"Let go of your mind and be mindful. Close your ears and listen" - Rumi
Mindfulness is a mind-body intervention (MBI) which is similar to meditation. Mindfulness also aims to quieten the mind, but it does so without needing to be still—for instance, the practice can be done on a walk, eating or doing a task. The goal of mindfulness is to be present so that we become more aware of our surroundings, as well as bodily sensations, feelings, and thoughts. Being present slows your mind down, releases stress and calms the nervous system. Key to these techniques is to observe your thoughts and feelings without judging them. The idea is that awareness without judgement weakens and overcomes negative thought patterns over time, helping to promote mind-body healing.
While it has its roots in Buddhist meditation, mindfulness practices have now entered the mainstream and are regularly practised by people all over the world. The popularity of mindfulness is in part due to the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) approach. The efficacy of MBSR has been documented by thousands of studies and has inspired countless programmes, including those adapted for hospitals, prisons, schools, and veteran centres. Hundreds of medical centres around the world now offer MBSR programmes, including leading pain management programmes in prestigious hospitals such as John Hopkins in the US and St Thomas’s Hospital in London.
MBSR includes focused awareness, awareness of the breath, body scans, mindful observation, mindful eating and walking meditations, as well as mindful stretching with yoga. A 2015 meta-analysis of 29 studies involving over 2000 participants found that MBSR was a highly effective way of reducing stress, anxiety and depression.[1] Other meta-studies have found it to be a beneficial practice for increasing the quality of life in people with chronic diseases such as cancer.[2] In the New York Times bestseller “The Body Keeps the Score”, Bessel Van der Kolk advocates mindfulness as a useful tool for recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because it requires an awareness of the body and emotions rather than denying and repressing them.[3]
*This is a short exert from my upcoming book 'The Ripple Effect; Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World", to be released November 23rd 2024
[1] Khoury, B. Sharma, M., Rush SE and Fournier, C., (2015) “Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction for Healthy Individuals; a meta-analysis”, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, www.pubmed.gov (accessed 13/09/22)
[2] Huang, HP., Wang, He Y, Shou, M. (2016) “A meta-analysis of the benefits of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on psychological function among breast cancer (BC) survivors”. Breast Cancer 23 (4), p568 - 76
[3] Van der Kolk, B. (2015) “The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma”, Penguin
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