The benefits of mindfulness are many and varied comprising mental, emotional and physical elements. There is a growing body of evidence that mindfulness can lead to:
- Improving the immune system
- Enhancing resistance to depression
- Lowering the risk of heart disease
- Enhancing well-being
- Helping to manage feelings and to be able to take charge
- Improving resilience – the ability to cope with the ups and downs of life
- Bringing us off ‘auto-pilot’ and enabling us to take more control of our life
- Helping to focus on the ‘here and now’
- Helping to develop the ability to make choices rather than slipping back into old, and maybe unhelpful, patterns
- Helping to develop a kinder and more gentle attitude to the self
- Developing equanimity and the ability to be calm whatever the circumstances
- Developing the ability to make clear decisions (from a place of repose)
- Developing insight as someone becomes more aware of the relations between feeling, thinking and doing