Mindfulness Meditation

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First, let's start by understanding this term:

Mindfulness meditation = Meditation of full awareness, which, as the name suggests, will exercise your ability to pay attention to your surroundings in a conscious way.

Over the past few years, meditation has gained considerable popularity among healthy lifestyle enthusiasts, and this practice has evolved from a passing trend to the focus of research by specialists seeking a cure for stress, considered the ailment of the century.

A 2013 study on meditation and anxiety showed significant reductions in anxiety levels after just a few weeks of practice. The same study also revealed an improvement in physical and mental symptoms of anxiety with just a single 1-hour session, as well as a decrease in cardiovascular risk.

It can also reduce pain and inflammation in chronic conditions, increase gray matter in the brain, strengthen the immune system, increase focus and concentration, reduce feelings of loneliness, and even cultivate your willpower.

"Wow, but I can't meditate for 1 hour, that's too long"

No problem, another study conducted in 2017 found that just 10 minutes of meditation per day will already bring significant benefits to those living with anxiety.

In practice, it works more or less like this:

• Mindfulness meditation will teach you to deal with difficult feelings or intrusive thoughts without analyzing, suppressing, or encouraging them. When you allow yourself to feel and acknowledge your worries, irritations, painful memories, and other difficult emotions/thoughts, this usually causes them to dissipate. Remember: "What you resist, persists. What you accept, transforms you."
• The practice allows you to safely explore the hidden causes of your stress/worry. By letting these feelings flow through your mind without intervention, you may gain insights into what originated such feelings.
• With mindfulness meditation, through practice, you'll be able to create space around that worry or difficult feeling so they don't consume you.

At first, it may be difficult to stay still with your eyes closed, after all, you're not yet accustomed to this practice. But contrary to what some people think, in meditation you don't need to empty your mind.

That's impossible, remember when we talked about the little pink elephant with yellow spots in the last session? It's the same thing here—if you keep thinking that you can't think about something, you'll already be thinking about something, haha.

The principle of meditation is that you observe what happens in your mind and body so that, over time, you can respond to these stimuli more consciously.

Let me give you an example: You're driving your car to work, happy and content, when suddenly another driver cuts you off. Most of us would have a thought of anger. What happens next? Immediately, out of habit or impulse, we embody that feeling, and that's when we get really angry.

With a little mindfulness in that same situation, you would notice your heart racing, your ears turning red, and your brain being flooded with intrusive thoughts. Your reaction, upon consciously perceiving the anger, can be quite different from someone who doesn't have this awareness skill.

Our suggestion is that you start slowly, begin practicing for 1 minute. The next day, try for 2 minutes and so on until you can reach 10 minutes of uninterrupted practice per day.

Step by step:

To time your meditation, use a gentle alarm and, if you don't have a quiet place to practice, use headphones with nature sounds or instrumental music of your choice.

Over time, you'll be able to maintain mindfulness for longer periods, even when you're not meditating. You'll notice that you can have "mindfulness" in any everyday situation: you can try to pay attention to your breathing while on public transportation, you can pay attention to the drink you're having, and so on. This awareness can go far beyond the minutes you spend sitting with your eyes closed.

Within 15 minutes after practice, you'll feel a sense of well-being, peace, and tranquility. But it's between the 8th and 12th week of practice or so that you'll experience a turning point, with a more noticeable increase in focus on daily tasks and self-awareness. It becomes harder to get upset by everyday situations, to be carried away by intrusive thoughts, and you'll feel lighter.

Once again, it's not us saying this—it's science.