Mindfulness is the ability to focus attention & awareness in the present.
It reduces stress, unlocks creativity and boosts performance. It is the essence of engagement. (Harvard Business Review)
It reduces stress, unlocks creativity and boosts performance. It is the essence of engagement. (Harvard Business Review)
Mindfulness is best considered an inherent human capacity akin to language acquisition; a capacity that enables people to focus on what they experience in the moment, inside themselves as well as in their environment, with an attitude of openness, curiosity and care.
https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org.uk/about-mindfulness/what-is-it
Jon Kabat-Zinn is credited with bringing Mindfulness Practices to the west in the late 1970s. He is a Professor, Doctor and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He describes mindfulness as the moment-to-moment awareness. It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment’s thought to. It is a systematic approach to developing new kinds of control and wisdom in our lives, based on our inner capacities for relaxation, paying attention, awareness, and insight.
https://www.themindfulnessinitiative.org.uk/about-mindfulness/what-is-it
Jon Kabat-Zinn is credited with bringing Mindfulness Practices to the west in the late 1970s. He is a Professor, Doctor and the creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He describes mindfulness as the moment-to-moment awareness. It is cultivated by purposefully paying attention to things we ordinarily never give a moment’s thought to. It is a systematic approach to developing new kinds of control and wisdom in our lives, based on our inner capacities for relaxation, paying attention, awareness, and insight.
The benefits of Mindfulness
This results in
- Improved leadership, memory, focus, creativity & decision-making
- Improves motivation, staff engagement and job satisfaction, reduces absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover. Develops responsible and ethical approach to work
- Builds trust, compassion & improves interpersonal relationships
- Creates space to regulate emotions to become more responsive & less reactive
- Promotes calmness, resilience & well-being, by managing stress, rumination & worry
- Supports the management of health conditions
- Increases a sense of well-being in individuals and organisations
Detailed benefits
Clinical trials, as well as extensive experience, show that the practice of mindfulness:
With almost three decades of published research the benefits proven include:
- Dramatically improves our stress management, making us better able to deal with challenges created by workloads, deadlines and interpersonal conflict
- Creates greater mental clarity and focus, upgrading our capacity for critical thinking and problem solving
- Enhances our focus on the present moment, thereby promoting greater engagement in the here and now – of particular importance to those operating in high risk environments
- Improves awareness of our own thought processes and the emotions they trigger, enabling more effective emotional regulation and resilience
- Increases our capacity to read other people, increases understanding of where they may be coming from and enhances empathy
- Unleashes our capacity for innovation and creativity
- Promotes new possibilities in difficult team or interpersonal relationships by replacing habitual reactions with more considered responses
- Supports a more panoramic perspective, better able to manage change
- Enriches our appreciation of the greater meaning and purpose in what we do.
With almost three decades of published research the benefits proven include:
- A 70% reduction in anxiety and stress
- Increase resilience and peace of mind
- An ongoing reduction in anxiety three years after taking an MBSR course
- An increase in disease-fighting antibodies, suggesting improvements to the immune system
- Fewer visits to the GP
- Enhance cognitive performance e.g. concentration, memory and processing speed, decision making and effectiveness
- Improved self-esteem
- Improve relationships and overall wellbeing
- An ability to cope more effectively with both short and long-term stressful situations
- A reduction in negative feelings like anger, tension and depression
- Improvements in physical conditions as varied as psoriasis, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.