In today’s busy and ever-changing world, each day presents a new challenge in maintaining a healthy state of mind. Your mood is based on your surroundings. Whether it’s work, or family, or other aspects of your life, mindset is now known to play a big role in dealing with stress and preventing mental illness.
When we’re lost in the shuffle of everyday existence, we put our overall health and well-being at risk. We tend to focus on the things that further irritate and frustrate us, instead of prioritizing wellness and self-preservation.
This is where mindfulness comes in — and by extension, meditation as well. The benefits of exercise for health are well known, think of mindfulness as exercise and care for your mind and brain.
What is Mindfulness?
Simply put, mindfulness is the mental state of being in the here and now.
At any given time, the brain can be in one of two states: the default mode network (DMN) or the task-positive network (TPN).
The DMN is our default state; when we’re not doing anything, that’s where your mind is. The TMN, on the other hand, is the active state when we’re conversing with someone, engaged in a task, or otherwise doing anything that requires conscious attention and focus.
Thus, when you find yourself getting sad, feeling anxious, or worrying about future problems, it helps to know how to switch from DMN to TPN. That’s not to say that one state is better than the other; it’s just that DMN and TPN need to be balanced to achieve good mental health.
And the key to switching from DMN to TPN — from anxiety to mindfulness — is through meditation.
Mindfulness means avoiding all of the distractions that take us away from focusing on the present removing all negativity and anxieties. Instead, you channel your deepest emotions and thoughts towards the pursuit of inner peace and harmony.
A mindful person is aware of the things that go on in their immediate environment, and is in touch with their feelings. Mindfulness can help us manage our relationships well and give our best performance in everything that we do.
Researchers have revealed the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. There is a growing body of evidence revealing a significant impact on personal happiness, stress reduction, and productivity.
Health Benefits of Mindfulness
There are a number of studies demonstrating the benefits of mindfulness and meditation.
The University of Massachusetts Medical Center has its own Stress Reduction Clinic, founded by Professor emeritus Jon Kabat-Zinn. The clinic has been actively involved in mindfulness meditation research, with the goal of raising its profile and integrating it into modern-day mainstream medical practices.
Research has shown that mindfulness and meditation techniques may assist in
- stress reduction
- better sleep
Considering 70 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, it could prove to be a future intervention option for healthy sleep.
The benefits go further including the prevention and treatment of
- heart disease
- high blood pressure
- digestive disorders, like leaky gut
- chronic pain, headaches, and migraines
- chronic inflammation
Each may suggest how psychosomatic illnesses work; the less stressed and aggravated we are, the better we feel.
In addition, mindfulness techniques have been shown to help patients suffering from mental disorders including:
- obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD
- anxiety
- bulimia, anorexia, and eating disorders
- drug abuse and addiction
- family or relationship related mental conditions
On the surface level, mindfulness can improve your overall disposition. When you are mindful, you think less about your personal problems and more about your personal victories. You are in the moment, ever-present and aware of the positive things and events happening around you. You dwell in the present, and leave the worries of the future for the future. You focus instead on fixing what you can fix today, and you give yourself an emotional boost because you are able to get over any stumbling blocks and obstacles towards success with relative ease.
How Mindfulness Affects Neurotransmitters in the Brain
Neuroscientists have revealed changes in the brain in those that practice mindfulness.
- Serotonin. relays signals from one area of the brain to another, and affects our mood significantly. In a study conducted by students from the University of Montreal, mindfulness directly impacts how much serotonin our brains produce, boosting its levels and helping us in coping with stress and preventing depression.
- Cortisol. Known as the stress hormone, cortisol is a byproduct of the body when we are stressed, and is also said to accelerate the aging process. In 2013, UC Davis researchers discovered that mindfulness meditation can significantly affect our cortisol production; meanwhile, a medical professional at Rutgers University observed that meditation could reduce cortisol levels by almost 50 percent.
- DHEA. If cortisol accelerates aging and increases stress, DHEA fulfills the opposite function. The American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine, those who practice mindfulness meditation have almost 50 percent more DHEA than non-practitioners.
- GABA. GABA stands for gamma aminobutyric acid, and it is responsible for keeping us from overthinking and getting anxious. A 2010 study revealed that GABA levels increased by 27 percent even after just an hour of mindfulness meditation.
- Endorphins. Endorphins are responsible not just for our happy feelings, but also to soothe our pain. Interestingly, studies have shown that runners who meditate have greatly increased endorphin levels (which is why you feel so good when you finish a race).
- Melatonin. Last but not the least, melatonin is a hormone produced in the pineal gland. Aside from guarding against cancer and benefits all over the body, it protects the digestive system, immune system and slows the aging process as well. Researchers from Rutgers University conducted experiments on meditation practitioners, and found a 98 percent average increase of melatonin levels in their brains. (Some even reached 300 percent!)
Mindfulness Meditation for Depression
Perhaps most importantly, however, mindfulness techniques have been shown to be greatly effective in addressing a serious condition that, until recently, has been the subject of negative stigma due to it being misunderstood: depression.
According to psychologist and author Daniel Goleman, mindfulness can be used to treat chronic depression, through the application of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, or MBCT. MBCT is a mindfulness-based program that subjects patients to eight weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy to provide treatment and relief.
