Mindfulness
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a quality of awareness developed by purposefully paying attention in a non-judgmental way to our experience (body sensations, emotions, thoughts) as it unfolds moment by moment.
Mindfulness training is a process of cultivating a capacity for clarity, openness and compassion, with which we can meet our life just as it is, be fully present to its beauty and richness and, which when challenges arise – stress, relational difficulties, illness, life-issues, etc. – supports us to respond to them wisely, skilfully and creatively rather than react with our habitual automatic patterns.
Mindfulness practice is a path of more deliberate, conscious living through which we develop a new relationship with ourselves, with our life-circumstances and with others – a relationship that is aware, supportive, creative and compassionate.
The Benefits
Most participants in the programme report lasting physical and psychological benefits, including:
Greater confidence and balance, a renewed sense of agency
An increased ability to relax and experience calm and contentment
More self-awareness and a greater capacity for emotional regulation
More energy, enthusiasm and appreciation for life
An increased ability to cope effectively with stressful situations and difficult life-circumstances – replacing reactivity with responsiveness
More kindness and compassion towards self and others
More skilful management of difficult relational dynamics both at home and at work
The origins of the programme
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed in the 1970s by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachussets Medical Centre to address the needs of patients suffering from chronic pain or stress-induced conditions who couldn’t find relief from medical treatment. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a molecular biologist working at the hospital, a scientist by training as well as a meditator and yoga practitioner, designed an 8-week programme of stress reduction borrowing from Buddhist teachings, yoga, psychological theories and scientific knowledge, that has proved so impactful that it is now used in a growing number of contexts all over the world including mental health, education, business and politics and has been endorsed by a recent UK parliamentary report.
Later, in the 1990s, a team of psychologists developed the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme which contains a higher proportion of cognitive therapy. This programme is usually applied to specific conditions or issues such as the prevention of depressive relapse (recommended by NICE – the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), addiction, various personality disorders, etc. MBCT is available on the NHS.
More recently, the University of Oxford Mindfulness Centre developed the Mindfulness for Life 8-week programme, which added practices intended to cultivate joy, compassion and equanimity to the teachings on the management of distress and reactivity. The Mindfulness for Life course draws together elements from both ancient wisdom and modern psychology and presents them in ways that are immediately applicable in everyday life.
Research endorsement
Extensive scientific research has been carried out to examine the efficacy of mindfulness programmes and it has yielded a very positive endorsement. Many studies show that practicing mindfulness reduces stress and rumination, that it decreases emotional reactivity and improves cognitive flexibility. There is evidence of increased attentional capacity, emotional regulation, empathic awareness and relationship satisfaction. It has been observed that the practice of mindfulness can modify the structure and neural pathways in the brain and studies have shown that it activates the left side of the pre-frontal cortex which is related to positive emotions. It has also been shown to impact the immune system beneficially and lead to a more robust production of antibodies.
For more information, please see this brief summary of mindfulness research.
