Your pocket guide to mindfulness

Mindfulness is slowly trickling into everyday consciousness but what is it and how can it help you with everyday life?

Mindfulness was developed over 30 years ago by John Kabot-Zinn to teach Buddhist meditation without the Buddhist elements.

He puts it simply as “mindfulness is moment to moment awareness. It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moments thought to.”

Here are 5 reasons to give it a try:

It helps you to accept things you cannot change. It’s possible sometimes to do things to help ourselves feel better, but when pain is unavoidable, mindfulness can help you to feel the emotions to a lesser extent.

It’s accessible to everyone, regardless of belief systems. Religious elements can be added to the practice, but it’s perfectly acceptable for everyone to practice it regardless of their beliefs.

It can be done without any extraordinary effort. You don’t have to meditate to practice mindfulness, although it does add structure to your practice.  Mindfulness can be applied to everyday ordinary tasks, it doesn’t require special clothes or equipment. All it requires is you!

It can be done anytime, anywhere. On a bus, walking the dog, eating a biscuit, with practice it can be applied anytime.

It feels nice. It gives you more of an awareness of what’s nice and not so nice in your life. This means that with practice you can grow the parts that you find are more pleasant and minimise the ones that are bringing you discomfort.

Join Sophia Pallaro who will host a 4 weeks course on a ‘Introduction to Mindfulness’ starting Thursday January 14th. This course will explore different mindfulness practices that can help us be more present in and aware of ourselves and our surroundings.