Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to the present moment with curiosity and non-judgement.
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How mindfulness can help with your health
Mindfulness is a skill that can be learnt in different ways and has been shown to be effective in reducing blood pressure (1) and improving cancer-related stress and pain in cancer patients (2).
It has also been shown to be effective in reducing stress (3) and chronic pain and improving various mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety and insomnia (4).
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When you practice mindfulness you learn to build awareness of your mind, your thoughts, emotions and body sensations, as well as external experiences. For example, different sounds, the things you can see around you, and so on.
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Greater awareness of our thoughts and emotions helps us to take a step back from them, rather than being caught up in them. Once we are looking at our thoughts and emotions rather than coming from them, we are able to more flexibly respond to difficult or challenging situations.
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Mindfulness can help to break habits
This particular skill is important if we want to change problematic patterns of behaviour/habits that are holding us back and not helping us build the life we want.
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Developing skills in mindfulness can also help to support any therapeutic work with your Psychologist, depending on the approach being taken in therapy.
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Other therapeutic approaches we specialise in are:
1 Marquez et al (2019). Benefits of mindfulness meditation in reducing blood pressure and stress in patients with arterial hypertension. J Hum Hypertens 33, 237–247.
2 Mehta R, et al. (2019) Evidence for the Role of Mindfulness in Cancer: Benefits and Techniques. Cureus, 11(5).
3 Zollars, I et al. (2019). Effects of mindfulness meditation on mindfulness, mental well-being, and perceived stress, Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 11 (10), 1022-1028.
4 Zhang, D. et al. (2021). Mindfulness-based interventions: an overall review, British Medical Bulletin, 138 (1), 41–57.