"The Connection Between Mindfulness and Stress Reduction"

Learning mindfulness through stress reduction therapies like MBSR involving meditation and yoga to get rid of stress and anxiety from your life completely.

In a world, bombarded with flashy, fast-paced images, consumerism, and feel-good narratives, the relationship between meditation, stress, and anxiety remains underrated and undervalued. Instead, finding ways to pause, close our eyes, and take a breather now and then is seen as a form of weakness. You snooze, you lose…such slogans destroy the mindfulness journey for many individuals.

Living in the serene mountains, surrounded by snow-covered peaks, and where time slows down for its tenants, I have learned the true meaning of using mindfulness for stress reduction. It is not just a psychological trick, it is the art of living. Mindfulness is a lifestyle that once adopted can bring benefits to you and to those who surround you. You may feel out of place for a moment because you live in a society that revels in being the fastest, swiftest. But as you find your own, you will find that mindfulness is reducing your stress, opening your mind, and opening the world to you.

Mindfulness for stress reduction

Therapists advise mindful strategies for patients with stress and anxiety. It is the best tool for anxiety and stress reduction. When you decide to slow down your life, the stressors become less stealthy as well. The anxiety and panic attacks are less forceful because they have less material to grab onto the tethers of your mind. With fewer worries on your brain, your neurons fire less, and your dopamine requests for feel-good shots decrease over time. Instead of yearning to reach the top all the time, life becomes a walk through the Alps as you take in the life surrounding you. This reduction of living from goal to goal and from achievement to achievement exercises your brain to just be. It trains your brain to achieve and then stay in a state of calm and zen.

Mindfulness based stress reduction therapy (MBSR)

MBSR therapy is a mindfulness based stress management technique which is a kind of meditation therapy. It requires no medicine and has become quite famous for reducing many mental issues like depression, chronic anxiety, and even physical ailments such as diabetes, cancer, and immune function disorders. To understand this technique, we need to understand what is stress. Stress is the failure of an individual to overcome negative outcomes and failures, real or imagined. Exhaustion, irritability, resistance to change, increased heart rates, and migraines or headaches are symptoms of chronic stress disorder in an individual. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn formulated the MBSR technique, in which he introduced meditation with mindfulness for stress and anxiety. 

Mindfulness Meditation And Yoga: MBSR Techniques

MBSR is the ultimate tool that combines two powerful techniques mindful meditation and yoga. It is a unique program involving mindfulness for stress and anxiety. The focus of this program is to reconnect with your inner wisdom and deep understanding that we all carry within us.

Technique 1: Meditation

Mindfulness meditation involves relaxing and becoming aware of one’s surroundings, then becoming aware of one’s body and extremities. The feeling creeps into the beating of one’s heart and finally, the feelings that one feels. In that calm and quiet zone that you create, can you feel your mind telling you your deepest thoughts? Can you feel the sensations of a cool breeze on your face? Can you hear the birds chirping or the river flowing beside your home?

Technique 2: Yoga

As you come into your own self and mindful state, you will realize how it feels to become in a state of zen. You will sleep a bit more soundly after the yoga postures of posterity and calmness. Yoga will stretch your muscles and the corners of your brain to reduce stress and induce the relaxed state you desire. Keep doing it every day and learn the highest state of mindfulness for stress reduction.

8 Mindful Steps To Happiness

Bhante Henepola in his book "8 Mindful Steps to Happiness," talks about Buddha's eight steps for ending one's suffering and pain. The book shares the teachings of Buddha that showed us how to overcome anger, form a peaceful relationship with elders and people, and share tools that help us overcome our mental barriers. One should read more books on the journey to self-discovery as well.

Walking The Buddha's Path

The Buddha shares a story of a man who wanted to cover every part of the earth with leather so humans could walk more easily. But perhaps having leather sandals was a better, more robust solution. Similarly, buddha teaches us mindfulness based stress management through his 8 steps. He says that we need to make our inner selves stronger rather than focusing on the irritants around us. Here are the eight steps to achieve mindfulness and tranquility within oneself:

• Understanding
• Thinking
• Speaking
• Activity
• Skillful livelihood
• Efforts
• Mindfulness, and
• Skillful focus

One needs to gain insight and awareness to achieve this mindful state. We have to focus more on the inner body and self rather than the problems around us.

Does Mindfulness Reduce Stress?

To answer your question, I have a story to tell. A man walks down a path and sees shards of glass, he picks one to remove it from others' path but gets cut instead. He repeats the same for every shard he finds on his pathway. After enough time he is unable to pick shards because of so many cuts and the pain it brings. Did he help others? Partially. Did he benefit himself? Not at all. He caused himself deep stress, pain, and anxiety.

The magic solution is mindfulness for stress and anxiety only. Because if he would stop and think a little, he would understand not to cause any danger to himself. But he wants to help others and he could do that by warning others and picking up shards with a glove. Mindfulness meditation and yoga work in a similar fashion.

Knowing yourself, your limits and your potential is the only way to live in today's world. Carrying around baggage or roaming too light to care enough are mindless actions that do not carry weight now. Learn mindfulness and create happiness amongst yourself and those around you!

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