The power of mindfulness and meditation: How to reduce stress and increase focus

Mindfulness can help students focus and reduce stress, and help create new neuronal pathways in the brain. As an advocate of meditation, I use mindfulness because it is relaxing and the benefits are extremely rewarding. Read below to discover the history of mindfulness and how you can practice it today.

What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness originated in Buddhism, and the 2,500-year-old tradition is part of a much wider set of beliefs and behaviors. Some of these behaviors and beliefs are referred to as a psychological process or as a skill developed over time. Mindfulness has been studied at Penn State for years and it has been turning heads outside of the University with programs and workshops. Meditation is a large portion of the practice, if not the only practice.

What does mindfulness entail? Well, if you are constantly aware of your surroundings, you are practicing mindfulness to some degree. Awareness may be one of the most important aspects of mindfulness. This may be because awareness uses your brain in ways that require order and logical thought. Emotions, such as anger, can be extreme only when you sink back into your thoughts, or if you go forward, such as thinking about the future. Awareness helps one to be fully immersed in any moment.

Let?s see how this can help with our brain, emotions, and stress.

Mindfulness is being aware of each moment that passes, while being fully present of our thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and surrounding environment. Meditation is used as a mindfulness technique to help us achieve this optimal state of awareness, which can help you improve concentration and reduce stress.

Mindfulness also incorporates acceptance into everyday situations. This means that we do not judge our thoughts or feelings ? we allow them fully. For example, instead of thinking that our emotions or thoughts need to be put into a category of right or wrong, practicing mindfulness allows us to accept how we feel in any given moment and allow ourselves a sense of freedom. We also are tuned into the present, so we aren?t focusing on the past, or imagining the future. As I mentioned earlier, this can help with stabilizing our emotions, such as intense anger, fear, or sadness.