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Mindfulness (Mental Health Awareness Month)
audienta May 18th

Hello everyone,

As you might have seen from this month's check-in or other posts in the forum, we're currently celebrating Mental Health Awareness Month. You can find out more about it here.

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Today, we will talk about mindfulness! First, I'll summarise what science has found out about the effects of mindfulness and then, I'll present a method I find helpful to you.
The Effects of Mindfulness
I've reviewed three reviews of studies regarding the effectiveness of mindfulness which I'll link at the end of the post. 

Studies have found that mindfulness does correlate with the psychological well-being of the people who exercise it and it can reduce psychological symptoms and distress. It can do that by changing someone's attention which then can help with emotional regulation.

Researchers have also found that mindfulness-based interventions can help with disorders such as anxiety, depression, or addiction, however, I also want to mention, that it's not that clear if it helps with disorders like ASD/ADHS, eating disorders, or PTBS. Regarding PTBS, it was written that some studies do show that mindfulness exercises can help people with PTBS but the quality of the studies isn't that great.

But as it doesn't seem to hurt anyone and has the potential to help, I'll still continue to show you an exercise I like.
The S.T.O.P. Method
For me, some mindfulness exercises such as meditation can be very hard to do as I often feel as if it makes me feel my tension even more. Even though that's not the case for everyone, I know that I'm not alone with this experience. Therefore, I'll show you a method that I think is helpful and easy to do.

I'm speaking of the S.T.O.P. method. S.T.O.P. stands for stop, take a breath, observe and proceed. This method can help you to ground yourself and calm down.

Let's have a look at each step.
  1. Stop: Pause what you're doing and thinking for a moment.
  2. Take a breath: Breathe in and out consciously, be aware of what sensations you can feel from breathing.
  3. Observe: Observe how your body feels like and focus on all your senses - what do you see, hear, taste, smell, and physically feel? Then, observe what you feel emotionally. And lastly, observe your thoughts.
  4. Proceed: Proceed with what you've been doing and if you've learned something while observing, incorporate it into what you're doing. 

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Questions for you

1. Have you ever tried to use mindfulness as a tool? What were your experiences?

2. What is your favourite mindfulness exercise?

3. If you want to, try the S.T.O.P. method and tell us how it made you feel. 

I hope, that this could be helpful to someone. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Take care,

audienta

Sources

Intro: 

https://www.samhsa.gov/mental-health-awareness-month/toolkit

The Effects of Mindfulness:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027273581100081X

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-12098-001

https://academic.oup.com/bmb/article/138/1/41/6244773

The S.T.O.P. Method:

https://x.com/CDOPsychosocial/status/1242709216831266819/photo/1

https://psychcentral.com/health/4-quick-mindfulness-techniques#how-to-practice

4
Tinywhisper11 May 18th

@audienta thankyou for this post ❤ the stop method I will definitely give a try. I have lately been trying to focus on breathing exercises when I'm not in a good place. But normally my mindfulness is a bit different, I like to watch the sunrise listen to the birds, art, and relaxing music and lights time. Which still is technically mindfulness I think ❤❤

1 reply
audienta OP May 22nd

@Tinywhisper11

This absolutely is mindfulness in my opinion! I think the exercises should help us to start being more mindful about all our experiences. 

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PeacePink May 18th

@audienta

My favorite mindfulness exercise is breathing slowly and focusing on my breath; it helps me focus my mind and in the moment versus the busy-iness that I'm used to from day to day. It helps me concentrate and make me more resilient to stress and handle challenges from day to day. Mindful breathing is very simple, but incredibly effective, and I've had a good experience using it.

1 reply
audienta OP May 22nd

@PeacePink

I'm glad to hear that you've had a good experience using breathing exercises!

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