Along with the hustle and bustle of corporate life, mental stress comes handy. From maintaining professional life to personal life, stress does not leave you alone. To top it all, social media and FOMO associated with it adds to the already existing stress. Managing career, finances, and maintaining relationships is not an easy task. However, mental wellbeing is crucial to maintain your mental as well as physical health. Mindfulness is one good technique to reduce your mental stress and heal you.
To understand what mindfulness is and how it helps your mental health, OnlyMyHealth interacted with Sargun Bedi, Counselling Psychologist, Lucid Mind, Delhi-NCR (Ghaziabad/Noida).
What Is Mindfulness
According to Bedi, the practice of bringing an individual's attention to the present moment is mindfulness. “It involves paying deliberate and non-reactive attention to sensations, thoughts, and emotions as they arise, fostering a greater awareness of one's experiences. This practice often involves techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, or simply being fully present in whatever one is doing.”
Taking back to its roots, Bedi said, “Mindfulness has roots in ancient Buddhist meditation practices but has been adapted and secularised for broader use in modern contexts such as psychology, healthcare, and personal development. It has been shown to have numerous benefits for mental health, stress reduction, emotional regulation, and overall well being.”
Also read: Importance Of Incorporating Mindfulness And Meditation Practices Into The Workplace
How Does It Heal Your Mental Health
Mindfulness can be a valuable tool for promoting mental health and well-being in several ways. Here are some ways listed by Bedi.
1. Reducing Stress
Mindfulness practices, such as meditation and deep breathing, activate the body's relaxation response, which counteracts the physiological effects of stress. “By regularly practising mindfulness, you can reduce the level of your stress which will lead to improved mental and physical health.
2. Managing Anxiety & Depression
Mindfulness can help you develop a non-reactive awareness of your thoughts and emotions, including the ones related to anxiety. “It is shown to be effective in reducing symptoms by helping individuals develop greater awareness of their emotions and thoughts. By observing anxious thoughts without getting caught up in them, individuals can reduce the intensity of anxiety and prevent it from spiralling out of control,” Bedi said.
3. Enhancing Emotional Regulation
Mindfulness practices strengthen the brain's prefrontal cortex, which as per National Institute of Health is the most evolved part of the brain and is also the brain region that is most sensitive to the detrimental effects of stress exposure. “By becoming more aware of their emotions as they arise, individuals can respond to them in a more skilful and adaptive manner, reducing the likelihood of emotional outbursts or mood swings,” Bedi said.
4. Increasing Self-Awareness
As it is a technique practised to become aware, it enhances your self-awareness which can get clouded due to anxiety. “Mindfulness involves paying attention to one's thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations with openness and curiosity. This heightened self-awareness allows individuals to recognize negative patterns of thinking or behaviour and make conscious choices to change them, leading to greater emotional balance and well-being,” Bedi said.
5. Improving Concentration and Focus
Practising mindfulness regularly can help you strengthen your brain’s attention span, leading to improved concentration and focus. According to Bedi, this can be particularly beneficial for individuals with conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or other attention-related disorders.
Also read: Why You Should Practise Mindfulness In Daily Life
Conclusion
Mindfulness encourages individuals to treat themselves with kindness and compassion, especially during times of difficulty or suffering. “By practising self-compassion, individuals can counteract negative self-talk and develop a more positive and nurturing relationship with themselves,” Bedi said. Overall, mindfulness can be a powerful tool for promoting mental health and healing by increasing self-awareness, reducing stress, improving emotional regulation, and fostering greater resilience and self-compassion.
(Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. We advise you to consult your therapist or counsellor if you are facing any mental health issues.)