Mindfulness

Mindfulness has been becoming more and more mainstream and being applied to all kinds of things. Mindfulness therapy. Mindfulness walking. Mindfulness yoga. So what is mindfulness?

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the ability and state of being fully present, completely aware of where we are and what we’re doing.

There are two main modes of brain functioning – autopilot and mindful awareness. We practice mindfulness by maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and the surrounding environment. We don’t judge the thoughts, emotions, or feelings – simply notice them. There are two main practices of mindfulness – formal and informal. A formal practice would be sitting down and doing a body scan. What is my toe feeling? My ankle? My leg? etc. Just being aware of our body and what we’re sensing in the present moment. An informal practice would be mindful eating. What does this grape look like, smell like, sound like, taste like? Slowly eating this single object to fully experience it.

Autopilot

Williams (2008) states, “The brain is a learning system. As neurons connect together into assemblies and assemblies into patterns, the brain is changing: new neurons are forming, and new connections between them are being made. Gradually the threshold for the firing of a whole pattern is lowered. We have learned a task.” When we’re cruising through something, like driving, typing, performing a task we’ve performed 100 times, we go on autopilot mode and it can be a wonderful and useful skill. Processing through the present, past, future. What do I need to do tomorrow? How do I solve this problem? What should I have done differently yesterday in the meeting? It has a very important function in problem solving, planning, learning, etc.

Where autopilot fails us is when we use it to process emotional things. We don’t notice the wonderful, beautiful, and fulfilling things in life – basically stopping to smell the roses. We don’t hear what our bodies are telling us about avoiding pain or seeking pleasure. This results in more vulnerability to anxiety, stress, depression, emotional reactivity – and basically less happy.

Benefits of Mindfulness

It helps us reduce rumination, stress, improve working or functional memory, focus, decrease emotional reactivity, have more relationship satisfaction, enhance self-insight, morality, intuition and fear modulation. There is also evidence that mindfulness meditation has numerous health benefits including better immune system functioning.

If you’re interested in learning more about mindfulness or finding a mindfulness counselor in Nashville, send me and email or call today.

Quick Mindfulness Exercise

The following exercise is simple and will only take a few minutes. We will be examining this morsel with all of our senses to let the stress and frustration of the world melt away while thoroughly enjoying what we’re eating.

Find a small piece of food. You can use any food you want to. Common choices for a beginner exercise are raisins, nuts, or cereal.

Sight: Look closely at the food. What do you see? It’s textures, colors, shape.

Touch: What does this food feel like? Squeeze it, roll it, toss it. You can close your eyes during this exercise to not be distracted.

Smell: What do you notice? Sweet, strong, acidic, etc. Take a few deep breaths with one or both nostrils.

Sound: What do the food sound like when you roll it around next to your ear? (Depending on type of food you can skip this step)

Taste: Put the morsel in your mouth and roll it around. Move it around your mouth before taking the first bite. When you do bite chew very slowly. We’re doing likely the opposite of how we eat at every other time in life. Savoring the food, taking our time with it. Letting our thoughts fall away, we just enjoy the 5 senses. How does the food taste when we first bite in, when we’ve chewed a few times, or when we’re about to swallow it? Same with the texture, temperature, etc.

As you finish notice how you’re feeling. You probably have a different overall feeling about yourself (calmer? more relaxed?), as well as the food. I realized that I really don’t like raisins. It’s not a strong dislike, just not a food I will seek out eating (unless it’s in a dessert….).