1. What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is living in the present moment and allowing yourself to notice what is happening in that moment. It involves using your senses (taste, smell, touch, hearing and sight) and heightening your awareness of life as it happens.
Being mindful could be noticing anything around you at that moment. For example. If you are at the beach, waves might be crashing onto the shore. This is something that you could use all of your senses for. You could use
- sight to see the waves (you might notice if they are big or small),
- touch to feel them (you might notice how warm or cold the water is),
- taste (if the sea air is salty),
- smell (also noticing the salt), or
- hearing the waves crash down onto the shore.
This example shows how many things you can notice in just one moment when your mind adjusts to paying attention. Some people describe mindfulness as being ‘awake’. It can help ground you, and bring you back to the present moment if you find your mind wandering.
2. Where Does Mindfulness Originate From?
Mindfulness as we know it was ‘born’ in the 1970’s when Jon Kabat-Zinn created the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. He based it on ancient Buddhist and Hindu practices, although mindfulness in itself is not religious.
Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society in 1979 and the concept of mindfulness has continued to grow ever since.
3. Can Anyone Practise Mindfulness?
Yes, yes and yes! I have spent so much time over the years thinking things like ‘how does that person make x, y or z look so easy’. The answer is because they tried, they practised, and they got better at it. You have to start somewhere, and that is the beginning. I have amazed myself at how far I’ve come. I had never heard of mindfulness 10 years ago, and yet here I am now, practising mindfulness and running a mindfulness business. If you are a beginner, my message to you is that you can do this!
4. Can Mindfulness Change the Brain?
There are two elements to answering this question. First is how our thought process can change, and second is how the balance of chemicals in our brain can change. I will address these points below.
Changes to Our Thought Processing
With practice, it can become natural for us to think in a mindful way. For example, I used to catastrophise about things that may happen. The more I practised mindfulness, the easier it became for my brain to stop doing this and stay focussed on the present moment.
Changes to Chemical Distribution in the Brain
One mindfulness technique that can change your brain is awareness of your breathing. If you look at a baby’s chest when they are breathing, you will probably notice that it goes up and down significantly. This is how we naturally breathe when we are born. However, as we get older this often seems to change. We learn to perhaps hold our breath when we are anxious, and often take shallow breaths in general.
Paying attention to your breathing can have a significant affect on the chemicals being released in your brain. If we take slow deep breaths, our heart rate slows down and we get more oxygen into our blood. This then triggers the brain to release dopamine, which calms the body and mind.
So the answer to this question is, yes, mindfulness can change your brain!
5. Are Mindfulness and Meditation the Same Thing?
Mindfulness and meditation are not the same thing. They can however overlap. I will explain the differences between mindfulness, meditation and mindful meditation below.
Meditation
Meditation is generally a practice where you sit down, close your eyes and focus on a particular thing. It could be your breath, gratitude or perhaps imagining yourself somewhere else, relaxing on a beach for example. Some meditations focus on the present moment so have an element of mindfulness, but some meditations don’t.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is more of a way of living, where you pay attention to what is happening around you in the present moment.
It could be that you are driving a car and you notice the vibration of the engine, or you may be eating a meal and paying attention to all the tastes and textures. There are many ways we can be mindful in what we are doing every day.
Mindful Meditation
This is where mindfulness and meditation can overlap. A mindful meditation is generally where you will sit comfortably and focus on the present moment using all of your senses. This could be using your senses to notice what is around you, or it could be paying attention to your thoughts in that moment.
Usually during a mindful meditation you would process and acknowledge any thoughts and then let them go. This can help us deal with any emotions we may have.
6. Can Mindfulness Help With Anxiety?
The short answer is yes! If you would like to read more about this, I have a blog post that you can read here.
7. Can Mindfulness be Used at Work?
You can do anything in life with a mindful approach at any time. You just need to adapt your thoughts. Be aware, be present and approach your work life mindfully.
It could be that you are at a desk looking at a computer for your job. Try to stay aware of your surroundings rather than getting engrossed looking at the screen. Or you could work on a building site and need to stay aware of your surroundings to stay safe, particularly if there are machinery or vehicles on site. Mindfulness can help enhance your work experience.
8. Are Mindfulness Apps Worth Paying For?
There are many different mindfulness apps to choose from with many different features and prices.
Meditations
A lot of mindfulness apps include meditation features. If you are looking for guided meditations, you can get these easily on YouTube for free. However, without a paid subscription you cannot download those. Personally I like to meditate late in the evening to help me unwind and I prefer to have the Wi-Fi off to reduce the signals in our home, so I do like to have meditations downloaded rather than streamed. Some apps do allow you to access the meditations offline, but you will need to check each app individually for this as it does vary.
Daily Reminders
Daily reminders to be mindful can be really useful. These are available on many free and paid apps depending on which you go for. I get daily mindfulness reminders/quotes from an app called Oak, which is free.
An alternative idea is to set reminders in your own calendar every day to keep you on track if you feel you need this.
Subscriptions
Mindfulness apps tend to be subscription based rather than paying a fee for the app when you download it. Some of them start a free trial when you download them and then begin charging at the end of the trial period, so be aware of this.
Are Paid Mindfulness Apps Worth Paying For?
I think mindfulness apps can be amazing and a real source of focus and inspiration. You do need to be aware of what you are paying for though and consider if you need or want a paid app. There are a lot of free apps that can be used. If, however, you would like a more personalised experience, a paid subscription app may be for you.
9. What Are Some Mindful Activities?
I have a 30 day mindfulness challenge on my website with lots of ideas on what mindfulness activities you can do. If you haven’t seen this yet, you can download the 30 day plan here.
10. How to Start Using Mindfulness
Stage 1
It may make it easier if you begin by choosing a certain time of day every day to focus on being mindful. It could be something as simple as looking around in the garden and noticing dew on the grass or birds singing.
Stage 2
Once you have adjusted to this, try incorporating mindfulness into the tasks that you are doing. For example, if you are washing dishes, notice how the soap feels on your hands. Is the water warm or cold? Try and pay attention with your senses.
Stage 3
At this point, begin to incorporate mindfulness into how you are thinking to keep your thoughts in the present moment. In my experience this is the most challenging. If you are having a good thought, it is not a problem. However, when suffering from anxiety or negative thoughts, mindfulness can be difficult. It is though when you master it, brilliant!
Begin by noticing your thoughts and feelings, and then allow them to pass by and move onto the next thought or observation. When those negative thoughts try to come back, bring yourself back to the present moment. A technique for doing this can be thinking of 5 things you can sense. For example, you may be worrying about an exam. Acknowledge to yourself that yes you are anxious, but the moment won’t last forever. It will pass. Then focus on something you can perhaps hear or see to bring you back to the present moment.
Summary
I hope you’ve found the answers to the Top 10 Mindfulness Questions useful. Please leave me a comment below if you want to share any thoughts on this post.