Stress Relief: Mindfulness

Everyone is talking about it: being mindful. So what is it and what does it do for you?

Have you ever started eating an ice cream cone, taken a taste or two, then noticed all you had left was a sticky napkin in your hand? Or have you been on your way somewhere and arrived at your destination only to realize you haven't noticed anything or anyone you encountered along the way? These are common examples of mindlessness or operating on automatic pilot.

When we multi-task we cannot be fully present in each task; we have part of ourselves in several tasks. The consequence of this inattention can be costly; we can miss crucial information about our feelings, our lives, our relationships and our health. Science demonstrates that not only is it almost impossible to enjoy an activity mindlessly, but also that we are actually less efficient when we multi-task.

Mindfulness is important when we deal with stress. Our reactions to stressful events can become so habituated that they occur without our awareness, until, because of physical, emotional or psychological symptoms, we cannot ignore them. Some of these reactions include muscle tension, painful emotional states, over-eating or drinking, panic and depression. We may engage in worried thoughts, characterized by a lot of “what ifs?” with negative conclusions at the end. These kinds of thoughts activate stress hormones because our bodies respond to the thoughts just as if the stressful events were actually happening. Astoundingly, the brain does not really distinguish between thinking about the stressful event and experiencing it.

An effective antidote to our tendency to tune-out by watching too much TV, surfing on the internet, over-eating, etc., is mindfulness. Mindfulness means to pay careful attention to what you are experiencing in and around you, without trying to change anything. This includes a heightened awareness of your senses and your environment. Yes, it does require slowing down. To the extent that we are more present in our lives, our decisions become more informed and less driven by habit and reaction. Another wonderful benefit of mindfulness is that time seems to slow down when we become more aware of the moment.

Mindfulness has been found to be helpful in everything from pain reduction, to easing fatigue in M.S., increasing well being in adolescent boys to neutralizing fear of death and dying, significantly improving cognitive skills, and even helping prevent depression relapse. In general, mindfulness reduces the usual distress accompanying what we experience of as stressful situations.