CA043: What is mindfulness and why you need it?

Everywhere you go it seems people are talking about mindfulness. It seems to be the new ‘in-thing’.  Of course it’s been around a while, thousands of years in fact in its oldest forms, and more like 30 or more years in its present western form, but it’s come right into the mainstream now. Companies like Google have staff queuing up to participate in mindfulness courses they’ve instigated. Entrepreneurs are falling over themselves to let us know how many minutes they’ve been meditating on their newly discovered meditation apps. Celebrities are tweeting their love of mindfulness meditation. So there’s certainly a lot of it about. But what lies behind this media interest? That’s what we explore in Episode 43 of The Changeability Podcast.  Mindfulness – what is it and why you need it? “The Queen said, ‘The rule is, jam tomorrow and jam yesterday - but never jam today.’ ‘It must come sometimes to jam today’, Alice objected. ‘No, it can't,’ said the Queen ‘It's jam every other day. Today isn't any other day, you know.” ~ Lewis Carroll Do you ever feel a bit like Alice in this quote? Life sometimes feels like you’re always looking back or looking forward while life today seems somehow out of your grasp. It’s like you’re a time traveller worrying about the future, or reliving past wrongs (or maybe good times). Do you ever drive somewhere and can hardly remember the journey because your mind was so full of thoughts and concerns that you barely noticed the countryside you were driving through, or the architecture of the buildings in the city around you.  In fact more worrying, you didn’t even notice the other cars on the road. This is what happens when we’re not aware or ‘mindful’ of what’s happening in our day-to-day lives -  and don’t worry – we all do it! But mindfulness can help us deal with this. Mindfulness seeks to resolve this by helping us focus on the present moment – the here and now. To be mindful – or aware. And to do so, as far as possible, in a non-judgemental way, because that is where the real power of this mind management technique kicks in. One of the godfathers of modern mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn whose Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course (MBSR) has spread throughout the world and he describes mindfulness as: “The awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally. “ Mindfulness Meditation And one of the best ways of doing this is through Mindfulness Meditation. Starting with simply focusing on your breath for a few minutes at a time – you can become aware of the thoughts rushing through your mind and what you’re focusing on. The trick is to gently refocus your thoughts on your breath. We’ll talk more about mindfulness meditation over the next couple of weeks, but for now it’s enough to start noticing your thoughts and being present in your day. Links and resources mentioned in episode 43 of The Changeability Podcast Changeability: Manage your Mind – Change your Life - Mindfulness Meditation is the 8th of the 10 techniques featured in the book and is a key part of this Mind Management Program. Episode 33 on time. Episodes 34, 35, 36 on Appreciation. Episode 39 on Negative affirming thoughts (NATS). 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This link will take you to the special page on Udemy (the online learning platform where the course is hosted) for listeners of The Changeability Podcast.