Mindfulness can be a state, a trait, or a practice. Mindfulness is taking control of your mind, instead of your mind taking control of you.
Mindfulness is also acceptance— allowing internal thoughts and feelings as they are, not judging or labeling them. It teaches us to treat negative thoughts like balloons. We can watch them float away before they take over our mind.
Practicing mindfulness— even for a short time— can have tremendous benefits. Many people say they find inner peace and begin to love themselves.
Mindfulness Can Make You Healthier
Forget Flintstone Vitamins. Mindfulness can boost your immune system's germ-fighting skills after just eight weeks.
Mindfulness Can Help With Depression
People struggling with depression tend to relapse. However, practicing mindfulness is just as good at preventing relapses as antidepressants.
Mindfulness Strengthens Your Focus
Just as lifting weights strengthens your muscles, mindfulness strengthens your focus. You can train your attention to boost your focus skills.
Regularly practicing mindfulness helped me take control of my ADHD. I learned to refocus without getting frustrated. I can redirect my mind— without judgment— when my attention drifts. I've learned to accept my ADHD as it is.
Mindfulness Can Physically Alter Your Brain
Mindfulness can increase the amount of gray matter (the information processing brain stuff) in the parts of the brain for learning and memory. It can also reduce gray matter in the brain structures for stress and anxiety.
Mindfulness may alter your ability to regulate emotions. It can increase gray matter in the parts of the brain that aid in empathy and the parts linked to emotion maintenance.
There's no one right way to be mindful. But I can promise that if you focus inwardly every day, you will quickly feel your outlook on life become more positive!
Show yourself some love. Go forth and be mindful!