Practicing Mindfulness

By Lynn L. West, PhDc, BCETS, LCPC

Lynn L. West & Associates, LLC

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Practicing Mindfulness

Mental discipline is an important habit to cultivate that leads to optimum mental and physical health.

Mindfulness is the practice of teaching your mind to not wander away from staying focused on the present moment by thinking about the past or future or distracting yourself by multitasking, or shifting your attention to doing more than one thing at a time, instead of remaining fully in the experience of the moment.

Being fully present means your attention is focused on one thing: the present moment. You are not switching your mental attention even momentarily or allowing a distraction to interfere or interrupt the action of being mentally present in the moment.

Being present when you are talking to someone means your attention and gaze are focused directly on the person you are talking to about 80% of the time, and 20% of time your eye will drift up or down or to the side as you try to recall something you have read, heard, or seen that is relevant and pertinent to the on going dialogue.

The benefit of practicing mindfulness is that by deliberately paying attention to the thoughts and sensations you are feeling, without judgment, improves both emotional and physical well being at the cellular level.

Purposely focusing your attention, you are fully engaged in the activity or dialogue and therefore you are better able to form deep connections with others as well as develop at greater capacity to deal with negativity and adversity.

Psychotherapists use mindfulness as part of cognitive behavioral therapy to treat irrational, maladaptive thoughts associated with such symptoms as depression, anger and rage, anxiety disorders, and to cope with cravings related to addictive substances or behaviors.