Mindfulness is emerging as a great hope for humanity in promoting mental well-being through self-awareness
Mindfulness has, in recent times, emerged as a powerful tool to promote our mental well-being. It can alleviate stress, regulate emotions and mood, and improve cognitive function. This practice has been widely accepted as an effective tool for overall improvement in our mental health. Across the world, mindfulness has now taken the shape of a widespread movement. It's already a multi-billion-dollar industry. Meditation and yoga, two ancient practices, are now among the most popular alternative health practices in many parts of the world. Many Fortune 500 companies have introduced mindfulness-based meditation in their workplaces. In addition, medical institutions and hospitals are introducing practices to manage chronic pain and stress.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, an American professor emeritus of medicine and the Centre for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA, has been universally recognized as a global leader in mindfulness. He famously remarked in a 2019 publication, "We have the potential to ignite a global renaissance catalyzed by the cultivation of mindfulness and heartfulness at this critical juncture in the arc of human evolution and development." According to him, the cause of dissatisfaction and distress among us lies in our heads, and it's a 'thinking disease.' His research and a plethora of studies conducted across nations have established a positive correlation between mental well-being and mindfulness.
Mental well-being refers to our overall psychological and emotional health so that we can think and work efficiently in our daily life. When we feel mentally healthy and sound, we can effectively manage the stress we encounter on a day-to-day basis and face adversity that may arise unexpectedly in life. In fact, during adversity and tough times, we often break down, and we don't know how to live with emerging situations. We may get badly trapped in a negative loop of thoughts. In fact, the real test of life comes when we face such eventualities. Here the role of psychological and mental well-being comes in. If we are mentally fit and tough, we can quickly come out of those circumstances. Besides, mental well-being affects our relationships, work performance, and physical health in many ways.
It's now largely accepted among the medical community that mindfulness has numerous benefits for mental health and overall well-being. It's also being used as a therapeutic tool to help people manage a range of mental health conditions. Many studies have supported the claim of establishing a positive impact of mindfulness on our mental health, including stress reduction, emotional regulation, reduced worry, and rumination. Even it helps alleviate symptoms in mild to moderate cases of depression and anxiety. Some studies further establish the role of mindfulness in overcoming addictions, especially smoking.
What exactly is mindfulness? Mindfulness is nothing but our experience of 'being present' and observing whatever is happening around us in a non-judgmental way. We are, in fact, in the highest state of awareness when we are attentive and focused on the present moments. This state is known as mindfulness. When we experience mindfulness, we are fully conscious and awake. We are aware of thoughts, emotions, and feelings as they arise from time to time. We are, therefore, self-aware and mindful during those times.
In this way, mindfulness has three crucial ingredients: first, we are in the ‘present.’ Second, we are focused and attentive to those moments. Our mind is not wandering in various directions. Lastly, we experience 'non-judgmental awareness.' We take things as they are rather than reacting, passing judgment, or assigning meaning to those experiences. In other words, we accept things as they are rather than as we perceive them.
On the contrary, we generally don't pay close attention to the things happening to us or the surrounding. The reason is we are mostly lost in our own inner world. We may become mindless, impulsive, and reactive when we are not present and fully conscious of those moments. We, therefore, become prone to miss valuable experiences. The same happens when we work, eat, walk, talk to others, and so on; we are in a way 'unconscious' and in 'half-sleep' mode.
Not being mindful has a huge cost. We tend to keep worrying, ruminating, and getting trapped in a loop of distressing thoughts. We become prone to mental stress and experience anxiety of varying degrees. When we are not mindful of an ongoing stream of thoughts and fail to manage them, we don't know when such conditions may lead to mental health problems. As a result, we become highly vulnerable to mental health conditions such as being highly stressed, anxious, depressed, and lonely.
Benefits of mindfulness on our mental well-being: Many research studies have undoubtedly supported the claim of having a positive impact of mindfulness in different aspects of mental health. We become mentally fit and tough. Not only can mindfulness regulate our thoughts and emotions, but also enhance cognitive flexibility. Improved emotional regulation leads to greater self-control and increased resilience to stress and adversity. We gradually become more focused and attentive, and these attributes lead to better control in our workplace as well as our personal life. As we continue to practice mindfulness, we become more compassionate, empathetic, and loving, leading to improved relationships with others. In a broader sense, we become better human beings.
How to develop mindfulness: The only way to develop mindfulness is to practice and experience more and more of the present moments. It's necessary to maximize our experiences of being fully aware and awake. We need to make a conscious effort to bring back our wandering minds to the present. We should develop a habit of doing this simple exercise of bringing back our attention to the present. This should be in the back of our minds all the time. When we walk, eat, work, play, watch TV, listen to others, and so on, we should be able to focus and be present on that activity to the best of our ability. However, it sounds simple and easy, but difficult to sustain. This is because our habitual and conditioned minds and behaviour are at work most of the time. However, with conscious efforts, we can become more and more mindful as the practice of mindfulness progresses.
Mindfulness can be practiced not only through meditation but from mindful breathing, walking, eating, and communication with others. When we meditate, we observe our stream of constant thoughts that arise in our mind in a non-judgmental way; our mind becomes quiet and peaceful. Also, we keep bringing our attention back to breathing when we do breathing-based meditation. This mental exercise leads to the state of 'being mindful'.
With the habit of being mindful and self-aware, we begin to manage our minds and thoughts effectively. This automatically leads to better control over our lives; it's then more manageable for us to handle life's adversities and challenging times. We can come out from those tough times quickly and with greater ease. With a simple and easier-to-do mental exercise of mindfulness-based meditation, we can witness a host of transformative changes in our physical and psychological well-being.
(The writer is a retired IAS officer. He is an author and founder of Mind Therapy)
