One mindfulness book reached the bestseller list, selling 20 million copies in 19 languages. It swept across continents, taking the world by by saccharine calm. Google and Apple offered onsite mindfulness training to staff. Doctors took to it and the US military  tried it on war veterans with Post Traumatic Stress. Workers chomped raisins and coloured inside the lines, competing to meditate longest on the coolest Amazon cushion. No stress!

What is Mindfulness?

With roots in many belief systems pre-dating Buddhism, it is based on sound  Western medical science, thanks to the work of John Kabat-Zinn. Simply put, you learn to view your mind in action, notice unhelpful thoughts, painful sensations, emotions or urges as they happen. This enables you to unhook from being controlled by them. No judging, no critiquing.

Mindfulness allows a reboot of the mind that improves mental health, lifts the mood, frees up space for clarity to unleash creativity and  increase problem solving. Physically, it reduces stress hormones, boosts immune function and promotes body healing. Some describe it as a wonderful way of ‘lowering the volume’ of chronic pain.

Prof. Mark Williams of the University of Oxford is credited with developing it into an effective ‘talking therapy.’ Professor Williams reveals: ‘ In scans we can see brain patterns underlying day-to-day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability. Brain scans show mindfulness at work in real-time, dissolving stress reactions and making new neuronal connections.’

I really do love teaching mindfulness skills to my clients. Infertility patients learn to reduce anxiety and intrusive thoughts. Mindfulness thinking and meditation techniques calm the mind, ease anxiety and reduce micro muscle contractions of the womb for successful implantation.

Doctors find mindfulness tackles depression and beats pain better than drugs. Hospitals prescribe it for patients with heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, and following chemotherapy. Back pain and migraine sufferers find relief and it alleviates IBS  by reducing inflammation and relieves chronic fatigue. MS patients benefit too. For those with depression, learning these skills can bring as much relief as taking antidepressant medications.

Mindfulness – new thinking ahead

A study published in The Journal of Internal Medicine, JAMN, claims that it can be more powerful than morphine, easing the after-effects of cancer therapy: nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, and post-cancer fatigue. Team leader Dr M. Goyal found stress and anxiety lowered and the immune system boosted for patients using mindfulness. Treatment is as effective as (CBT) in depression and anxiety, according to a new, randomized study from Lund University in Sweden.

Teachers in the UK share these skills with primary and secondary school students. They report improved co-operation, confidence and creativity. Students enjoy improved attention, memory, learning, clarity of thought and study skills. With exam anxiety quelled,  performance and information retrieval seems easier.

More productivity?

Less-than-rigorous ‘research’ touted the hyped-up benefits of mindfulness for everyone and everything at all times.  Now that the dust is settling, I see clients disenchanted by unrealistic visions of the McMindfulness industry, short-changed by a less than zen experience after ‘doing’ expensive mindfulness courses. I believe it fits as part of personal choices in self-care, mental health and living well; to create a work life balance – along with good nutrition, sleep, sex, exercise, family, friends, fun and fresh air, a sense of humour and curiosity.

Appreciating the simple things, being absorbed in the moment and recognising when your thoughts and feelings  try to hijack you, is the essence of mindfulness living. The meditation takes practice and it’s well worth it.

Professor M.Williams’ and  Dr D. Penman’s book ‘Mindfulness for Health: A Practical Guide to Relieving Pain, Reducing Stress and Restoring Wellbeing’, published by Piatkus, from www.amazon.co.uk › … ›