Mindfulness Meditations & Exercises

• Why Meditate?

  • Since there are many forms of meditation, it follows that there would be many different reasons why one would meditate. But for mindfulness meditation, the simple answer is to learn how to better use our mind and sharpen our present moment awareness.

  • The scientific answer is much longer. If you go to Google Scholar to Advanced Search and select articles with the word Mindfulness in the title, there are over 96,900 articles listed.

  • Overall, the findings show that mindfulness meditation can have a positive effect on any of the many mental health diagnoses studied. It is considered to be trans-diagnostic, meaning that it seems to be beneficial regardless of the diagnosis.

  • The caveat here is that mindfulness is not a cure-all but can have very positive effects. Here is a partial list of outcomes listed in the research:

    • Reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and other mental health conditions

    • Increase one’s sense of wellbeing

    • Lower levels of chronic pain

    • Increase one’s ability to cope with stress

    • Fosters resilience

    • General health benefits

    • facilitate addiction recovery

    • Better mental cognitive functioning including better decision making

• Good to Know about Meditation

  • Since mindfulness meditation increases our self awareness, we become more aware of our feelings and experiences. If someone has endured significant trauma, it is recommended to work with a therapist skilled in working with trauma. Since we become more aware of the workings of our mind, difficult, unresolved memories may arise. If that happens, it is recommended to slow the meditation process down, reducing the amount of time for meditation and increase the time slowly. And, when troubling thoughts arise, it is recommended to not try to manage them, but to disengage and re-ground oneself with standard grounding techniques, coming back to the present moment.

• Establishing a Regular Practice

  • First, one of the best ways to initiate a meditation practice is to start with three minutes, twice daily, every day. This builds up the habit of taking time out for inward attention. We are creatures of habit and it takes time to build up the habit or daily meditation. Regularity is more important than duration.

  • Second, is to find the best meditation instruction you can find. It is the quality of instruction that is most important. And to listen to what the instructor says about meditation, and ultimately, what feels right.