Mindfulness has proven to be a philosophy of life that drives away certain disorders.
That is why it is widely used in psychotherapy, and psychologists are increasingly interested in training in psychological intervention programs that incorporate it.
But… what exactly are the benefits of Mindfulness? Throughout this article we will discover it.
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The 5 most relevant benefits of Mindfulness
These are the ways in which Mindfulness improves people’s lives; samples of why Mindfulness routines are being learned by more and more individuals (to use them in their day to day life) and professionals (to use them in their work with patients, their teams of workers, etc.).
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1. Helps regulate anxiety
No person can achieve perfect and immediate control over their level of anxiety, among other things because the ability to become anxious is a natural mechanism developed to allow the fight for survival, something that goes beyond human consciousness.
However, we can learn several actions and routines that, indirectly, cause anxiety to go down when it accumulates in excess . The practice of Mindfulness is one of these habits, and it works because it acts both physiologically and psychologically.
On a physiological level, Mindfulness leads us to stay in one place without making significant efforts and in quiet places, without noise or major unexpected events. On a psychological level, as we will see, it acts on our attentional focus, so that it is not compromised by intrusive thoughts linked to things that concern us.
2. Allows pain management
Through a mechanism similar to that used to regulate anxiety, Mindfulness can be used in clinical contexts to train the ability to mitigate physical discomfort and pain . The key idea is to draw attention away from the nerve signals that tell us that there is damage to certain parts of the body (of course, this does not work during or just after an injury).
3. Allows you to concentrate better
One of the greatest enemies of the ability to focus on a task that requires attention is rumination, or the tendency to think the same kinds of things over and over again. These thoughts come to our consciousness on a recurring basis and induce us to a certain emotional state, since they normally contain “mental images” to which we cannot remain indifferent.
For example, if we believe that half an hour ago we made a fool of ourselves in front of the supermarket cashier and all the people waiting in line , the discomfort generated by that can come to us in successive waves for hours, over and over again.
In the same way, certain ideas can come to obsess us and occupy our minds at the slightest that there is something that reminds us of that, causing us to get lost in those thoughts and let time pass without paying attention to other more important things. For example, if a person is jealous of his partner, he may spend several hours a week doing “mental rehearsals” to know what to do if his worst suspicions are confirmed.
Mindfulness helps us disconnect from all these obsessions and intrusive thoughts, since it leads us to weaken the importance that these cyclical ideas and those mental images with a strong emotional charge have for us.
4. Promotes the creation of healthier social relationships
Mindfulness is based on a philosophy of life by which we do not get carried away by hasty moral judgments when interpreting what is happening around us.
It makes us see that, seen from a distance, from a neutral and purely descriptive position, nothing is as serious as what it seems to us when we experience it in the first person, and that in any case we must react to the bad from a constructive and reparative mentality. from harm, not from the desire for revenge or ridicule (towards oneself or towards others).
In this way, Mindfulness can be noted in the conflict resolution formulas that we adopt between people , and this is reflected in our ability to maintain affective relationships.
5. Facilitates sleep
Because of many of the benefits of Mindfulness that we have seen so far, this practice manages to help when it comes to falling asleep , something that people with insomnia and other sleep disorders especially appreciate.
Performing simple mindfulness exercises a few minutes before going to bed is a very good routine to maintain a good sleep schedule, although it should be combined with other sleep hygiene routines.
How to learn Mindfulness?
As we have seen, the benefits of Mindfulness make this practice a useful tool in many situations.
In addition, as it has different versions and many of them are easy to put into practice, Mindfulness can be used by both professionals and individuals with a minimum of Mindfulness training. Now… where to learn to use it and apply it in personal life or in the professional field?
At the Psicotools psychology center we have professionals with extensive training in Mindfulness, capable of offering Mindfulness training both in the context of psychotherapy to patients who would benefit from mastering simple exercises, and in the context of Mindfulness courses. , carried out on a regular basis in our facilities.
You can find the Psicotools psychology center at Avinguda de Vallcarca nº 196, in the upper area of the Gràcia district.
Bibliographic references
- Chekroud, S.R., Gueorguieva, R., Zheutlin, A.B., Paulus, M., Krumholz, H.M., Krystal, J.H. & Chekroud, A.M. (2018). Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1-,2 million individuals in the USA between 2011-2015: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet Psychiatry.
- Gotink, R.A., Chu, P., Busschbach, J.J.V., Benson, H., Fricchione, G.L., & Hunink, M.G.M. (2015) Standardised mindfulness-based interventions in healthcare: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of RCTs. PLoS ONE 10(4): e0124344.
- Tang, Yi-Yuan; Leve, Leslie D. (2015). “A translational neuroscience perspective on mindfulness meditation as a prevention strategy”. Translational Behavioral Medicine. 6 (1): 63 – 72.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.