The importance of mindfulness for mental health

THE IMPORTANCE OF MINDFULNESS FOR MENTAL HEALTH Mental health - what is it? When I think about mental health, I have a few things in mind: what emotions do I feel, how do I deal with the problems that afflict and how do I value other people with all the emotions and feelings they face. Some people call mental health emotional health, or well-being, which is just as important as physical health, but what is the actual definition of mental health? The World Health Organization (WHO) defines positive mental health as a state of well-being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and is able to contribute to his or her community. (Keller, 2019). Evidently, it is an important part of our lives, especially in modern society. But what happens when we neglect our mental health? People may have their own reasons to do it. Some of them are too busy, not sure who to talk to, some people cannot afford to care not only financially, but also emotionally or some may feel ashamed as they consider it a taboo to talk about something so personal. We all have our ways of dealing with situations in life, depending on how well supported we feel or how well succeeded we are in other aspects of our life as well as many other factors. During the global pandemic, I hear more people talk about their mental health and its negative changes. It was found that mental health and wellbeing became more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Mental health in the UK worsened substantially because of the Covid-19 pandemic – by 8.1% on average and by much more for young adults and for women which are groups that already had lower levels of mental health before Covid-19.’ (Banks and Xu, 2020). Considering this situation, we should start thinking, what can we do to improve our mental health? Modern medicine offers diverse ways of dealing with this problem, such as antidepressants, sleeping pills, mood stabilisers, and more, but what if someone cannot afford the tablets or just is not keen on taking pills? There are other ways of working on it and one of them is mindfulness practice. To understand how mindfulness helps our mental health, we have to find out what mindfulness itself is and how we can benefit from being mindful in everyday life. There are many different ways to define it, but in my own opinion, mindfulness is a set of practises and a lifestyle designed to draw one's attention to the experiences which are happening now and to improve mental health by reducing stress. It is like being more alive in everyday routine. Have you ever asked yourself- how alive am I? Maybe at first glance such a question sounds strange, but it is all about going deeper by naming how much you can feel yourself: breathing, body sensations, thoughts, emotions or rising impulses. That is what I call consciously realizing yourself and it is what mindfulness means to me. I benefit from mindfulness exercises every day of my life and I feel the effects such as calm mind, aroused inner resources, greater emotional resilience and inner wisdom, better self-knowledge, energy-efficient productivity, clearer sense of my body and its needs, stronger health, better and more conscious relationships with people around me. Also, we live in an age where the pace of life is extremely fast, there are endless activities and we barely manage to spin. Every day we interact with other people, learn, work and perform daily duties. People constantly have to adapt to changing environmental conditions, make decisions, make choices, and find ways out of difficult situations and conflicts. Constant rush, facing deadlines, decreased resting time, career or academic disappointments and many more obstacles that often have an extraordinarily strong effect not only on the body but on the mind as well. We all perceive stress differently and strive to overcome it differently, but we all fall into situations in which we do not feel good, such events cause anxiety, sleep disorders, low levels of energy, headaches and other symptoms of stress which can lead to serious illnesses. What can we do? How to decrease these stressful situations in daily life? In science literature mindfulness is also described on many various levels: ‘as a psychological process, an outcome, a specific technique, or as a general method or collection of techniques’ (Hayes & Wilson, 2003). It is important to properly assess any situation, to prioritise the most important life tasks and to devote some time in order to get some rest and self-love. Moreover, get to know yourself well and choose the right way to protect yourself against stress. This is a key to personal improvement and better well-being. There are several mindful exercises that we could practice in everyday life to reduce stress such as: breathing, yoga, body scan meditation, object meditation, mindful eating, walking meditation, forest bathing, mindful stretching and more. Mindfulness workshops for personal growth have strong psychotherapeutic potential. Such practices train the mind for attention, teaches to notice our “autopilot” mode, thoughts, recognize emotions, body sensations and impulses to act. It brings us to the mode of presence rather than constant doing. Moreover, it develops patience, compassion for oneself and the world, trains perception, cultivates inner wisdom and strengthens physical emotional health. Stopping, looking back at yourself and learning to feel alive again is never too late. However, it might not be so easy to cope with stress and sometimes it can even cause a bigger damage and lead to serious illnesses such as clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, high or low levels of cortisol (stress hormone) might damage brain function, cause heart diseases and many more. We all know that stress is the roof of most illnesses and some of us are experiencing high levels of stress in everyday life. National Death index morality data proves that stress can be dangerous and even life threatening. (Products - Data Briefs - Number 331 - January 2019, 2020) According to World Health Organization, ‘15% of our disabilities are associated with mental illnesses.’ (Disability and health, 2020) Mental health professionals will not necessarily prescribe you medication, sometimes they can just help you look at your life differently. Many studies claim that mindfulness reduces all negative health outcomes, and it can even decrease many symptoms with physical outcomes. For example: ‘Speca, et al. (2000) observed that a mindfulness-based stress reduction program on mood disturbance and symptoms of stress in Cancer patients resulted in reduced mood disturbances and stress symptoms in both male and female patients with a wide variety of cancer diagnoses.’ (Keller et al., 2012) Other studies demonstrate that mindfulness is successful in the reduction of symptoms related to chronic pain. Jacob, et al, (2004) conducted a survey on mindfulness, spirituality and subjective wellbeing and observed that mindfulness leads to pro-social values, decreases negative affective experiences, increases positive affective experiences and life satisfaction. The trait positive affect (PA) has been found to be related with low rates of stroke among non-institutionalized elderly (Ostir et al 2001), low rates of hospitalization for coronary problems (Middleton and Byrd, 1996), Fewer injuries (Koivumaa-Honkanen et al., 2000) and improved pregnancy outcomes among women undergoing assisted fertilization (KlonoffCohen et al 2001). (Prasun Mandal, Kumar Arya and Pandey, 2012) Researchers have proven that practises of mindfulness have a positive effect on the psyche, helps to overcome minor depression and sleeping problems, eliminates the symptoms of mental disorders. There are many different mindfulness practises. For example, practise like Yoga can become financially affordable for people who cannot afford to take expensive medication or take expensive courses to treat mental illness. Even though yoga is not a medicine, it can be an effective adjunctive therapy for many conditions. Although, Yoga does not require any special equipment or clothing. You can do exercises at home or at work. A yoga practitioner cultivates his or her inviolability and acquires effective resistance to environmental factors. Yoga helps me to correct my way of life by introducing a positive attitude to life and developing feelings of brotherhood, harmony and equality. Such an approach helps to get rid of all mental and physiological diseases. Moreover, mindfulness- based programs such as MBCT (mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) have become increasingly integrated into medicine, health care, and psychology due to the growing evidence base for their efficacy in the lives and health of medical patients with a range of chronic stress-related and pain-related conditions and diseases, as well as people suffering from depression and anxiety’. (Rechtschaffen,2017). Yes, it is also not an effortless way to get rid of stress, anxiety, or other difficulties because it requires a daily focused effort. If we knew how to control stress, we could avoid illnesses. There is growing evidence that improving the health of children is effective not only for their health but also for the country’s economic stability and social well-being. Their contribution to the labour market, family and society depends on the health of young people. ’Mindfulness training—using age‐appropriate activities to exercise children's reflection on their moment‐to‐moment experiences—may top‐down processes while lessening bottom‐up influences (such as anxiety, stress, curiosity) to create conditions conducive to reflection, both during problem solving and in more playful, exploratory ways.’ (Zelazo and Lyons, 2012). This makes me believe that to prevent some huge damage to our mental health, we should start educating children and teaching them to pay attention to themselves from an early age. To conclude, mental health is a complex part of a person's health that determines a person's ability to know the world, to communicate, to express their feelings, which is a big part of our lives and wellbeing. In order to prevent illnesses and high levels of stress, it is important to involve such topics in a young child’s life and development. Well-being in the environment, his or her relationship and communication with peers and adults, the formation of their mindset, successful learning, resistance to harmful habits can increase their knowledge at an early age. Health starts form us, in our homes, workplaces, neighbourhoods and communities. And even though not everyone has these opportunities and a certain knowledge that allows us to look after ourselves and prevent poor health, we can at least involve ourselves in one easier mindfulness practise per day. Investments in mindfulness promotion should be linked to programs aimed at raising awareness of mental health, developing the capacity of parents and teachers to provide the necessary help and support to children, students, and the teachers as well. It is important to understand that our well-being, physical health, mental health, memory, relationships, decreased emotional reactivity and most importantly decreased stress- all these benefits of mindfulness are especially dominant to us no matter if we are healthy, sick, young, or old. It is never too late to start taking care of yourself. Reference List Banks, J. and Xu, X., 2020. The Mental Health Effects of The First Two Months of Lockdown and Social Distancing During The Covid-19 Pandemic In The UK. [online] institute for fiscal studies. Available at:

Daugiau informacijos...

★ Klientai rekomenduoja

Šį rašto darbą rekomenduoja mūsų klientai. Ką tai reiškia?

Mūsų svetainėje pateikiama dešimtys tūkstančių skirtingų rašto darbų, kuriuos įkėlė daugybė moksleivių ir studentų su skirtingais gabumais. Būtent šis rašto darbas yra patikrintas specialistų ir rekomenduojamas kitų klientų, kurie po atsisiuntimo įvertino šį mokslo darbą teigiamai. Todėl galite būti tikri, kad šis pasirinkimas geriausias!