Mindfulness

Annes Ademruimte | Mindfulness | Meditatie

Mindfulness is a skill you can develop. You learn to cope with stress and difficult situations and experience more balance and peace in your life. You can prevent burn-out with mindfulness.

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder of mindfulness in the Western world. He developed the MBSR training, which stands for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. He explains in this short film what mindfulness is all about.

Jon Kabat-Zinn about mindfulness

Mindfulness takes you out of your autopilot.

A lot of things, like driving home or showering, you do on routine. You do everything, but in the meantime your mind is with what still has to be done tomorrow or yesterday’s annoying conversation. You live your life without really being there and that’s a pity.

When practicing mindfulness you switch from ‘doing’ to ‘being’. You leave your burdens for what they are and only pay attention to your experience of this moment. Mindfulness means practicing. You practice to focus your attention in a special way: on your current thoughts, your physical sensations and your emotions. You learn to put your inner critic aside and to look at your reactions objectively, with an open mind and in a friendly way, and to be present at what is happening right now with mild and open attention.

This gives you insight into your automatisms, patterns and your pitfalls. This is not always easy and sometimes rather confronting, but it allows you to make a conscious choice to do things differently. Mindfulness gives you more control over your life.

Mindfulness works!

Research shows that mindfulness lowers your blood pressure, reduces chronic pain and anxiety, helps fight depression and prevent burn-out.

It has also been confirmed that mindfulness ensures a higher quality of life. Not only do you feel less stressed, the level of the stress hormone cortisol actually decreases even at 12.5 minutes of meditation per day.

Would you like to know more about mindfulness or give it a try? Check out under mindfulness exercises and apps or under the most frequently asked questions. If your question is not included, please feel free to contact me.

Corrie (2018): “The mindfulness training has certainly brought me a lot. Anne’s guidance was intimate (small group/home) and professional at the same time. A lot of space to share experiences with others. In short: Great! I still benefit from it every day”.