Mindfulness

Perhaps you have heard people say “be mindful of…” and perhaps you are seeing the term mindfulness pop up in your Facebook feed or in news stories.

Maybe you understand the basic idea of mindfulness but don’t entirely grasp the full potential of it.

There is an often an assumption that it is meditation, and you make think to yourself that you are not the meditating type. I get it, I was that person too!

But, there is so much more to the concept of mindfulness.

It is about being in the moment, without agenda or judgment, and allowing yourself to experience ALL of what life gives us (good and bad).

This still probably feels a little woo-woo, but there is a lot of neuroscience that backs up the benefits!

Think about this: When you feel most frustrated, anxious, depressed, sad, etc. where do you find your mind going to?

If we are really aware of our thoughts we realize we are taken to a place in our mind that is in the past (which we can’t do anything about) and/or the future (which we also cannot do anything about). These experiences create feelings of anxiety (future) and depression (past).

Now let’s try another example: Think of a time when you were having a great time. When everything seemed to be going well and you were smiling, laughing and connecting with others around you. Where do you find your mind at these moments? Again, if we have the awareness to identify this we will often find that we are in that moment, and nowhere else.

This is one of the main objects of Mindfulness. Most people run on autopilot and are not present for more than a minute at a time. We are so busy doing, achieving, fixing, planning, worrying, and dwelling that we miss opportunities to be present and experience what is going on for us. We try to numb that bad, but in doing so we may be missing key signals from our mind and body that are needing attention.

Biofeedback

Using easy to apply interventions and a program called HeartMath I can show you how learning to align your mind and your heart can help reduce symptoms of anger, anxiety, depression, and stress.

Most of these above-mentioned issues are due to our systems (mind and heart) being out of alignment with themselves. Our bodies are constantly sending signals up and down the nervous system, relying on patterns to let us know what is normal and what is not.

Unfortunately, when we are chronically stressed or anxious this creates a normalized pattern in our bodies.

A new set point. So now, being anxious or stressed is the comfortable place to be, even though it is destructive and your body and mind are out of sync with one another. This is called incoherence.

When you think of someone who is incoherent you think of someone who cannot think clearly or who is confused. This is exactly what happens to us when we try to deny our emotions, and when we become “un-even” in how we use our intellect or our emotions.

HeartMath utilizes concepts of mindfulness, as well as helping people learn to control their physiology to improve the communication between the heart and the mind, creating more coherence/alignment which leads to greater levels of peace and serenity.

Benefits of Mindfulness and Coherence Training

Mindfulness and Coherence Training interventions have countless proven benefits:

• Self-confidence
• Impulse Control
• Improved Sleep
• Optimism
• Ability to handle the physical and emotional pain
• Stress management

John Kabat Zinn (2013), the founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, sees mindfulness as “a radical act—a radical act of sanity, of self-compassion, and ultimately, of love.”

Mindfulness and Coherence is a practice. It is an intentional act that takes practice involving an awareness and acceptance of where our attention is being placed. Being in the present moment allows us to feel, known, and learn in the moment. We hope to see this as a way to experiment in how we relate to life.