Mindfulness is a soothing technique originating in Buddhism, and now widely used with ACT and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to bring to mind and expand a natural, spiritual peacefulness.
At coaching.care, the way we embrace mindfulness is to place our attention on what is most helpful at any given moment.
Using the key-phrase of intention over attention, we ask you to be aware (mindful) of your intention at any given moment, and to apply your attention to fulfilling that intention.
So if you have given that last paragraph some thought for a moment, you will see that Mindfulness is really only another word for awareness. Most of us go through life in a state of semi-awareness.
Mindfulness invites us to bring full awareness to what we are doing, thinking and feeling in the present moment. Freedom based thinking, a vastly simplified version of cognitive behavioral therapy used in our Online Coaching, encourages being in the moment, combined with first action, then thought and finally, feeling. By maintaining this order, we are better organized, obtain better outcomes, feel better about ourselves and interact better with the world.
Research from the University of Granada reveals that Mindfulness helps to fight anxiety disorders, depression, anxiety and health concerns. By utilising Mindfulness Training with a group of 20 high anxiety girl students and another group of 25 secondary school teachers, emotions , mental and physical health improved in everybody tested: This research confirms the popular view that mindfulness training can reduce anxiety and improve health.
We can accept life better when we really notice its effects upon us in each moment. By mindfully attending to different aspects of our momentary intention and experience. Bringing our awareness to how we breathe, how we sit, how we move, the physical aspects of what we are doing, such as the feel of the pen we are writing with, etc., we gain a new perspective on whether we are reacting or responding to our experience of the moment.
Mindfulness means noticing the moment, the food in your mouth, the breath in your nostrils, the companionship of your friend who may be texting you …Not suppressing anything you feel but embracing and accepting even when you feel bad and enjoying and celebrating the good times. I’m having a good time now … I might not have noticed if I were writing an article on, say, sleep deprivation.
In harmony with not suppressing what you feel, mindfulness includes a compassionate quality towards the self and others, accepting that life is sometimes hard and thoughts are sometimes intrusive, and people do the best they can whatever the circumstances.
This puts a new perspective on taking the rough with the smooth; understanding that you’ll sometimes feel rough and that’s ok. A spiritual rather than judgemental response to the self.