The Mental Health Foundation in the UK has developed a Be Mindful webpage that is an excellent resource for information about the benefits of mindfulness. The following quote is from their webpage:

How you handle the way you feel plays a big part your mental health. In difficult times, it is not unusual to focus solely on negative thoughts and feelings and become consumed by them.

 

Mindfulness helps you change the way they think, feel and act. It helps you to break free from a downward spiral of negative thought and action, and make positive choices that support your wellbeing. Read the rest of this entry »

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is an approach to therapy based on the mindfulness-based stress reduction program (MBSR) developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn. MBCT adapts MBSR to treat depression by incorporating aspect of cognitive therapy into mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. MBCT is also helpful in helping deal with anxiety and panic.

Among the different types of anxiety, panic attacks can be particularly overwhelming. Panic attacks are intense periods of extreme anxiety that come on suddenly and usually subside within a few minutes, though can sometimes last longer.

People experiencing a panic attack often feel like they’re having a heart attack, or are going to faint or are going crazy. Panic disorder refers to unexpected and repeated panic attacks, accompanied by persistent concern about having another panic attack, or changes in behaviours, such as avoiding certain situations, designed to prevent another panic attack from occurring.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a relatively recent type of therapy that combines aspects of cognitive therapy with the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program created by Jon Kabat-Zinn. MBCT was developed to help people struggling with depression, and it is also helpful in treating anxiety and low self-esteem.

The following description of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and how it helps people overcome depression is taken from the MBCT webpage of Mark Williams, one of the developers of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. His book The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness expands on the information below.

Read the rest of this entry »

The benefits you can experience from learning to become more mindful are virtually limitless. Mindfulness allows you to relate to and deal directly with whatever is happening in your life. Instead of struggling to escape, suppress or avoid distressing thoughts and feelings, mindfulness helps you approach whatever is going on in your life, in your thoughts, and with your emotions, without becoming overwhelmed.

When you start being more mindful and start living in the present moment, you’ll experience your life more fully, and become more in touch with yourself, who you are, what is important to you, and what you want out of life.

There are any number of reasons that people become depressed. Depression can arise in response to events such as the loss of a relationship or job, or a loved one. Depression can also arise during a stressful period of uncertainty or transition in your life that leads you to questions what you’ve been doing and where you’re headed, leaving you feeling lost and without answers. And sometimes the reasons depression arises may not be clearly defined.

Read the rest of this entry »