You live in the industrialized world and have been affected by stress at some point in your life. But more than ever, right now, there is a need for mindfulness stress reduction healing.
Chances are, if you are reading this, you have access to electricity, an internet connection and a smartphone.
Stress in modern times is unavoidable. This could never be truer that right now in the midst of the current world wide pandemic of Covid-19.
It is the frontier for worry and anxiety, reflecting the conditions our ancestors faced on the plains of the Savannah centuries ago.
The mention of stress has found its way into everyday use. Teenagers now use the term to describe rising stress levels studying for mid-term exams.
But are we stressed or feigning the symptoms to drawn attention to our struggles?
One Thing Is Certain, Stress Is Real
Yet how your body interprets it varies from person to person.
In fact, your tolerance for stress is different to a trained Navy Seal soldier. Yet, we can all agree, when pushed beyond our stress point, our health declines.
The good news is, we can use mindfulness to help us navigate the torrents of stress and manage our lives better.
Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; with purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.
It helps you cope with life’s challenges by being present and inhabiting your body with attentiveness. This is in contrast to runaway thoughts which pass through your mind without your conscious awareness.
“Mindfulness – the steady, non-judgmental awareness and acceptance of experience – leads to self-awareness and to shifts in our perspectives that allow us to see clearly what’s happening and how we are reacting, to respond to triggers and traumas with far more open-mindedness, and to face the process of necessary change with far more flexibility and tolerance,” affirms author Linda Graham MFT in, Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being.
Lurking Beneath Surface
Practicing mindfulness can help you reduce stress because it shifts your autonomic nervous system from a stressed state to a calm state.
As you are reading this, there are minor stresses taking place in the background you are unaware of, yet your subconscious mind is attentive to.
Stress is insidious. It lurks beneath the surface and strikes when you least expect it, carrying with it accumulated stress from the past which can tip you over the edge.
I liken it to a sequinned pearl necklace, cut at one point and left to unravel into pieces. Stress has the same effect causing life to crumble if left untreated.
Mindfulness can help you cope with the habitual patterns of thinking that dominate your everyday life.
“The practice of mindfulness – training the brain to focus its attention and to strengthen conscious awareness – allows us to see our conditioned patterns of response clearly so that we can get unstuck from them when we need to,” avows Linda Graham MFT.
Mindfulness helps you notice the stream of thoughts passing through your mind moment to moment.
It is a means to check in with yourself to notice what is taking place beneath the surface of your thoughts.
You may be prone to reacting to external conditions, yet seldom take the time to note your emotional well-being. It is often too late when you sense something because an emotional crisis has occurred.
Your thoughts can pull you into the past, where you re-experience uninviting events.
You are not present, but recalling a mental screenplay taken place long ago.
This becomes a stressor because you bring unresolved emotions into your interactions with others, contaminating the beauty of the present moment.
“But any time you let your thoughts, worries, and stresses dictate how you experience this moment, you inevitably suffer, because you’re in conflict with reality, with truth. Rather than dancing with life, you’re in a wrestling match-and the outcome of the struggle isn’t in doubt,” declares author Hugh G. Byrne in, The Here-and-Now Habit: How Mindfulness Can Help You Break Unhealthy Habits Once and for All.
Carving Out Time for Silence
Mindfulness can go a long way when you devote regular time for silence.
This is attained through meditation and the sensations created in the body.
Meditation anchors your mind to the present moment, so you become attentive to your present moment experience.
It is important not to fight your thoughts or add a commentary to what you feel, but allow yourself to connect with your feelings.
As you become comfortable sitting in silence, you may wish to advance your practice via structured meditation. This is ideal to strengthen your knowledge and take you into a deeper meditative state.
The benefits of meditation allow you to detach from your thoughts. You become a silent witness and less invested in the stream of activity created in the mind.
You are less reactive because you interact with what is taking place before you.
Stress abounds because people believe their thoughts.
So, if you are driving home after a hostile encounter with your boss or colleague, and an inconsiderate motorist cuts you off in traffic, you offer them a piece of your mind.
Yet, by practising mindfulness you become attuned to the physical sensations of anger before you retaliate since you are mindful of your emotional state.
Linda Graham MFT affirms, “Mindful awareness – observing and reflecting – allows us to step back from the experience of the moment and observe it from a larger field of awareness that is not any of those experiences, that is larger than any of those patterns. With that awareness, we can begin to see different possibilities for responding.”
Mindfulness has a positive effect on your relationships. Your emotional well-being is enriched, instead of succumbing to external stimuli.
The success of mindfulness-based stress reduction lies in noting your thoughts non-judgmentally, through the eyes of equanimity and compassion.
In doing so, you recognize thoughts pass through the landscape of your mind, and they needn’t turn into negative emotions.
We are heavily invested in our thoughts and have a negativity bias when challenged. This is an evolutionary mechanism to help us make sense of our environment.
So, when thoughts, feelings or sensations emerge, don’t ignore them or suppress them, nor analyse or judge them.
Note them as they occur and observe them intentionally but non-judgmentally, moment by moment, in your field of awareness.
If your mind wanders say to yourself, “wandering” and bring your mind back to the present moment.
If you wish to be happy and live a peaceful life, be mindful of your thoughts before they lead you down a perilous path.
Stressful thoughts are not the source of your happiness, but a by-product of unconscious thinking left to run wild.
Mindfulness helps you to reduce stress because it anchors you to the present moment where your body inhabits.
After all, if your body is present doesn’t it make sense that your mind also be here and now?
Are there any comments or observations?
