mindfulness

Lately I have been getting a lot of questions from my clients and friends about the relatively new buzz – Mindfulness. This particular practice resides in the same realm as hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis and guided mediation. Mindfulness is a ‘lifestyle technique’ that has spread in popularity beyond the medical and health communities, and is widely discussed and adapted in public institutions, workplaces and schools. It is the latest trend that is based on the ancient practice and derives its spiritual roots from Buddhism. The current interest in this practice can be explained by its many benefits that can be achieved in a completely non-religious way. It is not bound to any specific religious believes, but rather a system of training for the mind.
Most of the credit for popularizing this practice in the West goes to Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, the American physician who adapted Buddhist meditation to develop his method to manage pain and reduce stress. His Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course was a turning point for the scientific and medical communities to accept these ancient teachings.
Mindfulness is an attitude of mind that takes practice to establish. It is about changing our half-conscious attention to full purposeful awareness of the present moment.  Most of the time we are either reminiscing about the past or worrying about the future. Mindfulness simply teaches us to be in the present. When we are self-aware, it is easier to notice any negative thoughts and impulses, and neutralize them before acting on them. It means that we can make different choices in life and can improve many aspects of our life. As we spend most of our day in autopilot mode, it is hard to notice what is going on around us. Most of the time our mind is preoccupied with the pointless and unproductive chatter of our own thoughts. Of course, there are times when we need to look back on past events to examine and learn from them, or think about the future to set goals and make plans. However, it is much more effective and productive to do so when we do it mindfully and purposely, instead of being swept back and forth without even realizing it.
In mindfulness practice, we distinguish between two modes of mind – ‘being’ and ‘doing’. The ‘doing’ mode is on when our mind is busy with comparing, categorizing, judging, and processing. The ‘being’ is the more restful mode that is focused inward on our body sensations, as we experience it through our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. The ‘being’ mode is much harder to achieve, as we need to consciously direct our attention to our inner sensations. In these mode we are very aware of our environment and able to experience the reality as it is, rather than seeing it through a filter of our own illusions.
You can call Mindfulness a technique, a lifestyle, a skill, but essentially it is a state when you are very aware of your subconscious and how it rules most of your emotions, decisions and actions. The main premise is once you observe, understand, and accept yourself as you are, you can really start making changes in your subconscious to have a happier, more fulfilling and successful life. In the same way that hypnotherapy works with our deeper subconscious mind to make changes, practicing Mindfulness can make profound improvements in our life. In conjunction with hypnotherapy, it is a powerful tool to achieve your goals without struggle and within a relatively short period of time. I recommend mindfulness techniques to my clients during our sessions so that they can easily practice them in their daily routine and further engrave the hypnotherapy results.