Over recent years, mindfulness has become a key topic in wellness.
With an increase in mental health awareness and looking after our mind and body, we’re exploring how mindfulness and meditation can help contribute to our whole of body health and the benefits it brings.
The simplest way to explain mindfulness, is that it's the focus of being in the present moment and fully engaging in whatever you are doing. It focuses on not dwelling on the past or worrying about the future and just letting yourself be in the moment.
Being mindful helps you be more aware of the present moment, your surroundings and your mind and body health.
Some of the key reasons people practise are:
The good news is, it’s easy to be mindful when you know how to get started and continue practising.
Some simple ways to get started is through taking more awareness in day-to-day life, such as focusing on your breathing, acknowledging wondering thoughts, mindful listening, paying attention to sounds around such as birds chirping or rustling of leaves.
It’s all about getting your mind more engaged with your surroundings and taking a moment to take it all in, away from fast paced, busy life.
You can even practise when doing simple day-to-day tasks, for example when brushing your teeth, doing the dishes or washing.
Simply focus on the present moment, by taking in the sights, smells, tastes, textures and sounds.
Some more ways to practise include:
Mindful eating: This involves paying attention to the taste, textures and sights of the food you are eating. This might involve focusing on the temperature or the different tastes you experience.
Mindful moving: This involves focusing on how your body moves during exercise. If you're walking you might notice things like the breeze, the different textures around you or different smells you experience throughout.
Mindfulness meditation is also a popular way to prioritise your mental health.
It’s worth first noticing the difference between mindfulness and meditation before exploring how they work together.
Mindfulness is more of a state of mind and a way of living, whereas meditation is the act of taking time out to engage in an activity to help bring and cultivate mindfulness.
It's considered a type of mind-body complementary medicine. You can incorporate mindfulness meditation into your routine to improve your overall health. It should teach you to slow down your thoughts, let go of negativity and calm your body and mind.
Typically, mindful meditation involves deep breathing and awareness of the mind and body.
It can be easy to get started, and you actually don’t have to be a meditation pro. All you need is time and a quiet space to be alone.
Meditation can also be used for mental health benefits such as, improved mood and reduced anxiety and depression.
Mindfulness and mental health can go hand-in-hand, there are also some physical health benefits to be gained.
Holistic health is a common approach to wellness that focuses on the interconnections of the body and mind and how important it is to prioritise our mental, emotional, spiritual, social and physical health.
Mindfulness can play a role in our holistic health as it helps to connect our mind and body and shows how looking after your mind can benefit the rest of your health and our overall well-being.
Some of the key health benefits are:
Probably one of the most well known benefits of practising mindfulness and a key motivation for people to do it.
As mindfulness is all about taking time to be in the present moment, not thinking about the past or future, it gives you a chance to focus on just the moment you're in. This can help in forgetting about or letting go of stressful situations and any worries on our mind.
It also helps us to better understand our emotions, which improves how we react and handle situations which cause us stress.
We have an area in our brain called the amygdala, which plays a key role in how we respond to stress or frightening situations. Practising mindfulness helps to reduce the stress response activity in the amygdala, helping us better control our response to stress.
Similarly to reducing stress, mindfulness can also reduce depression.
By helping people become more aware of their thoughts and feelings it can make it easier to deal with the ups and downs of life that can lead to anxiety and depression.
Sleep is a hugely important factor to our health and well-being. Getting sleep right and making it a priority is essential to other aspects of our health and life.
Lack of sleep can affect our ability to do our day-to-day tasks and may mean not having the energy to exercise or look after our health as we should.
Sleep deficiency is also linked to more serious problems including: heart disease, kidney disease, stroke, obesity and depression.
Simply, mindfulness can contribute to better sleep as the practice helps you to recognise and disengage from worrying thoughts, it helps to promote relaxation and calmness. Calming the mind can help you prepare for sleep.
There is also a possibility that mindfulness meditation may improve quality of sleep and change the ways a person moves through the sleep stages, which are important in determining how well you sleep.
Research has showed that people who have participated in a mindfulness behaviour programme had lower blood pressure levels.
As mindfulness can reduce stress and promote relaxation, this helps with lowering blood pressure, as it calms the nervous system.
High blood pressure can lead to issues with the heart and lead to serious conditions, such as, heart attacks or heart disease. So partaking in activities that can help to lower blood pressure can help to reduce the risks of heart conditions.
For people who struggle with chronic pain, mindfulness may be a consideration to help to reduce the effects of it. It’s thought to ‘reframe the experience of pain’. It works by helping people to manage negative or worrying thoughts about their pain through practising mindfulness daily.
These thoughts can affect mood and increase pain, so being able to focus on relaxing the body and feeling the body sensations is thought to help manage pain.
Mindfulness can be a simple thing to do and get started at, but bring a wealth of benefits for our health and well-being. It also highlights how importantly mind and body work together and the importance of prioritising our health in a holistic way.
Mindfulness is an element of our mental health and there can be lots of support to help us to prioritise our mental and physical health to prevent future illnesses or injuries.
Health insurance support
Many health insurers offer support to help you prioritise your mental and physical health. This is one of the many great benefits of having protection with health insurance. Some of which includes:
If you're thinking about how you can protect your health with private medical insurance, you can reach out to our friendly expert advisers on 01285 864670. Or fill out the form below for one of our team to get in touch.