to do it, it took a lot of focus and deliberate practice. And while
at times you still need to be very deliberate with your driving, you can also drive to and from
the grocery store and carry on a conversation without much effort because the act of
driving has become a habit.

History of Mindfulness

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The cultivation of mindfulness has roots in
Buddhism, but most religions include
some type of prayer or meditation
technique that helps shift your thoughts
away from your usual preoccupations
toward an appreciation of the moment
and a larger perspective on life.

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is considered the

“founding father” of the U.S.-based
mindfulness trend. He was introduced to
mindfulness through his exploration of Buddhist philosophy in his college days, which he
then incorporated into his practice as a professor of medicine at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School.

He helped to bring the practice of mindfulness meditation into mainstream medicine and
demonstrated that practicing mindfulness can bring improvements in both physical and
psychological symptoms as well as positive changes in health, attitudes, and behaviors.

He founded the Stress Reduction Clinic at the UM medical school in 1979, where he
developed the program that is known today as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
(Shea, 2018).

Benefits of mindfulness

Mindfulness is gaining cultural momentum because of it's many benefits. Mindfulness can:

1. Help to reduce rumination.

One of the most common symptoms that comes along with anxiety is rumination, or
overthinking. After you begin to worry about something, your brain will hold onto that
tightly and make it difficult to let go.

A habit of rumination can be dangerous as it can prolong or intensify depression as well as

impair your ability to think and process emotions. It may also cause you to feel isolated and
can, in reality, push people away.

2. Help to reduce stress

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A recent study found that while mindfulness may not change the actual number of
stressors( things that causes stress) in your life (obviously), it can help us to respond better
and more calmly to stressful events. And when we handle stressors more effectively, we
tend to experience less stress itself.

3. Boost working memory

Those who practice mindfulness also show a stronger working memory—the short-term
memory that registers in-the-moment thought processing.

4. Improves concentration, and performance.

Paying attention and concentrating on the task at hand may be one of the most important
cognitive abilities people have.

Mindfulness can help us control and regulate our attention. It can help us maintain focus
and concentrate for longer, to resist procrastination, and to keep our most important
priorities front and center in our minds.

5. Help reduce anxiety and worry

Research has found that mindfulness is especially helpful in reducing anxiety. Practicing
mindfulness regularly helps to rewire your brain so you can refocus your attention. Rather
than following a negative and worrying thought down a path of all possible outcomes, you
can learn to recognize your thoughts for what they are and just let them go.

6. Help control anger

Mindfulness can help you lessen anger, control your temper, and reduce conflict in general.

7. Make you more resilient to life's challenges

Resilience is the capacity to cope well with inevitable challenges and disasters, to meet the
stressors and storms of life with adaptive and skillful responses.

Mindfulness can help you become more resilient to life's challenges in a number of ways,
for one, it trains the brain to respond differently to stress. It physically shrinks the
amygdala, making you less prone to the fight-flight response. That means they can remain

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cool, calm and collected under greater pressure.

8. Help you fall asleep faster

Mindfulness improves overall sleep quality

and daytime fatigue .

9. Lead to increase happiness

As more and more research is showing that real happiness doesn't come from possessions
or success, that it comes from the quality of our experiences. Mindfulness leads to more
happiness by improving our ability to notice and appreciate pleasurable experiences, while
cushioning some of life's hard edges.

10. Improve health and well-being

Mindfulness has several health benefits. The reason is that long-term stress is linked to a
variety of illness. When your emotional life isn’t healthy, your body responds.

Decreased immune systems, increased risk for viruses and infections, asthma, diabetes,
obesity, ulcers, digestive disorders, heart disease, migraines, autoimmune disorders, high
blood pressure, high cholesterol and even cancer have been linked to stress.

So it’s no wonder then that practicing mindfulness meditation can prevent, alleviate the
symptoms of and even cure many diseases and illnesses.

Scientists are starting to uncover many ways that mindfulness can improve our physical
health. Mindfulness can help prevent illnesses, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and
alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties, cure insomnia, keep you healthy after cancer and
improve heart health.

These are just some of the benefits of mindfulness.

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Ways to practice mindfulness

Yaltin Kulbe on Lifehack gave 10 easy ways to practice mindfulness I think everyone can
follow. Here are some:

1. Live in the moment:

Enjoy your present without connecting the events with your past and future.

2. Accept things as they are:

We all wish for better things. Nobody is satisfied with their present conditions. But, a
mindful person doesn’t judge. By accepting things, we realize their true worth. Things are
not good or bad. We create all the mental tags.

3. Use the power of visualization

Whenever you are feeling down, close your eyes and visualize your aim of life. In a matter of
seconds, you will be transported to your dream land. It is an awesome place where you can
do all the things you dream of in a free manner.

4. Practice mindful eating

Mindful eating involves:

Eating slowly and without distraction.

Listening to physical hunger cues and eating only until you're full.

Distinguishing between actual hunger and non-hunger triggers for eating.

Engaging your senses by noticing colors, smells, sounds, textures and tastes.

Learning to cope with guilt and anxiety about food.

Eating to maintain overall health and well-being.

Noticing the effects food has on your feelings and figure.

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 Appreciating your food.

These things allow you to replace automatic thoughts and reactions with more conscious,
healthier response

5. Start your day without any gadgets

Many people start their day by checking their phones. Instead of checking office emails or
the notifications of your social media profiles, rather take out some time for meditation and
plan out your whole day in a systematic manner.

6. Free yourself from all distracting thoughts

Don’t get carried away by all your disturbing thoughts. In a state of mindfulness, you
observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance only. You have the power to inflate or
deflate their presence. You can’t stop this kind of thoughts completely. But, as soon as they
enter your mind, you must disconnect them from yourself.

About Miracle Edee

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