What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a very simple form of meditation that was little known in the West until recently. A typical meditation consists of focusing your full attention on your breath as it flows in and out of your body. Focusing on each breath in this way allows you to observe your thoughts as they arise in your mind and, little by little, to let go of struggling with them. You come to realise that thoughts come and go of their own accord; that you are not your thoughts. You can watch as they appear in your mind, seemingly from thin air, and watch again as they disappear, like a soap bubble bursting. You come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings (including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and ultimately, you have a choice about whether to act on them or not.
Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress hover overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat them as if they were black clouds in the sky, and to observe them with friendly curiosity as they drift past. In essence, mindfulness allows you to catch negative thought patterns before they tip you into a downward spiral. It begins the process of putting you back in control of your life.
Over time, mindfulness brings about long-term changes in mood and levels of happiness and wellbeing. Scientific studies have shown that mindfulness not only prevents depression, but that it also positively affects the brain patterns underlying day-to-day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability so that when they arise, they dissolve away again more easily. Other studies have shown that regular meditators see their doctors less often and spend fewer days in hospital. Memory improves, creativity increases and reaction times become faster (see What can mindfulness do for you?).
Despite these proven benefits, however, many people are still a little wary when they hear the word ‘meditation’. So before we proceed, it might be helpful to dispel some myths:
• Meditation is not a religion. Mindfulness is simply a method of mental training. Many people who practise meditation are themselves religious, but then again, many atheists and agnostics are keen meditators too.
• You don’t have to sit cross-legged on the floor (like the pictures you may have seen in magazines or on TV), but you can if you want to. Most people who come to our classes sit on chairs to meditate, but you can also practise bringing mindful awareness to whatever you are doing, on buses, trains or while walking to work. You can meditate more or less anywhere.
• Mindfulness practice does not take a lot of time, although some patience and persistence are required. Many people soon find that meditation liberates them from the pressures of time, so they have more of it to spend on other things.
• Meditation is not complicated. Nor is it about ‘success’ or ‘failure’. Even when meditation feels difficult, you’ll have learned something valuable about the workings of the mind and thus have benefited psychologically.
• It will not deaden your mind or prevent you from striving towards important career or lifestyle goals; nor will it trick you into falsely adopting a Pollyanna attitude to life. Meditation is not about accepting the unacceptable. It is about seeing the world with greater clarity so that you can take wiser and more considered action to change those things which need to be changed. Meditation helps cultivate a deep and compassion- ate awareness that allows you to assess your goals and find the optimum path towards realising your deepest values.
This new book combines mindfulness with cognitive therapy and draws on the highly effective MBCT programme developed by Professor Mark Williams and colleagues at Oxford University and other universities around the world to combat anxiety, stress, exhaustion and depression. It’s been clinically proven to work, but more importantly it also works for those of us who aren’t depressed but who are struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the modern world.
What can mindfulness do for you?
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i am nearly at the end of the eight week mindfulness and it has really been fascinating to learn how to relate to my thoughts and feeling in a compassionate and what should i say a mindful way. i am only 16 and it has made a profound difference to how i relate to myself and others.
Great article! Mindfulness meditation changed my life and helped me with a lot of problems, especially anxiety. It gave me back my life.
Hi. I suffer with BPPV — Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo and have recently started your 8 week course from the book. Its early days but the effects for me are profound. I have an active bout of bppv and am currently having to induce my vertigo twice a day using special exercises. I have found if I do some mindful breathing exercises BEFORE I do my vertigo exercises the vertigo is virtually non existent !!! Now this is very strange as my bppv is a physical disorder and I have nystagmus in my right eye which confirms to me my bppv is ear/ear/balance disorder as its all connected. As I said it is early days but I am finding this all quite unexplainable. Thank you
Finding Peace in a Frantic World has quite literally saved my life. I was at the end of the road and, having suffered from depression and anxiety for many years was trapped in a black hole of despair. I wanted desperately to escape the dreadful feeling which overwhelmed my being. Fortunately a therapist recommended this book……and on May 2nd this year I started the transformation. I also now go to Buddhist meditation classes to reinforce my daily routine. I have not felt this good for over 10years.I no longer take Sertraline or any other medication. I actually feel in control and the exploring difficulties meditation is wonderful…I can now welcome my negative feelings as old friends…as opposed to trying to get rid of them… I just know they will be with me and strangely enough their power has diminished ! Many many thanks from me and my family!
I can’t stop telling everyone about how much your book has helped my on /off anxiety and subsequent depression.
Its given me the tools to step outside the turmoil and realise that I am not ‘it’ – and by just watching it, without judgment somehow it helps liberate me from it and so the anxiety dissolves significantly.
I have felt so much calmer and happier for months now an feel more able to find peace whenever I need it within myself (rather than relying on others to reassure me).
I avoided meditation before as I always felt like I was failing at it – my mind kept wandering. However – Mindfulness says its Ok to wander thats normal, and encourages you to watch your thoughts like clouds coming and going, without judgement. And somehow it really works.
I love reading Danny Penman and Mark Williams book just ten minutess before I go to sleep each day – thats all I need to do to gently re train my thinking on a day to day basis. So simple but huge in impact!
I so recommend your book Mindfulness and also a website called self compassion.org by Dr Kristin Neff which is equally brilliant.
Thank you so so much.
Great!! i have read it a little and very impressed,its subject of knowing and experiences.being in the present is the summery of this book.i would like to read it more as i observe and experience the same as author said.
Great work its really practical and fruitfulness.
Rittam
The simple form of meditation that is now called mindfulness was well known in some parts of the western world for many centuries. While some people say that it has been in the Jewish tradition for over three millennia, it started to become popularized by the Kabbalists of the 15th century in Spain and the Land of Israel. At that time it was not “well known” but if one wanted to find out about it in Europe it was very possible. However, with the Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe in the 17th century this simple form of meditation became a practice that was standard practice for many people who were not practiced in esoteric learning. When Eastern meditation was becoming popular in the 1970’s the Grand Rabbi of Lubavitch, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneersohn, called for a renewed emphasis on that practice and called on some of his followers to work on publicizing the idea that meditation is a standard Jewish practice.
If you are interested, I could send you references (It would just take a bit of work to find them in my home.)
Ari Hahn