Mindfulness a new buzz therapy but what is it and does it work?

Well if you look at Wikipedia they say this

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is psychological therapy which blends features of cognitive therapy with mindfulness techniques of Buddhism. MBCT involves accepting thoughts and feelings without judgement rather than trying to push them out of consciousness, with a goal of correcting cognitive distortions...

The aim of MBCT is not directly to relaxation or happiness in themselves, but rather, a "freedom from the tendency to get drawn into automatic reactions to thoughts, feelings, and events".^[4]...

The aim of the program is to enhance awareness so clients are able to respond to things instead of react to them.^[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness-based_cognitive_therapy

And also this

Mindfulness refers to a psychological quality that involves

bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis,^[1]

or involves

paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally,^[1]

or involves

a kind of nonelaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is^[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness_(psychology)

Or this from an article on pubmed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3247069/?tool=pubmed It teaches people to have a different relationship to depressive thoughts and feelings. Strategies are focused on decreasing rumination, enhancing self-compassion, increasing acceptance and decreasing avoidance

However these don’t really explain a great deal so you might want to check this website out. http://www.spirituscounseling.com/mindfulness-and-depression.html for a more in-depth look at mindfulness as well as a sample exercise.

So what is it?

Well one way to look at this is that it’s about freeing yourself from your mind, giving yourself the freedom to feel everything within you without judgement and being dictated to by your mind dictate. The exercise will lead you through releasing you emotions and letting them wash over you/through you by concentrating on the moment, on how you feel physically and mentally so that you can then choose what to do.

However the biggest problem I see is in allowing yourself to step away from your judging chattering mind, from your bad habits that have trapped you in the first place, which for some is extremely difficult and you may not be able to achieve from the exercises alone.

So does Mindfulness work?

Well according to this website for mindfulness courses http://www.bemindfulonline.com/the-benefits/

Yes for a good proportion it does

Please note that I am not advocating this course as I have not taken it nor anything like it. It is merely that this site offers customer feedback from their course.

However if you go to this website http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/crdweb/ShowRecord.asp?LinkFrom=OAI&ID=12007007418 They have this to say

Evidence suggested that for patients with three or more previous depressive episodes, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy had an additive benefit to usual care. However, because of the nature of the control groups, the findings could not be attributed to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy-specific effects. Further research was necessary to clarify whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy produced any specific effects

So be careful it may not work for people with more severe problems.

So will it work for you?

Well it may, however I would suggest talking to a trained professional about what would be the best therapy for you before you embark on any as it is likely that you have underestimated your own problems. I say this because would someone who hasn’t got a chronic problem be looking into therapy?

At the very least I would talk it through with someone who knows you because if nothing else they may be able to highlight something you’ve not thought about.

But I’d ask myself these questions?

·         Do you know how you feel?

Because you will need to be able to feel your feelings and if you can’t describe them then there’s a good chance that you won’t let yourself feel them

·         Can you describe the variety of emotions you have when you are unsettled?

You may find that generally you’ll be able to describe them but when you become upset you can’t and again this might indicate that you won’t let yourself feel the hard things you need to for this to work

·         How impulsive is your behaviour?

If you go 0-60 with your emotions very quickly then you may not be able to find the time to implement the exercises that will allow you the space to change you behaviour.

·         How scared are you generally? Prohibitively so?

Think about how often you freeze and walk away, or don’t do something and ask yourself could you find somewhere safe to do the exercise.

·         How judgemental of yourself or others are you?

Think about how often you tell yourself that you’re useless, or weak, or pathetic and consider if you could stop doing that because you’ll need to. If it’s just difficult then this may be for you but if not you might want to think again.

Be honest with yourself, talk it over with someone, and then if it still appeals go for it, because the only way to find out if it will work for you is to try it.