What is Mindfulness and How Do We Practice It?

“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally” - Jon Kabat-Zinn (Mindful, 2015)

Mindfulness is an Intentional Practice

Mindfulness is the practice of observing, accepting and creating awareness of the here and now. (Aghaie & Ghomian, 2021). The benefits of a mindfulness practice can include self-acceptance, positive relationships with others and self, autonomy, purposefulness in life, and personal growth.

Mindfulness has been described as a set of skills that builds the “top-down” reflective parts of self-regulation, including greater attention and cognitive flexibility, while also reducing “bottom-up” distractions, such as impulsiveness and rumination (MacDonald, 2021, p. 156).

This type of mindful self-regulation helps with emotion regulation and the delay of gratification.

Mindfulness Involves More of a Being Rather Than a Doing

The more you do it the more you are being it.

A woman sitting cross-legged next to a houseplant in a dimly lit room. She appears to be meditating.

Meditation is a form of a mindful practice. Various meditation techniques allow one to act with awareness and non-judgmental mindfulness. Meditations that are grounded in openness, curiosity, and acceptance of one’s thoughts, feelings, and sensations, and have been shown to impact well-being and other facets of mental health.

Focused Attention meditations (the observing side of mindfulness) involves paying attention to a specific object or focus, such as the breath, mantra, word or phrase and repeatedly returning one’s attention to this object when the attention wanders (MacDonald, 2021).

Mindfulness Paired with Self-Compassion

Mindfulness is an awareness of one’s experience and suffering, and self-compassion is the portion that addresses that suffering.

Self-compassion has been described as "being touched by and open to one's own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one's suffering and to heal oneself with kindness” (Neff, 2003). Enhancing self‐compassion can be an effective way to help improve positive mental health.

Mindfulness strategies may reduce factors like emotion dysregulation and cultivate factors such as kindness and the experience of positive emotions. Self‐compassion has been linked to emotional awareness and acceptance (Carona et al., 2022).

Now Practice Mindfulness

Begin your mindfulness practice today with simple deep breathing.

Three deep breaths all the way to the belly. Feel the breath as your presence, ground yourself in the here and now.

Notice. Notice how you felt before and how you feel after.

There are many guided meditations, and deep breathing exercises on YouTube to try out as you begin your mindfulness practice. Experiment with what feels good for you at that time.

Notice. Invite compassion in, invite curiosity in. Just Notice.

For more information you can also visit the trusted site of https://jonkabat-zinn.com/.

If you enjoyed this blog post, considering checking out these other posts on our blog!

Window Of Tolerance: The Fight, Flight, Freeze And Shutdown Of It All https://www.balancepsychservices.ca/post/window-of-tolerance-the-fight-flight-freeze-and-shutdown-of-it-all

Understanding Your Emotions: The Emotion Volcano and The Feelings Wheel https://www.balancepsychservices.ca/post/understanding-your-emotions-the-emotion-volcano-and-the-feelings-wheel

References

Aghaie, E., & Ghomian, S. (2021). Study of well-being changes during mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in a non-clinical sample: A process of change study. Journal of Fundamentals of Mental Health, 383–395. https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=c668cfc7-3a28-3238-ae5c-445b550f9219

Carona, C., Xavier, S., Canavarro, M. C., & Fonseca, A. (2022). Self‐compassion and complete perinatal mental health in women at high risk for postpartum depression: The mediating role of emotion regulation difficulties. Psychology & Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 95(2), 561–574. https://doi.org/10.1111/papt.12388

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2023). Mindfulness in action. Jon Kabaut-Zinn, https://jonkabat-zinn.com/mindfulness-in-action/#connections

MacDonald, H. Z. (2021). Associations of five facets of mindfulness with self-regulation in college students. Psychological Reports, 124(3), 1202–1219. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294120937438

Neff, K. D. (2003). The development and validation of a scale to measure self-compassion. Self and identity, 2(3), 223-250. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309027

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Information provided through Balance Psychological Services' blog posts is meant for educational purposes only. This is NOT medical or mental health advice. If you are seeking mental health advice, please contact us directly at (587) 985-3132.