Meditation, Mindfulness, and Wellbeing
Meditate, be
mindful and enhance well-being
Hi everyone. I am Deep
Patel. Welcome to my new blog on meditation and mindfulness for well-being.
Are you living or are
you surviving? Same thing? Let me ask, did it happen to you that you ordered
your favourite food and ate it but do not remember how it tasted? Now, you are
thinking if you are becoming forgetful? No, you are not. It is simple that in
this busy schedule and life, we are simply not mindful about the activities we
do. Very often, we do because we have to do but not enjoying the process. Here,
I would like to introduce to the concept of mindfulness and meditation.
Meditation is a simple
practice, which is increasingly found to enhance and improve mental health and
overall well-being (Galante et al., 2023). On the other hand, mindfulness helps the person to become more
conscious and pay attention to different activities, thus becoming aware (Richter & Hunecke, 2021). As discussed above, mindfulness would have
increased your and everyone’s ability to relish the meal consumed and thus
remember the taste. Most predominantly used meditation technique for well-being
practiced is mindfulness (Fincham et al., 2023). It is further elaborated that it is the practice that helps the person
to experience and live the present moment. It is a non-judgemental approach of
living the present moment without being reactive to the situation. Another case
control study corroborated that the meditation is the process of psychophysical
training, which enhances mindfulness (Dasanayaka et al., 2022). It is further added that meditation and mindfulness help in focussing
on breathing for relaxation and calming effect on mind.
Source: photo by Lišakov (2022) on Unsplash.com
Meditation have
emerged in recent times as one of the most effective techniques that is
interlinked with mindfulness to achieve satisfaction. It is further explained
that environmental satisfaction and personal identity is being established
through meditation (Javaid et al., 2024). However, it is further pointed out that mindfulness focusses on
training of the mindset for achieving higher level of awareness and interlinks
with psychological aspects of the person. Thus, it is outlined that mindfulness
plays a dominant role in helping people to bring their attention back to self
and personal needs. It helps to understand oneself better and transform,
thereby aiming to achieve well-being. Mindfulness strongly aids in
comprehending the situation around us and our bodies, thus increasing our
self-awareness. On the other hand, it is asserted that meditation focusses on
calming down our mind and thought process (Lahtinen et al., 2023). Another study, substantiated that meditation
and mindfulness are the tools that have helped in improving psychological
health outcomes (Richter
& Hunecke, 2021). It helps in
developing optimistic viewpoint, thus achieving hedonic well-being. The role of
meditation in well-being is proven by reduced cases of anxiety issues and
depression, improving self-efficacy levels and improving emotional regulation (Bigelow et al., 2021). Furthermore, it helps in enhancing focus and
improving mental well-being. Here, I can relate that when I started my higher
studies, owing to academic pressure, I used to be very stressed. One of my
fellow peers asked me to meditate regularly. I was surprised to see the change
in myself as I found I became very calm, less stressed and further it helped to
think clearly on ways to achieve my academic goals. Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR) is effective tool which is used in mindfulness-based
interventions (Lahtinen
et al., 2023). MBSR tool is a
systematic and well-constructed process using patient-centric approach for
teaching individuals about mindfulness activities (Ito et al., 2022). This intervention tool is different from
other medical technical as it is an educational approach instead of theoretical
or therapeutic intervention and further can be employed in heterogenous
population (Ito et
al., 2022). It is found to improve
self-compassion and increase mental resilience.
A simple practice
would help everyone in doing meditation and mindfulness. To begin with, be calm
and stop doing the things you are doing. Close your eyes and try to focus on
your breathing for 1 minute. Try inhaling slowly, holding your breath for 30 seconds
and exhale slowly. Continuing the same, try relaxing and releasing tension. Do
not think about academics or other stress. Continue this for a week for 15
minutes daily.
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