Several medical organizations across the country are aware of the mental health benefits of mindfulness and have incorporated mindfulness-based stress reduction in the programs. Based on traditional Buddhist meditative teachings and codified in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the mindfulness-based stress reduction has been adapted to workbook format. Over the years, it has helped hundreds of patients with chronic illnesses manage pain and stress.
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Image source: mindful.org
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Classed as a complementary treatment, mindfulness involves increasing self-awareness and insight into one’s patterns of thinking and behaving. By becoming aware of these habitual patterns, mindfulness lets people find the roots of their stress and pay better attention toward their reactions to similar events, which, over time, works toward greater personal balance and peace. Mindfulness focuses on the here and now, putting aside judgmental thoughts, memory triggers, and worries about the future in favor of sensations and messages focused on the present.
And mindfulness works. Mindfulness training has been found to greatly empower adults living with chronic illnesses. By helping them manage their stressors, patients often gain a more active role in living. Many patients report a significantly improved quality of life after undergoing mindfulness training, as well as reduced fatigue and depression, both immediately after the course and after a six-month follow-up.
The American Psychological Association has also cited studies that supported mindfulness training’s mental health benefits that go well beyond effective stress management. These include improving focus, boosting working memory and cognitive flexibility, and reducing emotional reactivity.
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