Mindfulness 2025
“Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.” Sylvia Boorstein
This week’s discussion is around mindfulness and how this can assist with your life, both professionally and personally. Mindfulness is the process of “paying attention” or regulating our attention, in order not to be side tracked and/or hijacked by our thoughts.
A book written by Associate Professor Craig Hassed and Dr Stephen McKenzie “Mindfulness for life” highlights the value of this. It is useful for both treatment and prevention for mental health and wellbeing as well as managing stress. I had the pleasure of witnessing Assoc Prof Hassed at a conference approximately two years ago, in which he advised that at Monash University all health students (including medicine) had to do a semester of mindfulness. That is how much the university values this amazing tool. As a side note, I have both the original publication of the book and the revised edition. It is one of my most used books and I highly recommend.
I have realised over the years that many artistic endeavours have an element of mindfulness. Whether gardening, painting, drawing, metal work or mosaics – these activities can turn down the noisiness of the mind, in which we can then work for a longer period.
Learning mindfulness skills are important, as we all have 50 to 60 thousand of thoughts and ideas each day. I did the math and that equates roughly to 34 to 40 thoughts each second! No wonder our brains are tired and overworked some days.
When stressed, mindfulness of breath is the only way we can change what is happening internally in our body. When stressed, our heart rate increases in order to activate the flight/flight response. Cortisol levels rise and attention is heightened whilst the mind and body work out the danger. Mindful breathing can help turn off these automatic responses whilst it lets the mind and the body know that all is safe.
Mindfulness is an activity that does not require too many tools and can be performed almost everywhere without disrupting your day. It requires 30 minutes of activity each day and what I really enjoy about it; it’s not like exercise. Each small block can add up over the course of the day. Like any new activity, we need to practice in order to bring it out when needed.