Mindfulness and Meditation: How Do They Improve Our Mental Well-being?

From the perspective of neurosciences, psychology, medicine, among others. The human mind is more trained for survival for that same reason it lives in constant alert, fear, worry and focused on the negative to fulfill its function of safeguarding life. However, this function of the mind does not contribute to human health or well-being. Since living in constant stalking causes him to lose the essential of the present moment “calm and enjoyment or pleasure” of the entire experience and he lives disconnected from himself

Living disconnected from oneself, perceiving the negative in oneself, as well as from others and the world, makes subjects in the short, medium and term tend to develop different psychological disorders such as stress, anxiety, depression, personality disorders… and also physical illnesses.

Connecting with us: meditation and mindfulness

For this reason, it is necessary for people to learn to look at themselves, so that they can undertake the most wonderful journey of self-knowledge and the restructuring of all those non-functional patterns acquired either through upbringing, education, culture, among others. Every human being in adulthood has the opportunity to heal and reinvent themselves by creating their own patterns and philosophy of life.

To be able to achieve this purpose, you must learn to train the mind through techniques such as mindfulness, which has the power to connect with the now, and meditation, which leads us to reconnect with the internal world or spiritual side Likewise, both techniques greatly influence the well-being of the mind since they provide relaxation, connectivity with the present and deep states of calm, personal development and transformation. For a better understanding of this article I want to start by defining the variables of meditation and mindfulness.

What is meditation?

Meditation is a technique created based on Buddhist concepts, its objective is spiritual growth and is closely associated with mental and physical health. From the perspective of (Seguel, 2019) meditation is a training of the mind, which consists of paying attention to breathing, as well as other physical objects, sounds, emotions, thoughts, concepts, compassion, sensation of pain, happiness. , among others.

By performing this practice, the mind calms down and encourages observation of the cause of suffering to gradually abandon the cause of suffering That is, meditation has the power to modify the perception of reality, in order to alleviate or eliminate human suffering.

Meditation has been practiced for more than 5,000 years in Eastern culture and in many places around the world. Over the last few decades, the practice of meditation has become very popular in Western culture, becoming a complementary therapeutic strategy for a diverse range of health problems, both psychological and physical.

Currently there are many studies reviewing scientific literature focused on the effects of meditation on mental health Due to its effectiveness, it is usually used in cases of depression, anxiety, panic disorder, eating disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, stress and substance abuse (Cabal et al., 2013). The main benefits of meditation are the following:

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a technique that focuses on attention to the present moment. According to (Seguel, 2019) mindfulness reaches Western culture thanks to the curiosity of Richard Davidson and Francisco Varela who unite their interest in the mind and spirituality and this is how the first book called “The benefits of meditation” was produced. Years later, the biologist Kabbat-Zinn carried out more rigorous studies about the benefits in patients who have chronic pain, which is why he created the Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) program

Therefore, Kabbat-Zinn introduced the term sati for mindfulness (which corresponds to a particular state of attention or awareness of the present moment with kindness, without judgment and with the ability to discern between what is skillful or virtuous, from what is useless or harmful), this sus has its origins in Buddhism. The results of this program were very favorable for the patients since 72% of the patients reduced their perception of pain.

This finding attracted the interest of more researchers and more benefits were discovered and it is thus reaching clinical, educational, organizational, and governmental settings. The main benefits of mindfulness are:

How do they help us with our well-being?

Mindfulness has already entered as a technique for therapeutic use since the second generation of psychological therapies and continues in the third generation with greater credibility and acceptance since there is more support and scientific evidence that proves its effectiveness in different psychological and physical problems.

The same happens with meditation, currently neuroscience provides us with neuroimaging the changes it produces in the brain both at the level of its structure and functionality There are also many studies carried out in the field of psychology and health that report optimal results in different disorders such as:

Both mindfulness and meditation provide many benefits for mental well-being.

What are the requirements to practice?

According to experts, no specific requirement is required except for interest, openness to experience, perseverance and perseverance to be able to see the results and that motivates practitioners to continue with the practice on a regular basis.

For both mindfulness and meditation, it is suggested to start the practice with the guidance of an experienced trainer and from the beginner module, thus achieving progressive training until reaching the advanced module.

These techniques can be practiced by children, adolescents, adults, older adults and pregnant women. Likewise, this practice can be done for therapeutic, strengthening and preventive purposes. Having said all this, you are cordially invited to take the online mindfulness and meditation courses. Both techniques provide many benefits for mental and physical health and well-being.

Human beings do not have the capacity to manage intrusive, negative and irrational thoughts, which are the cause of a large number of psychological and psychiatric disorders. Therefore, it is necessary and urgent for people to learn strategies or techniques such as mindfulness and meditation that will allow them to develop the ability to take control of their mind and recover mental peace, balance and therefore health and well-being. as well as develop or improve their cognitive, emotional and behavioral abilities.