How to Start Using Mindfulness Against Stress?

We live in a frenetic society, which has acquired its own rhythm, which is always in a hurry, which always has something to do. Nowadays, “not doing” means not being productive, not being up to date, not taking advantage of time, in short “not being.”

The feeling that this lifestyle produces is that of having to be continually busy, connected; It keeps us alert, a mechanism related to stress responses.

However, it is true that stress is necessary for the survival of the species but in the long term, when stress is maintained over time, elevated levels of cortisol (a hormone related to stress) have detrimental effects on health.

Therefore, stress is, without a doubt, one of the great problems of society and affects an increasing number of people at certain times in life. And the consequences are clear, more and more people suffer from ailments such as depression, anxiety and psychosomatic illnesses, all of which are associated with high levels of stress.

The keys to Mindfulness as a tool against stress

But… What underlies the activation of stress mechanisms? Closely related to stress is our ability to recognize and manage our mental activity.

Our mind is in constant dialogue, ruminating, going to the past and anticipating the future, planning, etc. Therefore, it is important that we learn to recognize what thoughts come to our mind, and what feelings are associated with these thoughts.

The Mindfulness philosophy works from this perspective which is based on learning to become aware, to focus our attention on what we want and thus enjoy a full experience, without being absorbed in other thoughts.

For some years now, Mindfulness has been installed in our lives as a formula to learn to enjoy life fully. But… where does this idea come from?

Foundations in an ancient tradition

Mindfulness is a word of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a term used to translate the word “pali sati” which denotes awareness, attention, memory. This full attention is combined with meditation techniques that have to do with the Buddhist tradition

We can say that Mindfulness is a quality of the mind, or an ability to be aware in the present moment. The practice of Mindfulness invites us to value life from a new perspective, that of seeing clearly what is happening in the “here and now”.

John Kabat-Zinn provides a definition of Mindfulness that characterizes it as “intentionally paying attention to the present moment, without judging.”

The practice of Mindfulness is having very good results in the field of psychiatry and clinical psychology And it is no wonder, since the benefits can become noticeable from the first practice.

How to start practicing?

To start practicing Mindfulness we can do it with informal meditations and then move on to formal practice. Informal meditation is what we do when we are paying full attention to certain automatic activities, that is, what we do without realizing it or, as they say, with “autopilot” on.

These are activities that are generally neither pleasant nor unpleasant and that we have turned into habits: showering, walking from one place to another, brushing our teeth, driving, locking the door before leaving…

The proposal from the informal practice of full consciousness is that we choose an activity or habit that we usually do automatically and do it with full awareness To carry out formal practices or meditations it is necessary to have an adequate place and time, since full consciousness is a quality of the mind, but it requires training and for this daily practice is necessary.