What is Mindfulness And How Does It Help Us?

What is Mindfulness?

“Research says that it contains these 3 components:

• Present-moment attention: The ability to focus on what is happening in the present (beyond your own activities).
• Nonjudgmental acceptance: Withholding judgment on your experiences, sensations, thoughts, behaviors, and emotional states (rather than agreeing with statements like “I thought some of my thoughts/feelings were slightly off”).
• Acting with awareness: The ability to focus your attention on your own activities rather than doing things mindlessly or automatically.

What are the Benefits?

The researchers found that these different dimensions of mindfulness were linked to different benefits.

1. First, present-moment attention was the strongest predictor for increased positive emotions—the more attentive people said they were, the better they felt overall.
2. Second, nonjudgmental acceptance was the strongest predictor for decreased negative emotions—the more people reported nonjudgmental acceptance in their lives, the less negative emotion they reported experiencing.
3. Acting with awareness did not predict people’s positive or negative feelings beyond the other two skills.  However, when we’re present in our lives (yes, even for the most “mundane” things!), we may be better able to appreciate our experiences, look on the positive side, and notice the small things. That all becomes harder when our attention is split (e.g., due to multitasking, rumination, or just general mind-wandering). Present-moment attention may also help combat our tendency to give more mental weight to bad experiences than good ones.”