It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that we dedicate a space to Mindfulness or the Full Attention technique; And it is that this practice is very useful to improve emotional management and it is being shown that it brings us benefits and advantages for our physical and emotional health.
Better control and emotional management
The fundamental characteristic and why many people begin to incorporate the practice of Mindfulness in their day to day life is that it provides the person with a better and greater management of emotions. That is, it helps to identify the emotion, accept it, cradle it and learn to manage it correctly.
Thus, over time the person begins to own their emotions and the opposite does not happen and unfortunately so usual, that the emotions come to overwhelm the person.
This could be demonstrated in the study, among others, by Ortner, a researcher at the University of Toronto, who concluded that people who practice Full Attention and Mindfulness in their day-to-day activities have greater self-control compared to people who do not practice Mindfulness.
Improved ability to concentrate
Being able to bring our attention to what is happening “here and now” and bring it to the present moment is another goal that people set for themselves and finally learn with the continuous and habitual practice of Mindfulness.
After some time after becoming familiar with Mindfulness and once the person gradually incorporates awareness training, mindfulness, meditation, they are able to do it with some ease and manage to voluntarily direct these mental processes, their ability to concentrate increases and it is possible to reduce the person falling into forgetfulness and distractions that are not useful in our day to day life, if you want to know more details about this, you can look for the bibliography on Walsh and Shapiro, experts in the field.
This fact has led experts to advise this practice as a complementary therapy in disorders related to attention deficit.
Improved memory capacity
Therefore, if the ability to concentrate increases as I just explained to you, so does the memory capacity. In this way, if the person manages to abstract from distractions and be really focused, their memory will also work better.
Most of the studies that have addressed this variable conclude that with the practice of Mindfulness, a significant increase in the volume of the gray matter of our brain is perceived. They also conclude that there is an increase in the size of the hippocampus and the cerebral cortex, brain areas that have to do with memory and learning.
Increased relaxation
And what is it also used for? It has been proven that doing Mindfulness brings calm, it is a practice that fills us with tranquility, relaxes body and mind and people who practice it regularly report that it brings them a lot of serenity and a feeling of well-being.
Insomnia reduction
People who practice Mindfulness sleep more and better. But how does it help us? You will ask yourself.
Because a state of calm and an increase in relaxation is reached, as we have said before, and this implies that the person feels calmer and without certain worries in his head that steal time.
And it is that one of the main causes that people who suffer from insomnia report in the consultations of the family doctor and other professionals is that once they lie down in bed, their head begins to work and to think about things, managing to wake up and that insomnia is established and the ground does not arrive.
In relation to this, I would like to quote Holly Roy, author of a study she carried out on this, who points out: “People who practice mindfulness on a daily basis show better control over emotions and behaviors during the day. On the other hand, these people show a low level of cortical activation at night, which helps them sleep better.”
Protects against stress and anxiety
Mindfulness generates such a breeding ground in the person: calm, tranquility, serenity… that manages to protect the person who practices it from stress and anxiety.
Lowers blood levels of cortisol and lowers blood pressure
Do you know what cortisol is? Cortisol is a hormone that we secrete when we are subjected to certain levels of stress and anxiety, stress appears as a response to these situations, therefore, when anxiety decreases, cortisol is also significantly reduced. Several studies prove it.
The same thing that happens with cortisol, happens with blood pressure, that is, blood pressure remains high in people who are regularly suffering from stress and anxiety. Therefore, when this is reduced, blood pressure also falls.
Encourage moments of creativity
When a person who has the strength of Creativity in balance or in harmony and practicing it, for example, at work, leads him/her to enter a state of Flow, suffer from stress and have high levels of anxiety, it will cause him to become blocked and that creativity does not flourish. This is why Mindfulness also helps here. The Institute of the Brain and Cognition of the University of Leiden showed that in people who habitually did Mindfulness, their creativity increased.
Promotes self-knowledge
When we practice Mindfulness we connect with our own thoughts, we delve into what I feel and what I think. Carrying it out on a regular basis helps the person to get to know each other better and grow their self-knowledge.
