Sadness is an emotion as human and natural as any other ; However, this does not mean that it is completely harmless.
And if it becomes excessively intense or lasts too long over time, this emotional phenomenon has a great capacity to erode our mental health.
However, although it is a painful experience, it can help us overcome situations in which we have become stuck. But sometimes, we get used to managing sadness in a dysfunctional way, so that not only does it not help us improve, but it also becomes part of the problem.
Luckily, there are currently effective therapeutic resources to overcome cases like this. Here We will talk about how Mindfulness will help overcome states of psychological discomfort
Mindfulness (in Spanish, also known as Full Attention) is a set of attention management practices inspired by Vipassana meditation an ancient tradition originating in South Asia and related to the religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
This concept was initially developed primarily by researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn, who in the late 1970s created, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a Mindfulness program designed to help people reduce stress. and anxiety about chronic pain.
Thus, Mindfulness is inspired by meditation but renouncing the mystical and religious content that this practice has traditionally had; In this case, the priority is to achieve objective changes and improvements in the person’s quality of life, and specifically, in their regulation of emotional management.
Over the years, much research has been carried out (currently there are more than 1,500 scientific articles) about the effects that Mindfulness has on people, and it has been seen that its benefits go beyond the mitigation of stress and anxiety. This, together with the simplicity of many of these exercises, has led to Mindfulness techniques being widely used in psychotherapy, in psychological intervention in teams and companies, and even in the educational context because even boys and girls can practice Mindfulness with adequate supervision.
How does Mindfulness work against excess sadness?
Sadness is often a consequence of a vicious cycle of negative thoughts. When we feel bad, we are more inclined to focus our attention on everything that is negative for us. feeding a tragic narrative about our lives and interpreting reality and our own memories from that prism of pessimism.
In other words, sometimes we wallow in sadness, feeding it without realizing it, since this way of seeing things provides a clear and univocal meaning about experiences to which we want to give an explanation because they affect us a lot. This is an emotionally painful interpretation of the facts, but at least it is an interpretation.
And since this way of associating thoughts and memories with a very intense emotion touches us very closely, it is easy for everything that happens around us to remind us that we feel bad, and that (supposedly) we have reasons to feel that bad. So, The contents of our memory reinforce a pessimistic interpretation of the present, and vice versa
Mindfulness helps break this vicious cycle of thoughts that reinforce low moods. The exercises it proposes are based on focusing attention on the here and now without prejudging and without granting moral characteristics to those experiences: in Mindfulness, we accept the mental states that emerge in our consciousness, and we observe them in their appearance, their development. and their fading away leaving just as they came.
Thus, putting the focus on the present It allows us to stop obsessing over pasts interpreted in a biased way and futures that only exist in our heads as a result of our discomfort.
In short, Mindfulness provides practical exercises with a common element: acceptance, focusing attention on the present and on your thoughts and sensations, and refusing to try to completely eliminate discomfort, so that we do not give it more importance than that you have and weaken by not overreacting to it.
Are you interested in having professional psychological assistance?
In the middle Eli Fisas, located in Irún, we offer training in Mindfulness, support in the field of coaching, and intervention through systemic family therapy and couples therapy. We also offer the possibility of holding online sessions by video call.
