We are surrounded by distractions. Your phone, your tablet, your television, your kids, all make it so difficult to focus. That ability to focus on one thing at a time, for an extended period, is becoming lost and now requires practice – mindfulness.
What Is Mindfulness?
Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He teaches the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to over 200 medical centers worldwide. Jon defines mindfulness as:
“The awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non- judgmentally, as if your life depended on it.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
Simply take the time to stop and sit, focus on relaxing, slowly inhale and exhale and listen to the feelings and messages from your body and feel them. Once you do that, you can then begin to enjoy the many potential benefits of letting mindfulness into your life. Techniques like meditation, controlled breathing, and yoga can increase your focus, awareness and mindfulness.
Mindfulness can extend beyond your own body by paying attention to the present moment, like the meal in front of you, the contraction of your biceps as you curl a barbell or the beating of your heart during cardio training. Once you become mindful, you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and your body rather than being overwhelmed by them.
Benefits Of Mindfulness
As little as 15 minutes of mindful reflection on your body, lifestyle and mental state can have significant benefits on your well being and health. Mindfulness enhances (and supports) your emotional intelligence, increases your overall feelings of well-being while also:
1. Reducing stress and anxiety – Mindfulness can lead to less intense stress responses, reducing the adverse effects of stress and anxiety according to the Association of Psychological Science.
2. Reducing depression – Mindfulness training reduces depression and anxiety. One study found that mindfulness training was as effective as antidepressant medications in preventing depression relapse. “Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be as good as pills at stopping people relapsing after recovering from major bouts of depression.”
3. Lowering blood pressure – Researchers at Kent State Universities have found that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can reduce high blood pressure, which affects nearly 60 million adults in the United States. [3]
4. Improving memory – New research suggests that mindfulness can change our brains and help with our short-term memory. Mindfulness training also improves working memory capacity and test performance while reducing mind wandering in the classroom.
5. Supports healthy eating and weight loss – mindfulness techniques have been shown to reduce overeating and obesity. Mindfulness training may help overcome the underlying causes of overeating – craving, stress, and emotional eating.
How You Can Help
If you want effective training, so you can provide coaching for a healthy mind and body, the Mind-Body Fitness Coach program is for you. You’ll gain a broad knowledge of mind-body exercises and fitness strategies and methods.
Become a Certified Holistic Health Coach. Holistic health and well-being are essential to overall life success. Now you can earn a credential and gain the skills to help your clients achieve this success.
Our programs are open to anyone with a desire to learn and help others. There are no prerequisites.
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