What is mindfulness? A full mind? I got that already

When you first hear the term mindfulness, many of you might've instinctively thought, "Wait what? I already have a mind full of career pressures, family, and relationship matters. So what the heck are we on about?"

Haha, I completely understand the confusion. So let's break it down step by step, shall we?

For the medically inclined, here's a dictionary definition of mindfulness from the American Psychological Association -

"Mindfulness is awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them.

Mindfulness is used in several therapeutic interventions, including mindfulness-based cognitive behavior therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and mindfulness meditation."

Wait, what?

Let's simplify it :) When we go on about our day-to-day life, we think about a hundred things right?

"Oh, I gotta drop the kids off to school but there's too much traffic, ah shit. "

"Damn, why did she break up with me? Why? Why?"

"Why did she invite Joe to the party? I hate him!"

Do you notice the common patterns in the above examples? Whenever we experience stressful thoughts or are burdened by anxiety, our mind has the natural tendency to tense up and think of the worst possible outcomes and how we can address them. The brain floods the central nervous system with chemicals designed to help you respond to a threat. While in the above situations there's no threat, per say, we are still priming our minds to deal with a difficult situation. In other words, human beings have the tendency to react to situations.

I see, so that's normal, right?

You're absolutely correct! While this response from our bodies and minds is pretty natural, in today's rigorous and stressful daily life, we often find ourselves being regularly overcome by stress-inducing situations, sometimes even daily. This triggers the body's fight and flight response, releasing hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. While this is good for the short term, if your body is constantly being subjected to this fight-and-flight state, over time this could lead to the body being unable to return back to the normal healthy state of functioning.

This can lead to a number of dangerous side effects such as increased heart rate and respiratory disorders. If not addressed over time, in extreme cases this could lead to really dangerous conditions such as fatigue, insomnia, persistent headaches, panic attacks, increase in blood pressure, extreme fatigue etc.

Uh oh, can mindfulness help me overcome this?

Certainly! :) That is the goal of mindfulness. It allows us to observe our emotions and feelings, without judging them or reacting to them. This helps us reduce the fight-and-flight responses which we have become accustomed to, and also helps our body to heal from the debilitating effects of anxiety.

When we bring attention to the thoughts and emotions we feel on a daily basis and act as a distant observer, we can truly understand ourselves. This deep inward reflection within us can lead us to course correct the negative habits we've become accustomed to, for example irritability, short temper etc. Over the long term, this can help us become better individuals, reduce stress and live much healthier lives.

Great! How do I do practice mindfulness?

Mindfulness can be practiced in a number of ways, such as listening to guided meditations, or even by ourselves! I will cover more details of how we can integrate this practice in our day to day life, in the next post.

Phew! That was quite a lot, huh? Let's conclude on a light note. Lmk how you like this joke, lol.

Why do mindful people not take selfies? Because there is no self to selfie.