If you’ve started therapy for anxiety, depression or substance abuse, you’ve probably heard about “practicing mindfulness meditation.” Mindfulness in therapy is common for many types of mental illnesses. If you’re still a little confused about how to do it and why it helps, you’re not alone. Once you master mindfulness, you’ll be amazed at how it helps calm your thoughts and brings you more joy in the moment.
Let’s take a closer look at mindfulness in counseling.
What Is Meant by Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness exercises teach you to stop, breathe and stay in a single moment. Many people with anxiety disorders, depression and addiction challenges struggle with racing thoughts or “twisted thinking”—circular thoughts that leave them paralyzed and unable to make a decision or take action.
Part of your mental health therapy is likely replacing destructive thoughts and behaviors with healthy coping skills. Being fully present and aware of who you are and what you’re doing can help you choose your reaction in each situation.
Mindfulness is something all humans possess, but it comes more readily when we practice it every day, through meditation. Awareness of your experience, using all your senses or awareness of your state of mind, through thoughtful examination of your emotions and thoughts, is mindfulness. When you practice mindfulness exercises, you train your brain, physically remodeling your neural pathways to untwist disordered or intrusive thoughts.
Mindful meditation isn’t something with a fixed goal. Instead, it’s an exploration of your own mind, examining your thoughts and where you are physically.
Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
When you meditate mindfully, you move your thoughts away from things that preoccupy your time, like work, family stress or financial worries, and toward a broader perspective on life and appreciating the moment.
Practicing mindfulness improves your physical and psychological well-being, bringing positive changes to your attitude, mental health and self-destructive behaviors. It supports the work you do in therapy, like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) or other therapeutic techniques.
Incorporating mindfulness leads to greater satisfaction with your life in general. When you’re mindful and in the moment, you give yourself permission to fully engage with people around you or truly engage in activities you’re participating in.
Mindfulness also gives you a greater capacity to deal with stress and triggers that come up in life. When you train your brain to focus more on the here and now, you may find yourself less preoccupied with worries about the future or regrets about the past.
The techniques you practice for mindfulness—being still, aware of your environment and focused on the moment—all contribute to better overall physical health, too. You may find that regular mindfulness meditation:
- Relives stress
- Lowers blood pressure
- Reduces your risk for heart disease
- Reduces chronic pain and inflammation
- Improves your sleep
- Makes it easier to resist using alcohol or drugs
- Alleviates gastrointestinal disease symptoms
There’s a deep connection between mind and body; mindfulness helps you strengthen this connection.
Common Challenges People Have With Mindfulness Meditation
Perhaps the most common question people have about mindful meditation is “What do I do, exactly?” If you don’t know how to get started, that’s normal. You may have access to a mindful therapy group that can help you learn how to meditate and focus on mindfulness.
Some of the most common challenges people have when they start practicing mindfulness are:
- Impatience. We’re so caught up in always being on the go that we forget how to relax.
- Lack of time. Even carving out 15 minutes per day is enough for you to reap the benefits of mindfulness.
- Lack of sleep. If you’re tired, it’s hard to focus on the moment.
- Feeling good. This seems counterintuitive, but when we feel happy or feel good, we may not believe we need mindfulness anymore.
- Stopping too soon. Once we reach that place of calm, we may feel like we’ve checked off a task and need to move on to the next. But give yourself permission to remain in the place of calm for a few minutes.
Tips to Put Mindfulness Into Practice
The goal of mindfulness is to put yourself in a state of focused, alert relaxation. You can start with these simple mindfulness exercises:
- Use basic meditation by sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing. Choose a word or intention and focus on this mantra, repeating it silently in your head. Your thoughts come and go as you repeat your intention.
- Note sensations in your body: the feeling of air on your skin or itching or tingling in your toes. Focus on each part of your body from head to toe.
- Pay attention to the sights, sounds, smells and touch. Name the sensation, focus on it, then let it go.
- Permit yourself to experience your emotions without judgment.
Keep Going! Pursue Your Journey to Better Mental Health and Awareness
Learning mindfulness meditation is just like learning any other skill. The more you practice it, the easier it becomes. Remember, you don’t have to be perfect at mindfulness. Simply taking a few minutes each day to be quiet and still in the moment will produce many benefits.