Mindfulness results in less emotional reactivity
Mindfulness meditation has also been shown to reduce emotional reactivity, according to research. Researchers discovered that mindfulness meditation practise helped people disengage from emotionally upsetting pictures and enable them to focus better on a cognitive task when compared to people who saw the pictures but did not meditate in a study of people who had anywhere from one month to 29 years of mindfulness meditation practise (McCown, Reibel & Micozzi, 2010).
Mindfulness reduces rumination.
For example, in a study 20 beginning meditators were requested to take part in a 10-day intensive mindfulness meditation retreat. When compared to a control group, the meditation group had considerably higher self-reported mindfulness and lower negative affect after the retreat. They also had fewer depression symptoms and did not ruminate as much. In addition, as compared to the control group, the meditators exhibited much superior working memory capacity and were better able to maintain attention during a performance test (McCown, Reibel & Micozzi, 2010).
Mindfulness helps bring focus
Another study looked at how mindfulness meditation affected people's capacity to concentrate and ignore distracting information. The researchers compared a group of experienced mindfulness meditators to a group of people who had never meditated before. They discovered that the meditation group performed much better on all attention tests and had higher self-reported mindfulness. Self-reported mindfulness and mindfulness meditation practise were found to be directly linked to cognitive flexibility and attentional performance (McCown, Reibel & Micozzi, 2010).
Mindfulness works to boost memory
Working memory enhancements appear to be another benefit of mindfulness, according to study. For example, documented the effects of mindfulness meditation in a military group that completed an eight-week mindfulness program, a non-meditating military group, and a group of non-meditating civilians in a 2010 study. Prior to deployment, both military groups were under a lot of stress. The researchers discovered that non-meditating military personnel had decreasing working memory capacity over time, whereas non-meditating civilians' working memory capacity remained stable. However, meditation practise boosted working memory capacity in the meditating military group. Meditation practise was also found to be directly linked to self-reported happy affect and inversely linked to self-reported negative affect (McCown, Reibel & Micozzi, 2010).
Mindfulness increases relationship satisfaction
A person's ability to be aware can assist predict relationship happiness as the ability to respond appropriately to relationship stress and the skill in articulating one's emotions to a partner, according to several studies. Mindfulness appears to protect against the emotionally stressful effects of relationship conflict, is positively associated with the ability to express oneself in various social situations, and predicts relationship satisfaction, according to empirical evidence (McCown, Reibel & Micozzi, 2010).
Mindfulness can help incline cognitive functions and flexibility
Mindfulness meditation can help people become more cognitively flexible in addition to helping them become less reactive. People who practise mindfulness meditation tend to develop the capacity of self-observation, which neurologically disengages the automatic pathways built by earlier learning and allows present-moment input to be processed in a new way. Meditation also activates the part of the brain linked to better adaptive reactions to stressful or unfavourable situations. After being negatively provoked, activation of this area is linked to a speedier return to baseline. Mindfulness can increase mental clarity and focus. Short-term and autobiographical memory, cognitive flexibility, and meta-awareness (e.g. self-awareness) are all important skill sets that allow people to become aware of negative thought patterns and learn alternative ways of thinking and responding to situations (McCown, Reibel & Micozzi, 2010).
How to Practice Mindfulness
Basic Breath Meditation
