Mindfulness Meditation & Its Benefits – The Meditations
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Mindfulness meditation is a very good practice. If you find that you have any issues with dissociation or staying in the present, then mindfulness meditation is a sure-fire way to help you get where you need to be. When staying in the moment is difficult or anxiety-inducing, mindfulness meditations can help you to re-center yourself and guide your mind back into a place that feels safe and comforting.
People who have suffered from trauma find this method particularly helpful. If you experience triggering events that can be difficult to endure or have post-traumatic stress disorder, then mindfulness meditations can help to pull you out of the frightening triggers and into a mindset that is much easier to handle. It interrupts bad thought processes and allows you to focus instead on the immediate world around you.
Simple Is The Key – Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is something that everybody can experience. It doesn’t take a special pose or a certain place. Rather, you can perform a mindfulness meditation simply by closing your eyes and inhaling deeply. It is possibly one of the simplest forms of meditation out there, and certainly one of the most beneficial!
To perform a mindfulness meditation, the key concept is simple. You want to make sure that you are focusing on the present and truly aware of the things that are going on around you. Let’s say you are having an anxiety attack and having a difficult time grounding yourself afterward. Instead of letting yourself linger in the panic you feel, you can either physically remove yourself from whatever situation you are currently in that may be making your panic worse, or close your eyes and inhale deeply.
While your eyes are closed and you are forcing yourself to take deep, steady breaths, allow yourself to consider every single one of your senses.
What are you feeling with your fingertips? Is it your own hand balled up into a fist? Are you holding something?
What do you smell? Any scent is lingering in the air around you?
What do you see? The darkness behind your eyes? Do you notice if there are some spots that may be lighter if you are facing a light source?
What do you hear? Is there a machine somewhere near you making a gentle humming sound? Do you hear birds singing outside, or children off in the distance? Are people speaking near you? What are their tones like?
Take in all of this information as objectively as you can. Do not attach any personal significance to anything that you are experiencing. If you have thoughts about them, that’s okay too. Just don’t hold on too tightly to those thoughts. Acknowledge that they are there and that they exist, then let them leave your mind as you move on to focusing on other senses.
Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation is an incredible tool. It is very calming and it can work almost immediately. One of the best things about it is how it can help us to re-train our brains during times of cyclical thought that is destructive to our well being. If we are focused on negative things and it is causing us to panic or feel upset in any way, slowing things down and focusing on the present moment is a great way for us to begin to stop staying stuck in that cycle and regain some control over our emotional state of mind. It can bring us equilibrium when it seems like it is almost impossible to find.
The best part about it is how simple it is to practice it. There are no advanced body poses involved, no uncomfortable hand gestures or requirements to light candles and listen to calming music, though if those things are at your disposal and you choose to utilize them, then that can also be great. The perks to mindfulness meditation involve accessibility and the fact that all you need to do it successfully is yourself. It can pull you out of difficult or dark thoughts and help to break your mind free from the cages that have been placed on it by bad experiences. Mindfulness meditation is one of the most recommended by therapists because it truly works to help us to heal from trauma and stay more mindful in our lives.
It can be very easy for us to just zone out and tune out the world around us when things get difficult, or if we are triggered and upset by a situation. This is called disassociation, and it is sometimes a major problem for anyone who has endured a lot of suffering or who is overwhelmed by the world around them. Using mindfulness meditation is a good way to help those people to ground themselves during difficult emotional situations so they can continue to function in the world rather than getting locked up or wanting to shut down and feeling horrible for the rest of the day.
It is also a great option for anybody who experiences panic attacks or major anxiety disorders. When we are in a panic, our brains seem to go a hundred miles a minute in directions that can often prove to be less than productive. It can be debilitating and scary, and going into fight or flight mode is something we generally want to avoid. We want to maintain all of our mind power so that we can make solid, informed decisions, not choices based on fear and emotional overload.
When Should You Practice?
Utilizing mindfulness meditations when you sense yourself being triggered into an anxiety attack or anything else that is similar will help to pull you out of that panicked state and calm your mind so that you are no longer as overwhelmed by the situations you have found yourself in.
Everybody can benefit from mindfulness meditation, not just those who might find themselves overwhelmed at times. It can even just be a nice practice to remember that the world around us exists and we are a part of it. We are all on the same planet, working toward being our best selves and taking the steps we need to take toward achieving our goals.
Some of us may be stuck sometimes, but mindfulness meditation is a great way to cut through the things that are holding us back and get ourselves back on track!