“Meditation generally makes people feel positive and helps diminish anxiety, but it becomes particularly powerful when it’s combined with psychotherapy,” Goleman says. “Mindfulness and other meditations, particularly combined with cognitive therapy, work just as well for anxiety or depression as the medications do, but they don’t have those side effects.”
Combining meditation techniques with cognitive therapy — which teaches patients to explore the inner workings of their mind and develop an awareness of how their negativity takes over them — has proven to be powerful in addressing depression due to the one-two punch of recognizing your feelings (through mindfulness) and moving past them (through cognitive therapy).
Research is supporting the merits of this approach. After reviewing nine clinical trials involving severely depressed patients, researchers concluded that the patients who underwent MBCT were less likely to fall back into depression for one year and two months, across all demographics. In fact, the same analysis showed that MBCT was actually more potent at treating chronic depression than antidepressants.
How Do You Start Mindfulness Meditation?
Remember there is no single way to achieve mindfulness, though there are methods (including guided mindfulness meditation, which we’ll get into later on) that are more effective than others.
Most people find meditation difficult when they first start. So don’t worry if you do too.
The important thing to note in attaining mindfulness is that one must stay relaxed yet alert, the perfect balance of paying attention without making any decisions or judgment about what’s around you.
The easiest form of mindfulness meditation involves selecting a simple word or statement that you can repeat to yourself silently as you sit and focus on your thoughts. This is called a mantra. Alternatively, you can do without a mantra and focus on breathing in and out instead.
You can also be more alert about the sensations in your body or in your immediate environment, putting your senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound at work. Remember, though, that you must activate these senses without applying judgment to whatever you end up sensing.
Another way of achieving mindfulness is getting in sync with your own emotions. A period of self-examination and reflection in silence can work wonders in helping you reach the level of mindfulness that gives you inner peace.
Meditation for Addiction and Breaking Habits
For people struggling with addiction, they may practice urge surfing. This technique involves fighting your urge to consume addictive substances or participate in addictive behavior, resisting the temptation to do further harm to your body until the urges and addiction pass.
This can be quite difficult and mentally taxing, but also has the largest payoff (as you may eventually rid yourself entirely of your addiction).
6 Step Guided Mindfulness Meditation
As mentioned earlier, one can practice mindfulness meditation to achieve a state of mindfulness.
Mindfulness meditation involves undergoing a series of meditative steps revolving around attention focusing. The ultimate goal is to diminish your stress levels by having you focus on a single object or stimulus.
Here’s a basic mindfulness meditation routine you can follow. Feel free to change it to something that works for you.
- Sit with straight posture on a chair or on the floor.
- Inhale deeply into your belly for five seconds, and focus on filling a balloon just under your navel, you can put your hands here and feel it ‘blow up’.
- Pay attention to how your body reacts to you breathing in, picture the tides of the ocean moving with your breath
- Exhale slowly for 8 seconds, while continuing to stay focused. The slower your exhale, the more relaxing the practice is.
- Start paying attention to feelings through your body. Feel the light feeling of your mind as exhaling pushes cerebrospinal fluid up your spine. Try not to focus too much, just feel the pressure of where you’re sitting and laying, and the rise and fall of your stomach.
- Keep your mind empty and devoid of judgment as you do this.
- Repeat 5 times.
After 5-10 minutes of mindfulness practice, you will feel a sense of calm move over your mind. Practicing this daily can help integrate those feelings into your everyday life.
The key to successfully practicing mindfulness is letting go of yourself and your prejudices. The moment you start noticing that your mind is filling itself with thoughts that require judgment and effort, just notice it, and slowly move it to the side.
Your upcoming work deadlines or your ambitions to become a successful musician someday, or even the vacation you’re planning to go on next month. Empty your mind of all thoughts and distractions, and focus on the present. The moment you feel yourself falling into that mental trap once more, push your focus to your breath.
Eventually, when you practice meditation enough, you will no longer have difficulty redirecting your thoughts and achieving the state of mindfulness. When you reach this point, you will eventually find that none of your day-to-day challenges are as worrying as they were and you’ll notice changes in your overall health as time passes.
Take note that you also don’t have to do this by yourself. Meditating on your own is the preferable option if you’re an introvert; however, it also wouldn’t hurt to attend a few classes or even have a personal mindfulness meditation instructor to teach you new techniques or keep you motivated.
If you’re suffering from depression or any other mental illness and would like to give mindfulness meditation a shot, you may consult with your physician and get professional advice on the techniques you can explore.
Conclusion
There is no single path to mindfulness, and not every technique will work for everyone. One thing we do know is that what truly matters is to never lose sight of the main objective in mindfulness meditation. To empty your mind of all distractions and judgment.
Practicing mindfulness meditation can help you cope with the daily challenges of existence, recognize emotions you barely notice, become more at peace with yourself, or even unlock talents you never thought you had. Perhaps most important of all, however, is that mindfulness can make you an overall better person, both for yourself and for others.
Have you tried any mindfulness meditation techniques? Share your experiences in the comments section below.
Further reading
- https://www.helpguide.org/harvard/benefits-of-mindfulness.htm/
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/mindfulness
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2517515
- https://eocinstitute.org/meditation/dhea_gaba_cortisol_hgh_melatonin_serotonin_endorphins/
About the Author(s)
