Mindfulness Meditation

Be present. Slow down. Deep breathe. Relax. Use all of your senses. Be aware and alert. When you spend time in the moment and focus on your senses, you should feel less tense. Most stress comes from thinking about the past or worrying about the future. When you are in the present moment, and all of your attention is focused on what you are doing, there isn’t room for anything else to enter. 

According to the dictionary, mindful is attentive, aware, or careful (usually followed by of): mindful of one’s responsibilities. Meditation is the practice of uncritically attempting to focus your attention on one thing at a time. The goal of meditation lies not merely in focusing to the exclusion of all other thoughts but instead recognizing the moment thoughts divert your attention and then refocusing.

The discipline focuses on an awareness of the breath, body, mind, and environment, helping individuals become aware of what is happening in the present moment, which is traditionally rotted in Zen and Eastern Buddhist meditation disciplines. Mindful meditation is not a technique but a way of being and of seeing the nature of the self. 

Mindfulness meditation involves focusing on the breath or bodily sensations, nonjudgmentally acknowledging distracting thoughts as they occur, and returning to the present moment (Woods, 2014). It can be practiced every second of every day, and if continually practiced, will eventually become a habit and lifestyle. 

Mindfulness improves your general health. Ten-minute daily practice can result in more efficient cognition, better self-regulation, better executive attention, and recognition memory. Mindfulness improves emotion regulation, mood, empathy, confidence and self-esteem, coping and social skills, and their ability to pay attention and focus. 

Meditation has been used successfully in the treatment and prevention of high blood pressure, heart disease, migraine headaches, and autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and arthritis. It has proved helpful in curtailing obsessive thinking, anxiety, depression, and hostility. 

There are so many reasons to include mindfulness meditation in your life. It will work miracles in every aspect of your life. There are so many opportunities that you may be missing daily because you are too stressed out to see what’s right in front of you. 

Practice: Inhale. Take a deep breath. Feel your breath in your lower abdomen. Feel it move through your parts of your body. After you are grounded, ignite your senses. What do you smell, hear, see, taste, and feel around you? In this space, you can ask the most critical questions and make the necessary changes that influence your future. When you use mindfulness meditation, you feel more powerful and in control of your life.

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