Reducing Stress with Mindfulness

Stress is the killer for rest, happiness and having a pleasant conversation. In addition, it is also bad for your immune system. This is precisely why it is important to do something against stress, because if you get sick you will naturally get even more stress.

In this article, I discuss how mindfulness can reduce stress.

Mindfulness was developed primarily to help people who had a chronic illness or even were out of treatment from a serious illness and therefore terminally ill to cope better. The thought of being stuck with all kinds of discomforts for the rest of your life because of your illness or even that your life is shorter than you would like is obviously stressful.

Mindfulness, therefore, also has great benefits for reducing stress, especially if you are actually otherwise very healthy.

There are even mindfulness programs designed entirely to reduce stress. Stress is often both mental and physical. It’s mental in the sense that you keep thinking, keep worrying, or keep dwelling on something that didn’t go well.

Stress is physical in the sense that your muscles tense up, which in turn intensifies your stressful emotions.

That’s why, for example, in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, one of the first steps is to perform a mindfulness body scan. With a body scan like this, you can, among other things, help your muscles relax again.

That muscle relaxation alone can bring your stress levels back down.

Focusing thoughts against stress

Another way mindfulness works against stress is by reminding yourself that you are working on something right now. When you have a mindfulness moment, your attention is in the here and now and so you don't have all those thoughts that stress you out.

And if you do have such a thought while trying to be mindful, it is much less of a problem. This is because you also learn that you don't have to be judgmental about your thought.

Instead of worrying further about that thought, you can also notice for yourself that you are thinking about "work" right now and the feeling with that is "worry." So instead of thinking, "I can't do this and that because then I have to do this and that and that's super hard again because.....," mindfulness prevents you from going into that negative spiral by naming the subject of your thought and the emotion you have with it. This makes it easier to let go of that thought and bring your attention back to the present.

This can also be for thoughts about your personal life.

Getting this right the first time can be very difficult. Mindfulness is also something you need to practice. So the more often you do this, the better it will go.

If you’re struggling with anxiety or have a lot of worrying thoughts, you can also visualize your brain as a kind of blue sky where your thoughts drift by like clouds. Just as you can normally look at the clouds without judging them, you can also allow those thoughts to be there without judging them. You don’t need to decide for yourself whether a thought is good or bad.

Reduce stress in daily life with mindfulness.

Such a body scan exercise is fun, of course, but that's not the only solution mindfulness offers to reduce your stress. By creating as many mindfulness moments as possible in your daily life, you reduce the moments when you think about the things that stress you out.

1. One hour of mindfulness at work

Work is where stress can build up for most people. To keep stress below excessive levels throughout the day, you can build in a moment every hour for mindfulness. During that moment, you check how your body is feeling and allow your thoughts to calm down.

Then you just go back to what you were doing, but now again with a slightly emptier head.

2. Mindful enjoyment of fresh air

When you walk out the door to go outside, use that moment to enjoy the fresh air. Take a few deep breaths and feel the air. Is it humid? Dry? Is it fragrant? Is it nice and warm or cold?

How does being outside feel to your body? Accept this feeling and don't try to resist it. If it's hot, it's hot and if it's cold, it's cold and that's it.

Also, look around you outside. See the street, any trees and plants in people's front yards, or just that no one on your street has a front yard. Also look up and see what the weather is like and what the sky looks like.

Mindfulness when you take a step outside doesn't have to take long, but take a moment to take in the state of things.

3. Eat in silence

If you’re in the habit of doing something else while eating lunch or breakfast, your mealtime isn’t necessarily a stress-reducing moment. Try to keep your attention on your food while you’re eating.

Take in the smells of your meal before you take a bite of it. Look at your food and take in the colors and textures. Take a bite, put the cutlery back, and taste your food. Feel the texture of your food change in your mouth as you chew.

What does every bite you take taste like?

4. Build in a moment of rest

If it is possible to start your morning with a moment of peace do so. Take time to just think for a moment. While doing so, focus on your breathing. While thinking, look out the window and hear the sounds being made outside. Like people talking as they walk past your house, or birds twittering. Take a walk and count your steps as you walk.

The science on mindfulness (MBSR).

Maybe this all seems a bit floaty, but multiple scientific studies show that mindfulness to reduce stress works.

MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction) positively affects parts of your brain that determine what you pay attention to, how you feel and how you think.

Mindfulness helps you relax. If you suffer from certain conditions, such as diabetes, arthritis, chronic pain, and cardiovascular disease, it helps people better manage their symptoms.

Scientific research conducted on 72 women diagnosed with cancer showed that the group that received mindfulness training experienced less stress and fewer post-traumatic symptoms than the group that did not receive mindfulness training to cope with the stress of the illness. An additional benefit was that they reported a better quality of life at that time than the group that did not practice mindfulness.

Mindfulness benefits not only people who are ill but also those who work in healthcare. A job in healthcare often comes with stress, and precisely because this is one of the most important roles in society, a great deal of research is being conducted to help healthcare professionals reduce stress. This can be achieved, for example, through hypnosis, but also through mindfulness. A study conducted in 2005 among healthcare workers showed that short-term stress decreased, the professionals took better care of themselves, and those who had completed an 8-week mindfulness training program also reported a higher quality of life.

A study conducted in 2001 to see if mindfulness is also useful against daily stress, for people who do not necessarily work in healthcare, shows that mindfulness had a significant effect on reducing daily psychological stress, coping with daily problems and even reduced symptoms of illness. This study involved 103 adults, 58 of whom took an 8-week mindfulness course. The results were examined three months later.

Research has also been conducted among university students to determine whether mindfulness works to reduce stress related to their studies, and this research shows that mindfulness has a significantly better effect than rational coping—in other words, rationalizing the problem. Furthermore, this study also showed that students who practiced mindfulness exhibited less avoidance or procrastination.

The scientific studies show that mindfulness is not only good for people with serious illness, mindfulness can also help you solve daily problems with less stress and experience less stress while studying. What effect this had on grades is unfortunately not known, but I assume it is better for the results that putting off homework.

Would you like to learn more about how mindfulness can improve your life? Then stop by a seminar or check out the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Sources:

http://www.webmd.com/balance/tc/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction-topic-overview

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12160-010-9168-6

http://www.ajhpcontents.org/doi/abs/10.4278/0890-1171-15.6.422

http://search.proquest.com/openview/c9934da5ab879f0af968201de66509de/1?pq-origsite=gscholar

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/str/12/2/164/