How does mindfulness work?
Mindfulness works when your mind is “full.” By that I mean several things. First, your mind is full of the present moment. Not perfectly, but enough for peace of mind. In contrast, our mind’s nature is to wander from the presesnt momennt. It can dwell on “I don’t like what I’m experiencing,” or “I don’t like who I am” or “I don’t like my situation.” In mindfulness, there is an acceptance of these “mental traps,” or ways of dealing with situations that don’t really solve problems but stir up negative emotions like worry, sadness and anger–for no reason at all.
On the other hand, you can accept yourself and your situation. In mindfulness this is done without judgment, or without adding all kinds of your ideas about how things “should be.” I am who I am, and that’s ok. My situation is what it is, and that is ok too. In mindfulness, there is also acceptance that you can change things gradually by controlling what you can control: your thoughts and actions.
The benefit of this is mental health. You can have a level of peace of mind in difficult situations. You don’t feel like you have to waste all kinds of mental energy endlessly thinking how much you don’t like your experience. Instead, you can focus and be productive. I go over this mindfulness in Chapter 4 of my book, “Prescription For Positivity.” Productivity involves setting goals and taking action. Getting organized and using to do lists and a daily planner so you don’t have to think things through again. I review this elsewhere in my book as well.
Mindfulness is focused on cultivating inner peace. That is achieved by learning many techniques. One technique is the three step meditation, as explained in my book, which instantly stops overthinking. Another technique in my book is “meditation for sedation.” Have you ever been bothered by overthinking at night, when you lay down to go to sleep? The mind can start to go over what happened during the day with a negative, judgmental attitude. “This happened and I didn’t like it. I did this but it wasn’t good enough. I didn’t like what these other people did.” This is basically a bad habit that needs to be replaced by a good habit: meditation at night to calm the mind down.
Here is the three step meditation for sedation. Notice the mind can do three things at once in conscious deliberate activity. Then the brain is full. It can’t use words, if you are focused on sensory activity or numbers (which are not words and are emotionally neutral).
Do this:
1. Breathe in, filling your stomach and lungs.
2. Count to three.
3. Notice muscle tension increasing as you breathe in.
4. Exhale.
5. Count to four.
6. Notice muscle tension decreasing as you breathe out.
7. Repeat.
The three actions are: counting, breathing, noticing muscle tension. These are the “three steps” you do.
In Chapter 4 of my book, I explain some deep psychological insights you can gain from this exercise. Among these are: you are accepting yourself and what you do. You are stopping overthinking. Your mind might try to fight you, but as you simple notice the technique and do it anyway, you are building self control. A calming signal goes up from the diaghragm, through the Vagus Nerve, into the deep brain structures in the brain stem and deep brain structures in the midbrain, which is where the nerve centers of the adrenaline live–which are over active in anxiety.
So this simple technique calms the deeper areas of the brain. Our thinking activity occurs in upper, surface areas of the brain, just the top half of an inch of the brain. When our brain keeps overthinking about things at night, that is the surface thinking areas of the brain reacting to anxiety signals deep in the brain, which are really the horse pulling cart of our thoughts.
So deep meditation gets to the heart of the problem, an overactive adrenaline center deep in the brain, and as a result the intensity of drive for overthinking gradually relaxes, minute after minute. Isn’t it interesting how a meditation technique can do so much more than a medication can do? Medication can’t control your thoughts. But now you can, at night, with this technique. Also, isn’t it interesting this technique is an application of understanding structures of the brain and how they work?
This is an example of a person taking action on a goal, such as getting to sleep, and then using powerful mind control techniques. This is what I call “positivity.” That is why I called my book, “Prescription For Positivity.” You can “prescribe” yourself to do techniques to control your mind, to create more progress and peace of mind in your life.
This is also mindfulness. In mindfulness you cultivate peace of mind by using techniques to calm your mind down. Also you learn to feel good about yourself by appreciating your unique qualities that make you a unique individual. In addition, you learn to take care of yourself through self care techniques, like the meditation for sedation. Still more, there is an appreciation for nature and what it needs to thrive, so we can protect the beauty and vitality that we find in nature–which uplifts our soul.