"Our Life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think" - Buddha
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Paying active attention to your internal landscape accepting our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future. It is through this allowing and witnessing (paying attention) that we being to shift.
Though it has its roots in Buddhist meditation, a secular practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years, in part through the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which he launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. Since its inception other teachers such as Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg have taken mindfulness into mainstream America. Hospitals, Cancer Centers, Large Fortune 500 Companies, Drug and Alcohol treatment facilities all employ Mindfulness Instructors and it's even crossing over into our school systems. UCLA has "The Mindful Awareness Research Center" that does extensive research on the benefits of Mindfulness and offers a 3 year training program and class for the public.
Lisa received her first training in MSBR through the UCLA extension program with Gloria Kamler and went on to study with Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg.
Benefits if Mindfulness
*Good for Your Body: On study found that, after just eight weeks of training, practicing mindfulness meditation boosts the immune system’s ability to fight off illness.
*Good for Your mind: Several studies have found that mindfulness increases positive emotions while reducing negative emotions and stress. At least one study suggests it may be as good as antidepressants in fighting depression and preventing relapse.
*It changes our brains: Research has found that it increases density of gray matter in brain regions linked to learning, memory, emotion regulation, and empathy.
*Mindfulness for Businesses: Implementing a mindfulness workshop into your company can increase overall productivity, team cooperation, employer an employee job satisfaction, and lower employee sick days.
*Mindfulness helps us focus: Studies suggest that mindfulness helps us tune out distractions and improves our memory and attention skills.
*Mindfulness fosters compassion: Research shows mindfulness increases activity in neural networks involved in understanding the suffering of others and regulating emotions and suggests mindfulness training makes us more likely to help someone in need and suggests it might boost self-compassion as well.
*Mindfulness enhances relationships: Research suggests mindfulness training makes couples more satisfied with their relationship, makes each partner feel more optimistic and relaxed, and makes them feel more accepting of and closer to one another. (Go to Tara Brach's website www.tarabrach.com, and look up her Mindfulness for Greater Intimacy). It's wonderful.
*Mindfulness is good for parents and parents-to-be: Studies suggest it may reduce pregnancy-related anxiety, stress, and depression in expectant parents. Parents who practice mindfulness report being happier with their parenting skills and their relationship with their kids, and their kids were found to have better social skills.
*Mindfulness helps schools: There’s scientific evidence that teaching mindfulness in the classroom reduces behavior problems and aggression among students, and improves their happiness levels and ability to pay attention. It raises their GPA and reduces absences. Teachers trained in mindfulness also show lower blood pressure, less negative emotion and symptoms of depression, and greater compassion and empathy.
*Mindfulness helps health care professionals: cope with stress, connect with their patients, and improve their general quality of life. It also helps mental health professionals by reducing negative emotions and anxiety, and increasing their positive emotions and feelings of self-compassion.
*Mindfulness helps veterans: Studies suggest it can reduce the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the aftermath of war.
*Mindfulness fights obesity: Practicing “mindful eating” encourages healthier eating habits, helps people lose weight, and helps them savor the food they do eat.
Mindfulness is also an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. Large population-based research studies have indicated that the construct of mindfulness is strongly correlated with well-being and perceived health. Studies have also shown that rumination and worry contribute to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, and that mindfulness-based interventions are effective in the reduction of both rumination and worry.
(Resources: UCLA's MARC Program, NICAMB, The Greater Good UC Berkley)
Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Paying active attention to your internal landscape accepting our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future. It is through this allowing and witnessing (paying attention) that we being to shift.
Though it has its roots in Buddhist meditation, a secular practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years, in part through the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which he launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. Since its inception other teachers such as Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg have taken mindfulness into mainstream America. Hospitals, Cancer Centers, Large Fortune 500 Companies, Drug and Alcohol treatment facilities all employ Mindfulness Instructors and it's even crossing over into our school systems. UCLA has "The Mindful Awareness Research Center" that does extensive research on the benefits of Mindfulness and offers a 3 year training program and class for the public.
Lisa received her first training in MSBR through the UCLA extension program with Gloria Kamler and went on to study with Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg.
Benefits if Mindfulness
*Good for Your Body: On study found that, after just eight weeks of training, practicing mindfulness meditation boosts the immune system’s ability to fight off illness.
*Good for Your mind: Several studies have found that mindfulness increases positive emotions while reducing negative emotions and stress. At least one study suggests it may be as good as antidepressants in fighting depression and preventing relapse.
*It changes our brains: Research has found that it increases density of gray matter in brain regions linked to learning, memory, emotion regulation, and empathy.
*Mindfulness for Businesses: Implementing a mindfulness workshop into your company can increase overall productivity, team cooperation, employer an employee job satisfaction, and lower employee sick days.
*Mindfulness helps us focus: Studies suggest that mindfulness helps us tune out distractions and improves our memory and attention skills.
*Mindfulness fosters compassion: Research shows mindfulness increases activity in neural networks involved in understanding the suffering of others and regulating emotions and suggests mindfulness training makes us more likely to help someone in need and suggests it might boost self-compassion as well.
*Mindfulness enhances relationships: Research suggests mindfulness training makes couples more satisfied with their relationship, makes each partner feel more optimistic and relaxed, and makes them feel more accepting of and closer to one another. (Go to Tara Brach's website www.tarabrach.com, and look up her Mindfulness for Greater Intimacy). It's wonderful.
*Mindfulness is good for parents and parents-to-be: Studies suggest it may reduce pregnancy-related anxiety, stress, and depression in expectant parents. Parents who practice mindfulness report being happier with their parenting skills and their relationship with their kids, and their kids were found to have better social skills.
*Mindfulness helps schools: There’s scientific evidence that teaching mindfulness in the classroom reduces behavior problems and aggression among students, and improves their happiness levels and ability to pay attention. It raises their GPA and reduces absences. Teachers trained in mindfulness also show lower blood pressure, less negative emotion and symptoms of depression, and greater compassion and empathy.
*Mindfulness helps health care professionals: cope with stress, connect with their patients, and improve their general quality of life. It also helps mental health professionals by reducing negative emotions and anxiety, and increasing their positive emotions and feelings of self-compassion.
*Mindfulness helps veterans: Studies suggest it can reduce the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in the aftermath of war.
*Mindfulness fights obesity: Practicing “mindful eating” encourages healthier eating habits, helps people lose weight, and helps them savor the food they do eat.
Mindfulness is also an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. Large population-based research studies have indicated that the construct of mindfulness is strongly correlated with well-being and perceived health. Studies have also shown that rumination and worry contribute to mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, and that mindfulness-based interventions are effective in the reduction of both rumination and worry.
(Resources: UCLA's MARC Program, NICAMB, The Greater Good UC Berkley)
Empowering You To Heal One Moment At A Time