Mindfulness: can it help?


I attended a group yesterday to practise my listening skills. We were talking about small actions that can change deeply ingrained habits we want to challenge.

Through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) I discovered the power of Mindfulness. I had heard of it and of meditation before but felt they were not for me. I am restless, energetic and have a lot of thoughts. However with CBT you want to change behaviours, hopefully rewire your brain a little bit...

Through CBT and a stress-mindfulness course I recently completed, I found out about Jon Kabat-Zinn, who defines Mindfulness as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgementally".

We live our lives on automatic pilot, ruminating about the past and worrying about the future. Mindfulness does not erase negative thinking, it makes you accept it and move on. You can practise mindfulness when you wash the dishes, brush your teeth or, even better, in nature. You focus on the moment, what do you feel, what do you see, what do you hear, what are you touching... If you get an intrusive thought you acknowledge it and then go back feeling and thinking about what you are doing.


Try these actions and see if they can help:


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