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By Dominique MulhaneYou have probably heard of mindfulness. You may have even done some mindfulness techniques with your psychologist. An increasing amount of research has shown the value of meditation techniques and the way it activates areas of the brain associated with self-regulation, focused problem-solving, attention, and internal awareness. It has also been shown to increase motor control and performance.Sometimes,...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Where do you go for the truth? Part way through the therapy hour, I might hear stomach gurgling. I’ll often ask if my client heard it too. “Oh yeah, I haven’t eaten today”, or “yeah, too many tacos”. Then I’ll playfully ask them to wonder what else it might be. “Yeah it's uncomfortable talking about all of this with you”...
Would you like to be able to maintain your focus longer, work more efficiently, be more relaxed, or be more engaged in day to day life? These are just some of the benefits that can come from the practice of mindfulness. So, what is mindfulness? Mindfulness teaches us to focus our attention on the present. Often we get caught...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Mindfulness essentially is paying attention to one's life, here and now, with kindness and curiosity. The practice of mindfulness can teach children how to pay attention and increase awareness of their bodies, minds, emotions and what is happening around them. This increasing awareness is important because it allows children a greater choice and control over how they respond to events,...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Learning to be mindful can be a difficult thing to master, but it's much easier when you have an easy-to-use app to guide you through the process. What is mindfulness, and how can it help you? Put simply, mindfulness is about paying specific attention to the present and being able to observe your thoughts and feelings in a non-judgmental way....
Edited by Jill Wright,
A couple of days ago, I bought my two grand-daughters a packet of jumbo marshmallows. They are possibly their favourite treat, and the younger one, in particular, heads straight for the cupboard where they are "hidden" as soon as she arrives for a visit. If you spend any time around psychologists, you will learn that marshmallows and children have tremendous...
Edited by Jill Wright,
More and more these days, I'm convinced that we are in the early stages of a mass mindfulness movement. Yesterday, for instance, I belatedly caught up with a BBC Horizon show from last year, called The Truth about Personality, which suggested that mindfulness meditation can help us live longer by changing our mental orientation from pessimism to optimism. According to...
Edited by Jill Wright,
I think we must be in the middle of a mindfulness explosion right now. Over the past few months I've been coming across articles in everything from Harvard Business Review to Time magazine, the New York Times, The Times of London etc., etc. about a practice that can achieve extraordinary results in everything from alleviating anxiety to improving clarity of...
Edited by Jill Wright,
Have you ever noticed that feeling of satisfaction you get when you're telling people just how hectic your life is? Does it make you feel important? According to sociologists researching the phenomenon, somewhere around the end of the 20th Century, "busyness" became a badge of honour. People started competing to cram ever more demands into their schedules, and bragging about...
Edited by Jill Wright,
I've been following the work of Harvard psychologist Professor Ellen Langer for some time now. I was originally interested in her work with the ageing which she outlined in Counterclockwise. That book arose from what might best be described as an elaborate experiment in time travel. She took eight men in their 70s and 80s to a week-long retreat into...