Eight positive benefits of mindfulness
The relationship between mindfulness and stress is well documented. Our awareness of stress and the negative impact it has on ours and other lives is becoming more perceptible. Mindfulness, as a stress reducing therapy, is becoming increasingly used in clinical practice and its impetus in and outside the workplace is gaining steady traction.
Whether it’s traditional Buddhist or western secular practice, mindfulness to the novice, is effortful and not effortless. Its results often create a relaxed physiological state but it goes far wider than this; obtaining ‘optimal functioning’ is the desired state. As Sara Lazar, Ph.D. Harvard Medical School states, “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,”
So, to help you consider whether there is value in establishing ‘optimal functioning’ through mindfulness practice, here are eight areas where research has identified, and continues to reveal the positive impact of mindfulness based meditations;
1. Cellular aging: keeping your cells younger for a healthier and longer life
2. Focus: neural pathways of Task Positive Networks and Default Mode Network Meditation is associated with reduced activations in the default mode network
3. Attention: attaining, sustaining and directing your attention to attend to what’s important to your values and well-being
4. Empathy: relatedness to others; correlations with compassion for self and others
5. Self-Awareness: physiological, psychological, emotional and cognitive awareness
6. Self-regulation: making room for your feelings through reflection and acceptance
7. Well-being and mental ill health: physiological and psychological triggers and responses
8. Biases: An important facet of mindfulness is “non-judgmental awareness of sensations, feelings and state of mind.”
As can be seen, a whole range of physiological, molecular, cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses can be evoked and these can positively contribute to facilitating adaptation to change.
Mindfulness is not a ‘one size fits all’ practice or intervention. Future research will enlighten us on how to tailor our mindfulness practice, current research enables us to explore numerous pathways.
Neena Speding
MSc Psychology & Neuroscience of Mental Health
MSc Psychological Science
MBPsS
Chartered MCIPD
First class BSc (Hons) HRM, PGCE
At epoché I am passionate about well-being and psychology beyond just what I do.
So Friday 4th Feb 2023 is World Cancer Day but for many Cancer day is every day
With a pinch of your passion and an inch of your inspiration ...
could you help young people get an insight to your career pathway?
Among the hustle and bustle of trying to get a socially distanced seat at a recent neuroscience seminar, I overheard a remark:
“We should consider designing learning interventions for the brain and not the learning style”
With two millennials, one teenager and an even bigger kid with a passion for all things hi-fi in the house you can probably imagine the cacophony of sounds that sometimes greets me.
I recently received a communication that was signed ‘Mx’ from a colleague who had previously signed communications as ‘Mr’. This prompted me to ask some questions and do some research; for me it is not about labelling and compartmentalising, it is about being informed, inclusive and respectful.
I constantly seek research and findings that effectively and meaningfully link academia and the real world. A recent example that sparked my imagination was discovering the works of Elizabeth Blackburn a Nobel prize winning, molecular biologist.
World Mental Health Day.
A collaboration between Neena Speding (epoché.com) &
Dominic Ciambrone (theshoesurgeon.com)
So, here’s two questions:
Would you frequent a commercial cannabis establishment if you were in a place where it was legalised?
Would you partake in any Cannabis consumption with a client/colleague of that region?
I recently watched this insightful workplace perspective from CNN on mental ill-health and wanted to share. The perspective is sadly an increasing reality.