Mindfulness can actually affect so many different aspects of our life and till today, it is still a lot of help to me personally. I find it really interesting that you can tip us on some details and areas of out lives that this concept can help build like our relationships. I have to try that because I’m having a bad one right now. Thank you very much.
Thanks for sharing. Well done!
Roland
In this trying period, the best we can do for ourselves is to ensure that we live a life of serenity and peace. To be honest, this is a great post and one that I found to be quite worthy enough. Though things are not like they use to be before due to the covid19 but learning to train the mind and stay ahead with calmness would surely help reduce anxiety and stress.
Well said Rodarrick. I agree entirely. All of this shall come to pass.
Roland
This is a very enlightening article on how your mind can impact you on the issue of stress. Knowing fully well that the mind is very active in wandering, thus a controlled check on it is very important. It’s also important to note that if you wish to be happy and live a peaceful life, be mindful of your thoughts before they lead you down a perilous path.Stressful thoughts are not the source of your happiness, but a by-product of unconscious thinking left to run wild.Thus mindfulness helps you to reduce stress because it anchors you to the present moment where your body inhabits.
Thank you for some very sound observations here Juliet.
Roland
Thank you so much for sharing such an informative article with us. After reading this article I gain a lot of knowledge about MINDFULNESS STRESS REDUCTION.
If we wish to be happy and live a peaceful life Then we have to relieve stress and excessive thinking. I am very worried about my family and have been suffering for a long time. I found a lot of tips for reading your article. Hopefully, by following these tips I can solve my problem very quickly. Soon I will tell you its effectiveness
I want to share this article on my social media and I think if I share your article on my social media everyone will know about it 😊
Thank you for your observations and kind words. By all means let me know how you make out.
And of course you are most welcome to share this article with anyone you like. My goal of course is to reach as many people as possible. In fact I plan soon to add an opportunity to anyone who might wish to subscribe to my website.
Roland
Dealing with stress can be really frustrating sometimes, but you just have to understand that’s it’s your body calling for rest from every activity in which you have been engaging yourself in. People actually deal with stress differently, while some take time to sleep as much as they can, some would rather stay in a quiet place for a period of time meditating. I love to sleep when I am stressed be are it works a lot for me
Thanks for sharing Benson. Much appreciated. !
Roland
Many thanks to you for sharing a beautiful article with us. when we use the word stress reduction, we’re not talking about some kind of dime-store relaxation attempts to calm people down and just make them feel a little bit better so that they can work a little bit harder. We’re talking about, actually, a transformation in the way in which we relate to our lives, to our bodies, to our calling, to our loves, to our ambition, and so forth, so that we can live lives of balance and fundamental, profound satisfaction.
I usually do my Mindfulness Stress Reduction through meditation. Meditation plays an important role in reducing my stress by which I calm my mind and relieve stress and try to live a peaceful life. I enjoyed reading your article so I would like to share your article with my friends in the Facebook group if you give me permission.
Thank you so much for your timely comments and for sharing.
As i have indicated to another commentator here the more we can get this word out to others the better. Please feel free to send it on.
Roland
First of all thank you so much for sharing such an excellent article with us. Your article is really informative and I gained a lot of knowledge by reading your article which is very helpful to me .Human stress can cause death in a person’s life and I have taken the necessary steps to relieve the stress of my life .I think Mindfulness is needed to cure stress reduction .Practicing mindfulness has helped me reduce stress .Mindfulness has helped me deal with habitual patterns of thinking that have influenced my daily life .The practice of mindfulness is good training for the brain to focus its attention and strengthen conscious awareness. Mindfulness has thus helped me reduce stress .In addition, you have provided some excellent tips in your article .
I hope everyone reading your article will find out some important information and will definitely share with you their new experience .Can I share your article on my social media?
You have done a great job here in sharing your experiences and encouraging others Shanta. Thank you for doing that.
By all means, share the article with anyone you wish. That is why I published it in the first place.
Roland
Your suggestion and guide is very helpful for everyone. Stress abounds because people believe their thoughts. Now I know that Meditation anchors our mind to the present moment, so we become attentive to our present moment experience. Mindfulness can help us cope with the habitual patterns of thinking that dominate our everyday life. Thanks for sharing such awesome guide.
By George! You got it Naksh ! All the best to you in applying what you have learned.
Roland
Hey, I enjoy a lot while reading your guide on mindfulness stress reduction and find it very useful for everyone like me. As we know that Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; with purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. Now your guide gives me motivation to live my life with happiness. Now I am able to remove my stress and feeling happy in everyone movement. Thanks for sharing such useful guide.
Any work of putting together an article like this one is rewarded many times over when receiving comments like yours and others. Blessings on you Parveen for your future.
Roland
Thanks for the awesome post. It is really nice and informative post. I really enjoy the post. In this post you have told about mindfulness stress reduction healing. Stress reduction healing make us healthy. Stress is a familiar figure to me. I always fells these problems. So thanks to you. All credit to you for thinking about this kind of post. I am really got a lot of knowledge. I am going to share the post with others.
You are exactly right Tashibaarzu in your observations as to how prevalent stress is in our lives especially right now in this time of pandemic. That is precisely why I published this article at this time. Thank you also for sharing it with others.
Roland
I can tell that this is a really good one. I should first commend the input of effort in making this superb website with nice features and also writing an article on mindfulness and stress reduction and healing. the effect of covid 19 on the world now is becoming alarming and this has led to real stress.
Thank you Benny for your comments and observations. They are very timely and I agree that stress is certainly a factor in many people’s lives at this time. Thus my purpose in publishing this article in the hopes it can help.
Roland