Mindfulness Are You Master of Your Own Mind?
Are You Master of Your Own Mind?
"Distracted? Angry? Envious? There's growing evidence that attention, emotion regulation—even love—are skills that can be trained through the practice of meditation. Perhaps it's time for you to become a high-performance user of your own brain." - Katherine Ellison, Psychology Today.
It's being used by KPMG, GlaxoSmithKline, PWC, Google, Apple and The Home Office. It helped Transport for London reduce absenteeism caused by stress by 71%. Clinical studies show that mindfulness techniques can reduce anxiety by a staggering 70%, whilst research supports that companies with mindfulness programmes, such as Google, have happier employees. This leads to greater harmony, focus and success in their workplace. Learn more about the proven effects of mindfulness on productivity here.
But what is Mindfulness and how does it work? Despite its status as the latest buzzword, especially in the world of business (with famous advocates such as Arianna Huffington) Mindfulness is nothing new. In fact, it has its roots in the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path to Enlightenment in the form of awareness. So successful is this form of awareness in generating compassion and, ultimately, happiness, it has been adopted by modern psychologists as an ideal practice for the stress-ridden world in which we live today.
Mindfulness is about conscious awareness of your surroundings - put simply, it's a process of thinking about the way you think. With practice this will enable you to guide your thoughts to fine-tune your state of mind. Whether you're in a high-stress situation and need to find a state of calm, or you're in a state of procrastination and need to conjure up some focussed energy, Mindfulness can enable you to become master of your own mind. Whilst the techniques used are themselves very simple and can be learned by anyone, putting them into practice requires - you got it - a lot of patience and practice. This is one of the reasons why Mindfulness is best learned from a dedicated teacher, and over a period of weeks.
The effort will definitely pay off. As athlete Christopher Bergland notes:
"We all get stuck in mental ruts and have patterns of habitual thinking and behavior that can be counterproductive. Mindfulness is a chance to snap out of it, push the reset button and have a fresh start. The next time you find yourself dwelling on something that makes you feel resentful, negative or hopeless. Stop. Breathe. Think about your thinking. And then guide your attention and thoughts towards something positive."
Take part in Mindfulness Month this September at Camyoga! Carolyn Pallon's 4 week Introduction to Mindfulness Course runs on Tuesday evenings from 10th September. Learn more here. If you're a business person, we have limited spaces available for our FREE Mindfulness Event on Fri 13th September. Call 01223 847930 to book now.