You may have heard a lot about Mindfulness lately. With modern day distractions, this meditation technique is more important than ever and this is why we would like to make you aware of the effects of benefits of mindfulness.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness means being aware of yourself at all times. This includes being aware of your thoughts, what goes in your mind, your body gestures, body movements, what we say and what we do. This helps us live a life that is less compulsive and has more awareness.

During the day, without even being aware of it, we succumb to many distractions. Some of these things that we do are:

• Our phone or other gadgets throws multiple notifications at us throughout the day and we attend to them each time
• We have thousands of thoughts that come to our mind each day and we drift away with each thought without any control over them
• These thoughts can become strong emotions and actions without us being aware of it
• We even move our body and we breathe in autopilot mode but we are unaware of whether we are doing it the right way or not

Mindfulness helps us do all of the above things with more consciousness.

Benefits of mindfulness

Here are some of the long list of benefits of Mindfulness:

• With Mindfulness, we live more consciously and we are fully aware of everything
• We have more balanced body movements because we are aware of our body
• With Mindfulness, we have control over our thoughts hence more control over our emotions and actions
• Better control on emotions with mindfulness means less stress and all issues that arise from stress

This study on emotional regulation shows that mindfulness actually changes areas of the brain that are activated and deactivated in response to emotion-inducing stimuli.

Chronic stress is a major problem in modern times that can contribute to a variety of health problems, including an increased risk of depression and anxiety. According to the American Psychological Association, mindfulness can be helpful for soothing feelings of anxiety and stress.

It is also found that Mindfulness can have a positive effect on your relationship. Since you have more control over your emotions, words and actions, it helps maintain a healthy relationship.

A 2018 study found that people who were more mindful also tended to be more accepting of their partner’s flaws and imperfections

Word of Caution

Please be aware that since Mindfulness bring your awareness back to you and takes you deeper into your mind, it may cause some distressing adverse effects. One study found that around 6% of participants who practised mindfulness experienced side effects that included increased anxiety, dissociation, social withdrawal, and emotional numbness.

It simply means that you need to be aware of the fact that in the initial phase of Mediation or Mindfulness, you may feel more stress but later you will see the benefits of MIndfulness.