The Practice of Mindfulness

by: Sarah Begoun 

http://askdrnandi.com/2014/04/04/mindfulness/

Summary:

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is described as “paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment”.  Mindfulness has been known to serve many benefits such as physical, mental, and just overall well-being. Stress-reduction, lower blood pressure, less caught up in worries, aid with anxiety are just a couple of the specific benefits that can come from this practice of mindfulness. There are a numerous amount of ways that you can incorporate mindfulness into your everyday schedule. It can take as little as 5 minutes but can make a big difference. Mindfulness can happen while you are doing dishes, walking your dog, driving to work, or meditating. Just focus on one think, non-judgmentally. By doing this we are able to grip reality and the present moment without focusing on the past nor future, you are living in the current moment. Overtime, there have been programs developed with mindfulness in mind. Some examples of these programs include, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (Brown University, 2014). These programs are beneficial psychological and stress-reducing practices. Overall, Mindfulness improves your relationship with yourself, family, friends, peers, faculty, etc. With this you are able to shape yourself and positively make a difference in your surrounding world. (Sarah Begoun)

Peer Reviewed Articles:

Del Re, A., Fluckeriger,C., Goldberg, S., Hoyt, W. (2013). Monitoring mindfulness practice quality: An important consideration in mindfulness practice. Psychotherapy Research, 23(1), 54-66.

                This article discusses the stress reduction due to the practice of mindfulness. It talked about the type and quantity of mindfulness in regards to the outcomes. The more mindful you are in your everyday life the lower stress level you tend to have. The authors tested Mindfulness-Based stress reduction on a group of people and focused on the duration, quality, and frequency of the practice. (Sarah Begoun)

Marchand, W. (2013). Mindfulness meditation practices as adjunctive treatments for psychiatric disorders. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 36(1), 141-152.

     This article Mindfulness meditation-based therapies. The use of these therapies for psychiatric disorders is increasing. It has been showed to help with unipolar depression, anxiety, and many other disorders. The authors discuss how t maximize the results of these practices. (Sarah Begoun)

Monshat, K., Khong, B., Hassed, C., Vella-Brodrick, D., Norrish, J., Burns, J., Herrman, H. (2013). 'A conscious control over life and my emotions:' Mindfulness practice and healthy young people. A qualitative study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 52(5), 572-577.

     This article talks about how the younger generation engage in the practice of mindfulness. A group of young children participated in a six week mindfulness program. The results showed that these children seemed calm and relaxed after practicing mindfulness. They were able to be more focused on how they felt. They gained confidence and emotional stability. These adolescents felt at ease and in control. (Sarah Begoun)

Books:

Hanh, T.N. The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation. Beacon Press.

     This book provides a guideline to the practice of mindfulness. The author covers how to use the practice efficiently in small activities. He also highlights how beautiful and effective the practice is and can be. It helps people understand that there is always room for improvement. He shows that you can understand yourself better and live peacefully through the practice of mindfulness. (Sarah Begoun)

Siegel, R. (2009). The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems. Guilford Press.

     This book focuses on how to apply mindfulness to your everyday life. The author shows you how easy it is to apply this practice to simple day to day activities such as driving to work, doing the dishes, walking the dog, and eating. He points out that mindfulness helps you cope with stress, emotional issues, and decision making. (Sarah Begoun)

Smalley, S., Winston, D. (2010). Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness. Da Capo Lifelong Books.

     This book discusses the practice of mindfulness inside and outside of Buddhism. The author recognizes that this is an increasing practice and wants to aid people in the successful practice of mindfulness. The authors provide tools to apply mindfulness to everyday life and have it lead to well-being.  They talk about the large amount of ways that mindfulness can be used every day. Mindfulness can happen through meditation, extreme concentration, riding the bus, etc.  (Sarah Begoun)

Media Sources:

Mindfulness Meditation: Benefits to practicing Mindfulness from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf4LSwMrOos

     This short YouTube video was made by Kristen Johnson. She focuses on changing your perspective in regards to mindfulness. The benefits that she focuses on is decrease in stress and anxiety as well as sharpening your mind. Practicing mindfulness allows you to focus on every aspect of your life whether it be small or large. It really makes you appreciate everything you have. (Sarah Begoun)

Jon Kabat-Zinn Defines Mindfulness from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPNEmxWSNxg

     This YouTube video provides us with what mindfulness is from the clinical mindfulness expert, Jon Kabat-Zinn. This video is a small portion of “Becoming Conscious: The Science of Mindfulness”. This video helps clarify what exactly is considered mindfulness and a brief description as to why it is used. (Sarah Begoun)

Reducing Stress through the Practices of Mindfulness from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NTVKrcKWBI

     This video was made by UC Irvine Living Well. It emphases how just being mindful for a short period of time each day can drastically reduce stress levels. This is extremely useful in the workplace or for college students. She brings to people’s attention that this practice is not time consuming nor difficult. This video is helpful in seeing the benefits of mindfulness (Sarah Begoun)

Websites:

Foundation for a Mindful Society. (2012). Mindful. Retrieved from http://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-practice/mindfulness-and-awareness/search-inside-yourself.

     This website provides information on how to practice mindfulness, mindfulness in the workplace, and what mindfulness really is. This website has a magazine called Mindful associated with it. This website and magazine have articles written by experts in this field about the effectiveness of mindfulness and how to get started. (Sarah Begoun)

UNC Campus Health Services. (2014). Meditation and Mindfulness. Retrieved from http://campushealth.unc.edu/healthtopics/mindfulness-and-meditation.

