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Mindfulness, or the quality of being fully present and engaged with whatever you’re currently doing, can improve your wellbeing and mental state in numerous ways. Mindfulness helps reduce stress, decrease blood pressure, improve sleep, boost memory, and alleviate anxiety.
Techniques vary, but all are rooted in meditation. The goal of any mindfulness practice is to become more present by noticing your emotions and reducing your reaction to outside stressors. By noticing emotions and situations, and accepting them — rather than pushing them away or anxiously avoiding them — you’ll find it easier to clear your mind of distractions. And a less preoccupied mind can help you improve your focus and mental health.
Though mindfulness practice has been growing in popularity in the U.S. since the early 90s, its current ubiquity stems from our fast-paced, digital lifestyles, wherein enervating multitasking has become the norm. At all times, we’re under pressure to stay connected for work and school, and everything from the 24-hour news cycle to our daily commutes can cause an immune- and mental-health-damaging flight-or-flight response.
Mindfulness practice has garnered attention as a tool to help alleviate stress and anxiety, helping individuals more easily balance the demands of work, school, and family life.
According to the Mayo Clinic, mindfulness works to reduce stress and anxiety chiefly by directing attention to the present moment and away from draining, damaging negative thoughts of the future. Even mental activities, like planning, which are part of our daily lives, can cause stress and anxiety if they take up major real estate in our thoughts.
In addition to reducing overall stress and anxiety, mindfulness can help improve cognitive flexibility. According to studies conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA), participants who engaged in mindfulness exercises were less likely to be distracted and better able to suppress distracting information. In another study, the APA found participants who practiced mindfulness also demonstrated increased cognitive flexibility:
“One study found that people who practice mindfulness meditation appear to develop the skill of self-observation, which neurologically disengages the automatic pathways that were created by prior learning and enables present-moment input to be integrated in a new way.” – American Psychological Association
The same study found that participants were better able to return to “baseline” after a provoking or stressful event — that is, they were less likely to be thrown off task, give in to rumination, or be distracted by negative encounters than individuals who did not engage in mindfulness practices.
There is a wide variety of simple mindfulness techniques to choose from that can help boost your focus, decrease your stress levels, and bring an increased sense of calm to your daily life. These exercises easily fit into your daily life and are accessible to anyone looking to improve their mental and emotional wellbeing.
Daily meditation or mindfulness practice has been shown to increase psychological well being, as well as to improve focus and clarity, and even two to 10 minutes a day can help. Wherever you are in your mindfulness journey, try incorporating a few of the above techniques to improve your study habits, calm your mind, and decrease stress and anxiety.