Imagine living every moment of your life to the full, being fully present to your experience, not thinking about the past or the future, simply enjoying each and every moment of your life without the worry about what has been or what is to come!

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Living a mindful life and incorporating practices into our everyday enables us to do just that; allowing us to enjoy a fuller and richer life.

“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way;

On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”

Jon Kabat Zinn

Many of us find that we miss being present in our lives because we are caught up in thinking, literally lost in thought, contemplating things that have passed or those that are yet to come. Our attention can be taken from one thing to another and we often find ourselves caught up in negative thought ruts leading to stress and anxiety. The practice of mindfulness helps us train the brain, using techniques that bring us into the present moment.

What are the benefits of learning mindfulness?

• We learn to be more fully aware and present in each moment, enjoying life to the full.
• It helps us cope better with difficult emotions; learning to face them rather than avoiding or suppressing them.
• We learn to come out of autopilot and instead respond to each situation afresh. This gives us the opportunity to make different choices instead of reacting in the way we have always done to things.

There is also a growing body of research that shows that mindfulness practices help people manage pain better, it can help prevent further episodes of depression in people who have already had a depressive episode and it can improve levels of emotional wellbeing and decrease anxiety in young people.