Mindfulness: a new trend?

Many people rely on this practice that comes directly from Buddhism and Psychology in order to improve well-being.

Mindfulness are conferences, books, meetings and a lot more. We hear much about mindfulness, but not everybody knows for sure what it is. Mindfulness is a relaxation technique used to reduce stress and anxiety, considered to be an effective way to reduce symptoms of depression. It is meant, through a combination of psychology and Buddhist relaxation techniques, for people to learn how to calm down and filter emotions and rationalize them and, consequently, relativize or to be aware of the problems that are concerns them at the moment.

The technique based on meditations of Buddhism, previously blended with some theories of psychology. The person who brought mindfulness to Western society was Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American with years and years of experience in yoga and the Buddhist relaxation techniques.

Experts say that the main issue of mindfulness is to pay attention to the “here and now”, without judgment, and analyze coldly but as a whole, what we’re going through, experiencing at the same time all elements involved in that same moment: from breathing to the environment that surrounds us.

One of the examples suggested is the act of eating. When we eat, we rarely pay attention to what we are doing. You probably never ate alone and therefore we are distracted with talking or even with the TV on. What mindfulness suggests is there should be awareness of the whole process, as a training to be transposed to other dimensions of our lives: feel the food enter and wander through our mouth as it is chewed and properly enjoyed, and down the esophagus after being swallowed, and so on.

One of the most important issues in this technique is related to judgement: mindfulness does not allow any kind of prejudice about whatever we are doing. This is the only way to help us understand who we are and how we can solve any problem and obstacle that are in our way, no matter the circumstances and the battle we are facing in our current life.

There are so many advantages, like the improvement of the relationship with others and with ourselves, decrease of pain and suffering, learn to cope with stress in a more effective way and better understanding about ourselves.