Mindfulness

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is becoming increasing popular with several books and apps available to help people to improve their mindfulness and wellbeing, but what is it?

Mindfulness meditation originates from Eastern religious practices. In Buddhist philosophy, mindfulness leads to enlightenment. The Buddha explained that mindfulness is a path leading directly to the purification of beings:

• to passing beyond sorrow and grief
• to the disappearance of pain and discontent
• to finding the proper way 
• to the direct experience of Nirvana.

It is practised by watching the body, feelings, mind and personal qualities and if properly established reveals the four noble truths:

• truly understanding what suffering is 
• what the arising of suffering is
• what the cessation of suffering is 
• what the practice leading to cessation of suffering is. 

This fourth noble truth corresponds with the eightfold path that leads to enlightenment. Mindfulness can develop both serenity (Samatha) and insight (Vipassana). The former is the practice of bringing back a wandering mind, which invokes a calm state of being, whilst the latter involves deeply observing and investigating experiences in order to uproot the cause of suffering.

Secular mindfulness stems almost entirely from the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn combined his learning as a student of Buddhist teachers and scientific education to develop the (secular) mindfulness-based stress reduction programme (MBSR) to help people overcome chronic illness and pain. MBSR later expanded to include treating psychological disorders, which led to mindfulness being incorporated into psychotherapeutic practices as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Many school-based mindfulness curricula are based on MBCT with popular practices including paying attention to the breath, for example, counting the inhalation and exhalation; focus on sensory experiences (a popular activity from the MBSR course is eating a raisin mindfully by focusing on all five senses); movement practices, such as  yoga; and caring and kindness practices, for example a loving kindness meditation where individuals begin by mediating on compassion for themselves and continue to expand these feelings outwardly to others.

If you would like to learn more about mindfulness, come to yoga club on a Thursday after school, or wellbeing club on a Monday after school, or alternatively try some apps - HeadSpace is a good place to start!