Are you mindful?

You may have heard of the term mindfulness, but what is it?

Mindfulness derives from the ancient Buddhist practice of meditation, and can be an effective approach for anxiety, stress and depression.

If you are consistently thinking or feeling trapped by past events, you may be feeling the signs of depression. However if you are forever forward thinking, or trying to control the future, you may be more prone to anxiety.

Mindfulness is a very simple concept, it teaches you to control the present moment. By using the mind and body, mindfulness techniques can slow everything down so you can relax into the here and now.

Mindfulness can help increase our awareness, clarity and acceptance of our present moment reality. It is simply a practical way to notice our current thoughts, sensations, sights, sounds and smells. The actual skill might sound simple, however it is so different to how our minds normally behave it takes practice.

Many counsellors can help you with learning and practising the art of mindfulness. By becoming more aware of our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations from moment to moment, we give ourselves the possibility of greater awareness, freedom and choice.

As we become more practised at using mindfulness, we learn gratitude and acceptance of our existence. This results in less distressing feelings, increases our level of functioning, and ability to truly experience our lives.