WHAT IS MINDFULNESS MEDITATION
Mindfulness meditation is neuroplasticity in action, which means it can change our brains. If we can change our brains, we can change our thoughts, behaviours, actions reactions. It can help train us to not react automatically to what happens to us in life but to give us tools to slow our response time down so we can act in accordance with our better selves, instead of our unconscious defensive patterns. We learn to tune into ourselves and to learn to accept our feelings and emotions whether they be pleasant or unpleasant in the present moment. By learning to do this we lead ourselves towards inner peace and our body is able to maintain its balance and homeostasis easier. Most of us want to feel at peace, but many of us are not sure how to find it. Mindfulness Meditation teaches you those skills.
Life is filled with stessors. Stressors can be physical/mental/emotional or chemical (food/drugs/cigarettes/alcohol/environmental) in nature and it is our ability to cope with life’s stressors that can determine our state of inner peace, our health and wellness.
Not all stress is bad for us. One person’s stress can be detrimental to their well being while another may thrive in similar circumstances. Our reactions to life’s stressors is therefore individual. We can react to stress with positive or maladaptive coping strategies and often our past is affecting our present reactions without us even realising it. Meditation can bring these unconscious maladaptive strategies into the light so they can be acknowledged and changed. What we repress we express! But becoming aware of our own patterns can be tricky and can take time, effort and more than a little bit of discomfort.
Mindfulness Meditation helps us to find better methods of dealing with our maladaptive strategies and learning to be ok with our feelings of discomfort and periods of pain, so we can enjoy the times that are joyful.
We cannot effectively separate any part of our lives from another for any length of time as all our systems work together. We cannot successfully block out an unpleasant experience without blocking the pleasant as well.
We have an Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) that regulates our body involuntarily. The ANS is comprised of the Sympathetic Nervous system (SNS) the ‘flight or fight’ response part and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PSNS) – the ‘rest and digest’ part. The ANS keeps our immune system, cardio-vascular system, respiratory system, digestive system etc all working in harmony and balance. If we experience stress either internally via thoughts/emotions/pain etc or externally via work/family/relationships etc our inner balance can be disrupted and if this occurs for prolonged period we are at risk of illness and injury. For example, over working can lead to illness as can relationship issues that remain unresolved etc.
If how we are living causes us negative stress, this causes our SNS to work over time, then we can put ourselves at risk in any number of ways including chronic increased blood pressure or heart rate, anxiety, insomnia, body pains, inflammation etc. Over time this can result in a range of issues depending on the way it manifests in each individual, including burnout/depression/cancer or other illnesses/headaches/body pains/heart conditions.
Mindfulness Meditation also helps to dampen down negative stress responses initiated by the SNS, which our western busy lifestyles have managed to train to work almost non-stop and help bring the calming PSNS back into the picture so it can restore balance.
The body needs the PSNS actions otherwise healing is delayed or slowed! Mindfulness Meditation works on the PSNS.
To see (insight) is to be free!