Some of the benefits of Mindfulness described by Professor Mark Williams (Oxford Mindfulness Center). With mindfulness, brain patterns evolve: empathy and compassion increases. The amygdala, the part of our brain triggering fight and flight responses, is inhibited with mindfulness. Mark Williams has co-developed the MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy) to help people with depression. MBCT has now become one of the preferred treatments for depression in the UK and a number of other countries.
When is the last time you did nothing?
A simple, straightforward talk about the power of just being, even for 10 minutes a day.
“Just breathe”
Our life starts and ends with a breath. Our breath is amazingly powerful, it keeps us alive and well every second of the day. Usually we don’t pay any conscious attention to it, unless we start meditating.
How we breathe profoundly affects our physical and mental health, how we perform and how we age. Good breathing habits are essential to our wellbeing and vitality and contribute to calm, focused attention, creativity and peak performance. The breath plays an extremely important role in meditation and in healing. Becoming aware of the breath immediately brings us right into the present moment and anchors our awareness into the body and we can tune into our life energy. A few moments of noticing the breath can bring calm and restore balance and stability to the body and mind. Breathing with an attitude of kindness through difficult moments, physical pain or stress, intense emotions such as anger or fear is one of the most healthy habits we can develop. If one can discover the power of the breath at a young age, like these beautiful children in the video it is really a gift. The good news is that it is never too late:)
Mindfulness is key to happiness
Harvard research shows that our ability to stay in the moment is directly linked to our happiness. However our minds wander for large amount of our lives : based on this research, 47% of our waking hours are spent not focused on what we are actually doing.
What Is Mindfulness?
Here’s mindfulness described by the founder of mindfulness-based trainings, Jon Kabat Zinn, at a talk at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. Mindfulness equates to “presence of heart”.