Over the last number of years, there has been an increased interest in mindfulness. During and since the height of the Covid 19 Pandemic, many individuals and families alongside the normal up’s and downs of daily life have faced many complex situations which have really challenged their resilience levels. Sadly, this has caused some of us to feel more anxious, burned out, exhausted and overwhelmed.
On the positive side, this uncertain time in our lives has led many of us on a pathway to find ways to improve our quality of life and build in more self-care for ourselves and those whom we love. In short, people have become interested in this growing science backed topic in a bid to build up their own self-reliance battery.
Mindfulness practices can provide this ‘pathway’, and this is increasingly borne out and validated by neuroscience. Many Irish and UK Public Services and international private companies are using mindfulness as a tool to enable their employees to gain more self-awareness and a better work life balance.
Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn (Founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programme): “Mindfulness is the awareness that comes from paying attention in a particular way, on purpose in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”
Thich Nhat Hanh: (Spiritual Leader) “I define mindfulness as the practice of being fully present and alive, body and mind united. Mindfulness is the energy that helps us to know what is going on in the present moment.”
How do the above definitions translate into our everyday life’s?
Have you ever driven your car or walked home from work or a social event and not remembered any part of the journey? Instead of details of the journey, your mind was focused on “what am I going to cook for dinner?”, or “I really didn’t do a good enough job today in work or with my family?” In all these examples, you are not focusing on the current moment, and you are not “in the here and now”. This way of being is referred to as being in Autopilot. While thinking about your next night out with friends or what you are going to look at Netflix that evening areharmless thoughts, other thoughts of self-doubt and ruminations can be harmful and these often creep in during times of being on autopilot.
So, mindfulness is the opposite of automatic pilot mode. It offers a way of moving from automatic and unhelpful ways of thinking and responding. It is about focusing on the world around us and improving our resilience skills when faced with more challenging situations in life.
Based on published studies, Mindfulness has been found to be effective in reducing levels of psychological distress, exhaustion and burnout and stress while improving empathy, emotional control and increasing happiness levels.
