Are you really too busy to be mindful? - Telegraph

Are you really too busy to be mindful?
 'Not only are the benefits of mindfulness obvious, the approach is also easy to learn'
'Not only are the benefits of mindfulness obvious, the approach is also easy to learn'

 Linda Blair
10 MAY 2018 • 11:00AM
We often think our lives are too busy to be mindful – but there are good reasons why you should make time.

Since the early 1980s, when Jon Kabat-Zinn demonstrated its relieving properties for patients who endure severe chronic pain, mindfulness – a discipline that helps you achieve intentional, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment – has been applied in a vast range of settings.

Mark Williams and colleagues at Cambridge taught patients suffering from recurring bouts of depression to use MBCT (short for “Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression”), and found their chance of relapse was significantly reduced.

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Paul Grossman at the Freiburg Institute for Mindfulness Research reviewed the literature and concluded that mindfulness can help relieve symptoms across a wide range of health problems, both mental and physiological.

Sarah Bowen at the University of Washington used mindfulness to help prevent relapse in adults recovering from substance abuse. It has also been shown to help parents with autistic children cope more adaptively with their child’s challenging behaviour.

Even Martin Seligman, who, in his latest book The Hope Circuit, argues that the key to happiness is all about having an optimistic view of the future, rather than focusing on the present, would have to accept that it’s impossible to be realistically optimistic about what lies ahead until you first take a calm, non-judgmental look at what’s happening right now.

Not only are the benefits of mindfulness obvious, the approach is also easy to learn. There will almost certainly be a mindfulness course on offer near your home or workplace. In the rare circumstances where this isn’t the case, there’s always Mark Williams and Danny Penman’s excellent book, Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World; or my own, The Key to Calm.

It’s much better instead to think of mindfulness as a way of being; a way of doing what you already do
Why, then do so many of us believe it’s difficult to find time to be mindful? The reason is that too many practitioners teach it as a separate entity, as something you need to set aside special times to practice, an additional activity you have to fit into your already packed day. Most people, quite rightly, find this off-putting.

It’s much better instead to think of mindfulness as a way of being; a way of doing what you already do, but with focus and curious, open-minded, non-judgmental awareness. You can make that happen simply by starting each day feeling calm and balanced.

As soon as you wake, sit up in bed and begin by taking breath in through your nose slowly and evenly. Hold it for as long as you comfortably can, then exhale slowly and evenly through your nose. Do 10 of these mindful breaths, concentrating fully on your breathing throughout.

This will only take two minutes. Yet by starting your day like this, later on you’ll find it easy to become aware whenever negative thoughts or anxious feelings start to sabotage your inner calm. You can then rebalance by taking another 10 mindful breaths.

Once mindful breathing becomes an ingrained habit, you can use it anytime and anywhere. Then you really can live the life you want – only better.

Linda Blair is a clinical psychologist and author of Siblings: How to Handle Rivalry and Create Lifelong Loving Bonds. To order for £10.99, call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk