How can mindfulness promote your health and wellness?

by johnwilliamsphd

Question by Stargazer Universe on "Mindfulness":

I know it is good for your mental health but what about physically?

Best Answer:

Answer by Kelsey
The biggest effect that practicing a mindful lifestyle will have on your health is lowering stress levels. Stress is related to so many physical conditions, including one of the biggest... hypertension. By being mindful the amount stress in your life is decreased (because you're not thinking about work when you're with your kids, for example). When you are stressed, your body releases hormones that raise BP, increase heart rate and impair the immune system. Being mindful during meals will help you to eat less, which in turn will maintain you at a healthy weight. Also, being mindful of your body in general gives you an overall sense of what's going on in your body. Some of us don't listen to what our bodies tell us. if you are truly mindful and in touch with your body, you will pick up on tiny things that just don't seem normal. This can lead to early recognition and correction of disease.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

MINDFULNESS reveals a set of simple yet powerful practices that can be incorporated into daily life to help break the cycle of anxiety, stress, unhappiness, and exhaustion. It promotes the kind of happiness and peace that gets into your bones. It seeps into everything you do and helps you meet the worst that life throws at you with new courage.

The book is based on Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). MBCT revolves around a straightforward form of mindfulness meditation which takes just a few minutes a day for the full benefits to be revealed. MBCT has been clinically proven to be at least as effective as drugs for depression and is widely recommended by US physicians and the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence - in other words, it works. More importantly it also works for people who are not depressed but who are struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the modern world.

MBCT was developed by the book's author, Oxford professor Mark Williams, and his colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and Toronto. By investing just 10 to 20 minutes each day, you can learn the simple mindfulness meditations at the heart of MBCT and fully reap their benefits. The book includes links to audio mediations to help guide you through the process. You'll be surprised by how quickly these techniques will have you enjoying life again.

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