     This website was provided to the students of UNC and gives a background of the benefits of meditation and mindfulness in regards to stress reduction. This is a great option for students with a high course loud or even difficult classes. It shows the health benefits of these practices. (Sarah Begoun)

UCLA Health. (2014). UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. Retrieved from http://marc.ucla.edu/.

     This website provides a description as to what mindfulness is. It offers links to classes on mindfulness and online resources. It also offers articles and research on this practice. (Sarah Begoun) 

Personal Creation:

This powerpoint covers what mindfulness really is, the benefits, and how to apply it everyday. 

 The Practice of Mindfulness-Wiki Draft.pptx  

Summary Practice Reflection

Mindfulness (Tiffany Dempsey)

For my first transformational practice I choose mindfulness. The way that I practiced mindfulness was by attending the free yoga classes at the Health and Learning center. I was interested in doing mindfulness as a practice because it seemed very beneficial to me in many different ways. I really liked that there were different was to practice mindfulness as in meditation, yoga, or even Tai Chi. I think it is good for people to participate in some form of mindfulness and it is very easy to fit it in to your everyday life. You can do a mindfulness practice for 15 minutes up to an hour and afterwards the feeling that you get is very helpful in your everyday life and even your profession. A couple of ways that mindfulness can help you in a professional way is that by using a mindful practice and improve on your counseling skills with the patients. It helps to be more at ease with yourself and your clients. It helps you to listen to the clients more attentively and be more comfortable when their is silence. Mindfulness can also help when it comes to being stressed out or feeling anxiety. Jobs and careers can get hectic at times but if you just take a couple of minutes to meditate you will fine yourself being less stressed and your mood will be considerably improved. Since mindfulness was the first practice I participated in I found it very helpful and satisfying. After I attended my yoga classes and practiced my mindfulness I felt more relaxed and more focused. When I would come back from my yoga class I found myself more focused on my homework and I was able to get more work done. When I would go to my yoga class during the week I would feel less stressed out for what I had to do that week. I really enjoyed my mindful practice I learned a lot about myself and I felt so much better about the world after I practiced my mindfulness. I would recommend this to anyone who is feeling stressed or blocked in any way. 

http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/07-08/ce-corner.aspx

Mindfulness was my first transformational change practice. This practice was difficult for me. The way that I chose to practice mindfulness was by being aware of what food I put into my body and how much, my exercise regime, and just being in tune with my body. During the first part of this semester I was sick a few times. I really wanted to make sure I was working out still. I was not being mindful to how my body was feeling because I ended up pushing myself too hard and making myself worse. As I practiced mindfulness more I found myself slowing down while I ate, benefiting more from my workouts, and taking better care of my body. When I was sick I rested so that when I returned to my normal schedule I would feel rested and ready to go. I find myself still being mindful when I eat and just listening to what my body wants. Another aspect of being mindful was taking time to just relax and listen to what your body needs physically and emotionally. I found that it kind of relates to meditation in a way. Going from mindfulness to meditation was an easy transition and I found myself being mindful while I meditated. I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing this mindfulness practice and would make a few changes in the future but would definitely do it again. I would find a different way too keep track of being mindful so that I could hold myself accountable. Overall this practice went well, there were some challenges, but with anything new there will always be some roadblocks. (Sarah Begoun)

MINDFULNESS

     My first 8-week practice of mindfulness was very beneficial to me and I am glad that I was able to make it work for me. Throughout those first 8-weeks of this semester, I would make it a goal for myself to everyday start and end the day with a positive mood, mind, and attitude. No matter how bad the day went, I was not going to let it affect me from moving forward and obtaining my goals. To assist this task, I would also write weekly quotes out on the whiteboard of my fridge. These were sort of inspirational quotes, that made me feel good inside and gave me the sense that I would be able to take on any challenge that would come my way. An example quote would be "How bad do you want it?" How bad are you willing to fight and sacrifice in order to achieve everything that you dreamed of having in this world. Not letting anyone tell you that you cannot obtain this goal. Mindfulness has taught me that the mind is everything. If you do not think that you can do something, then you wont. We should never self doubt ourself. Our mind has the power to make the difference in doing and pretending. We can do it! (Vincent Martinez).

Mindfulness with Food!

     For the second part of the semester I decided to choose mindfulness as my transformational change. However, I was more specific. I choose to be mindful with what I consumed. A couple years ago, I was hardly mindful of what I ate. I was healthy, but only because of how much I was working out. Going into my sophomore year of college, I decided to be much more aware of what I was eating. I changed a lot with regards to how I was eating. However, this past year has been very difficult. I had gone back to my original ways of eating what was easily available without thinking about it. This is why I decided to get back into that mindful nature of what I was eating. I decided to do a little more with my practice. Instead of just eating healthier foods, I decided to also incorporate the number of meals per day and the sizes of the meals. My transformational change was very positive. A couple of good feelings that I had were, after eating a big breakfast, I became full with happiness. The other was that my dinners became more and more relaxing. The food was all that I was thinking about. The lesson I learned was how much would change with my outlook on the day, mood wise, when I began to eat better. Everything just felt good! Another lesson learned, or rather felt, was my ability to perform in class and out on the track. I was more alert and focused with greater energy. The biggest change that I have is how I go about choosing what I eat for meals. I came up with a list of helpful suggestion so I don't have to guess or go to something easy and unhealthy. This is an application that I will use even after my athletic career. It will be a strategy that I give to kids once I am a teacher. Another way to apply what I have learned is by showing that while I was eating well, I also did well in my sport! Being mindful of the food I ate was defiantly a fantastic choice. (Connor Vincent)