Mindfulness

Mindfulness

A key technique I use in counselling is mindfulness.  Mindfulness is present, non-judgmental awareness of our current thoughts, feelings, and environment.  Ron Siegel uses the analogy of a rain storm and bus shelter.  When we don't use mindfulness, we are getting soaked by all of our thoughts pouring on us like rain drops, believing every thought that arises.  When we use mindfulness, we get space from our thoughts, which is like standing under a bus shelter during a storm, watching the thoughts instead of soaking them all in.  We get to choose what we do next when there is space between thoughts and action.

If you're wondering about why you might try mindfulness, check out some of the benefits:

• Mindfulness helps distance us from our automatic thoughts, which creates time to decide how we'd like to act.

• Mindfulness helps decrease stress and anxiety as well as other psychological impacts.

• Mindfulness helps us increase self-compassion and non-judgemental awareness of our experiences.

• Brain scans of people who regularly practice mindfulness have shown thicker regions in the frontal cortex of the brain. This is the part of the brain that is involved in self-awareness, problem-solving, decision-making, thinking etc.