What is Mindfulness
Meditation?
A mindfulness-based approach is not a
course in relaxation training or mood management in the
traditional sense. Rather it is an approach that is grounded
in a strong belief that the best way for people to enhance
their well-being in a lasting way is to begin to relate to
their stress and emotional distress, and the conditions of
their lives, in a different way.
It includes:
-
purposely cultivating a frame of mind
that is different from that which we normally inhabit.
-
learning to disengage from the
automatic and habitual reaction patterns that worsen our
negative emotions and lead us to feeling overwhelmed and
out of control.
-
learning a skill for shifting out of
negative patterns of worry and preoccupation.
The result is:
-
a sense of empowerment to face and
work more skilfully with the conditions of our lives.
-
the ability to let go of the
uncontrollable, allowing us to act on aspects of our
situation that can be worked with.
-
the ability to connect with our own
capacity for acceptance, courage, wisdom and strength as
we navigate our lives.
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