You lead a busy life and you are always on the go. On your rush to accomplish all of the necessary tasks to get through your day, you may find yourself losing your connection to the present moment. Being so busy, you are missing out on what you’re doing and how you’re feeling. That’s where mindfulness can help.
Mindfulness is the practice of attempting to focus all of your attention on the present moment while also accepting it without judgement. Mindfulness is a key element in stress reduction and overall happiness. The practice of mindfulness has been around for thousands of years and has its roots in Buddhism. They used this technique to help shift thoughts away from their usual preoccupations and toward an appreciation of the present moment and a larger, more thorough perspective on life.
There are many benefits to practicing mindfulness. Keep reading to find out how it can help.
It is widely accepted that mindfulness brings many benefits
in regards to mental health. One researcher at Harvard Medical School has found
specific mindfulness benefits for generalized anxiety and excessive worry. Most
struggles with anxiety are results of overthinking your daily life. Trying to
control or fix this problem by thinking it through yourself can often make
things worse. Mindfulness can help you through this fear and anxiety.
Lower Your Daily Stress
Everyone seems to be feeling more and more stress throughout their lives. The overall stress burden comes from a variety of daily stressors. This can be anything from forgetting to get milk on the way home, to the kids having to be at multiple functions on a weekly basis. Our lives can become immensely filled with stress. In a recent study, researchers found that while mindfulness may not change the number of stressors, it can help us to respond better and in a calmer manner to stressful events. The better you handle your stressors, the less stress we experience as a whole.
Better, More Rest
After a long, stressful day, you just want to come home to relax and go to sleep. While you are undoubtedly exhausted from your busy day, you just can’t get your mind to relax enough to get the sleep you desperately need.
Sleep psychologists call this state, “Tired but Wired.” This
is when you are physically drained and exhausted but, because of your racing
mind, your body’s desire to sleep becomes suppressed. Researchers at USC and
UCLA found that brief mindfulness intervention helped to improve overall sleep
quality. Not only that, but it also improved daytime fatigue among the participants.
If you are burdened with overthinking and anxiety, practicing mindfulness can help.