What can Mindfulness help you with?
Mindfulness is a research-proven way of promoting health in your body, in your mind and in your relationships with one another and yourself. When you stop and pause you are able to observe and be in control, which enables you to take control of your body and your response to events, have better awareness and empathy of others and to adjust your fear responses.
Mindfulness is simply becoming aware of your here and now experience, both internally and in the external world around you. Being in the present moment allows you to feel able to more safely deal with difficult things in the past and plan for the future without worrying about things that haven’t yet happened.
"Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through 'paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally, to things as they are".
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founder of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program
A 2007 study called "Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference"by Norman Farb and six other scientists at the University of Toronto, explained how people have two distinct ways of interacting with the world, using two different sets of networks. One network for experiencing your experience involves the "default or narrative network", which includes regions of the medial prefrontal cortex, along with memory regions such as the hippocampus. It's the network involved in planning, daydreaming and contemplating. It also become active when you think about yourself or other people. The other distinct way was one of direct experience. When the direct experience network is active, several different brain regions become more active. This includes the insula, a region that relates to perceiving bodily sensations. The anterior cingulate cortex is also activated, which is a region central to switching your attention. When this direct experience network is activated, you are not thinking intently about the past or future, other people, or yourself, or considering much at all, but experiencing information coming into your senses in real time. You don't experience as much when you are lost in thought but when you concentrate on your senses, like taking a deep breath you focus on the present moment and all your senses "come alive" at that moment. Your direct experience network allows you to get closer to the reality of any event. You perceive more information about events occurring around you, as well as more accurate information about these events. Noticing more real-time information makes you more flexible in how you respond to the world. You also become less imprisoned by the past, your habits, expectations or assumptions, and more able to respond to events as they unfold. The more mindful you become, the better decisions you will make.
I normally include teaching Mindfulness in my Hypnotherapy sessions so you can use it on a day-to-day basis.
Mindfulness is a research-proven way of promoting health in your body, in your mind and in your relationships with one another and yourself. When you stop and pause you are able to observe and be in control, which enables you to take control of your body and your response to events, have better awareness and empathy of others and to adjust your fear responses.
Mindfulness is simply becoming aware of your here and now experience, both internally and in the external world around you. Being in the present moment allows you to feel able to more safely deal with difficult things in the past and plan for the future without worrying about things that haven’t yet happened.
"Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through 'paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally, to things as they are".
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Founder of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program
A 2007 study called "Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference"by Norman Farb and six other scientists at the University of Toronto, explained how people have two distinct ways of interacting with the world, using two different sets of networks. One network for experiencing your experience involves the "default or narrative network", which includes regions of the medial prefrontal cortex, along with memory regions such as the hippocampus. It's the network involved in planning, daydreaming and contemplating. It also become active when you think about yourself or other people. The other distinct way was one of direct experience. When the direct experience network is active, several different brain regions become more active. This includes the insula, a region that relates to perceiving bodily sensations. The anterior cingulate cortex is also activated, which is a region central to switching your attention. When this direct experience network is activated, you are not thinking intently about the past or future, other people, or yourself, or considering much at all, but experiencing information coming into your senses in real time. You don't experience as much when you are lost in thought but when you concentrate on your senses, like taking a deep breath you focus on the present moment and all your senses "come alive" at that moment. Your direct experience network allows you to get closer to the reality of any event. You perceive more information about events occurring around you, as well as more accurate information about these events. Noticing more real-time information makes you more flexible in how you respond to the world. You also become less imprisoned by the past, your habits, expectations or assumptions, and more able to respond to events as they unfold. The more mindful you become, the better decisions you will make.
MRI scans show primal region of the brain, associated with fear and emotion, is involved in the initiation of the body’s response to stress.di
As the amygdala shrinks, the pre-frontal cortex – associated with higher order brain functions such as awareness, concentration and decision-making – becomes thicker. In other words, our more primal responses to stress seem to be superseded by more thoughtful ones.
Interestingly, we are all born with the primitive part of our brain functioning well and it is only after around 25 years of age do our pre-frontal fibres develop, gaining the capacity to move beyond the immediate arousal of anger, fear and the need to win arguments - and now we can understand why our teenagers are the way they are!I normally include teaching Mindfulness in my Hypnotherapy sessions so you can use it on a day-to-day basis.