Exploring the Link Between Mindfulness and Motivation
It may be that mindfulness can help you build self-motivation. As it encourages a more non-judgmental, open minded approach to life and your own thoughts, it could be just the thing to make you stop procrastinating on whatever projects you’ve been putting off. This post explores the link between mindfulness and motivation further.
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"Mindfulness is all about accepting reality without judgment," says Emma Seppälä, PhD, science director of Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. "If I don't like what's happening in the moment, frustration builds up inside me and I begin to ruminate about things that are happening or the past. If I can stay with a feeling without reinterpreting it or judging it, this helps me to become more accepting of reality."
Dr. Seppälä invites her followers on Mindful.org to take part in "mini-retreats." After a short meditation practice, people are asked to respond immediately to an image on someone else's screen (usually that person is looking at themselves while they do so). Here's how she describes this practice: "People who have tried our program at home with their family find the experience very beneficial for their relationships. Many report better communication, more ease in resolving conflicts, and a sense of being able to share more openly without fear of rejection. In general, they enjoy getting to know themselves and their family members better."
The practice can also help you cope with the annoyance of being stuck in traffic. If you become aware that you're becoming frustrated or annoyed by what's happening around you instead of by your own thoughts about what's happening or the past, it will be easier to just observe and accept it without judgment. That way you won't get overwhelmed by emotion—which will make it easier to handle whatever is going on around you.
The awareness that comes with mindfulness has also been shown to have benefits for students as well. A study by a team of researchers from the University of Illinois found that students who were taught to meditate for just five minutes a day over a week showed an increase in the thickness and density of their prefrontal cortex (a brain region involved in learning and memory). This means that being mindful helps you learn new things. And since you might be out of college by now and need to keep up with your current job, you'll probably want to find ways to be mindful as well.
"Awareness is the foundation of change," says Dr. Seppälä. "You don't have to be perfect in this practice, but you do have to be very committed to doing a little every day." Dr. Seppälä says that those five minutes can add up over time: "Just look at the extra five minutes you might spend stuck in traffic, or waiting for an appointment. It's easier to make time if it's just a few minutes every day than if you are trying to find 50 extra minutes. If you can be more aware of your negative self-talk, and learn to let it go without getting hooked on negativity, you'll feel happier and more optimistic; that way you will be motivated to excel at your job."
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Mindfulness has come to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In the end, it's different for each one of us. But for many people who practice mindfulness meditation (also known as mindfulness training), it can be a sort of therapy that helps them cope with upsetting emotions and difficult situations in their life by focusing directly on their experience at any given moment. It's almost like dance therapy – without the dance. The idea is to use meditation to focus directly on the sensation of things – both physical and emotional. By feeling each sense organ individually, you can learn how to accept things as they are, without being attached to pleasant feelings or frightened by unpleasant ones. That's the goal anyway. Some people believe that mindfulness brings them a sort of enlightenment, although others can't necessarily agree on what that means. In the end, mindfulness can give you a way to deal with upsetting emotions and difficult situations in your life by focusing directly on your experience at any given moment. It's almost like dance therapy – without the dance. The idea is to use meditation to focus directly on the sensation of things – both physical and emotional. By feeling each sense organ individually, you can learn how to accept things as they are, without being attached to pleasant feelings or frightened by unpleasant ones. That's the goal anyway. Some people believe that mindfulness brings them a sort of enlightenment, although others can't necessarily agree on what that means. In the end, mindfulness can give you a way to deal with upsetting emotions and difficult situations in your life by focusing directly on your experience at any given moment. It's almost like dance therapy – without the dance. The idea is to use meditation to focus directly on the sensation of things – both physical and emotional. By feeling each sense organ individually, you can learn how to accept things as they are, without being attached to pleasant feelings or frightened by unpleasant ones. That's the goal anyway. Some people believe that mindfulness brings them a sort of enlightenment, although others can't necessarily agree on what that means. In the end, mindfulness can give you a way to deal with upsetting emotions and difficult situations in your life by focusing directly on your experience at any given moment. It's almost like dance therapy – without the dance. The idea is to use meditation to focus directly on the sensation of things – both physical and emotional. By feeling each sense organ individually, you can learn how to accept things as they are, without being attached to pleasant feelings or frightened by unpleasant ones. That's the goal anyway. Some people believe that mindfulness brings them a sort of enlightenment, although others can't necessarily agree on what that means. In the end, mindfulness can give you a way to deal with upsetting emotions and difficult situations in your life by focusing directly on your experience at any given moment. It's almost like dance therapy – without the dance. The idea is to use meditation to focus directly on the sensation of things – both physical and emotional. By feeling each sense organ individually, you can learn how to accept things as they are, without being attached to pleasant feelings or frightened by unpleasant ones. That's the goal anyway. Some people believe that mindfulness brings them a sort of enlightenment, although others can't necessarily agree on what that means. In the end, mindfulness can give you a way to deal with upsetting emotions and difficult situations in your life by focusing directly on your experience at any given moment. It's almost like dance therapy – without the dance. The idea is to use meditation to focus directly on the sensation of things – both physical and emotional.
Conclusion
The Benefits of Mindfulness are clear. You can reduce stress, increase concentration and enjoyment of daily life, slow aging, improve your immune system, help you cope with depression and anxiety, etc. With all these benefits it is no wonder that people are looking for ways to practice mindfulness. The good thing is you don't need a lot of time to do it! You can start out with five minutes a day! Mindfulness is about being more aware while watching your thoughts go by without identifying with them or judging them. So if you want to be more productive and less stressed out – check it out!!
This article was originally published on www.lifehack.org
Image credit: pngtree / FreeDigitalPhotos.