Meditation is the practice and process of training your attention/awareness on something specific. Mindfulness is a form of meditation and involves bringing awareness to what one is feeling and sensing in a particular moment. When you combine the two, you create a practice of training attention to one’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences without judgment. 

Why is mindfulness important? 

There is a good reason mindfulness has gained a lot of popularity. It has been shown to reduce stress, increase mental clarity, and relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression. Mindfulness is basically a superpower that takes us out of reactivity and into intentionality. Mindfulness helps one be in harmony with their feelings as opposed to being controlled by their feelings. 

Who should practice meditation? 

Although meditation is not a magic pill and isn’t always enjoyable to practice, it can bring unique relief to challenges. Meditation helps us become curious about our experience. Curious of the way our bodies work, what our bodies are telling us, and curious about what needs to change. We all experience negative emotions and painful sensations regardless of our age. Because of this, meditation is for all ages! 

How does meditation affect the brain? 

We know meditation can increase happiness and well-being because we are able to see changes in the brain! Having a regular meditation practice increases the amount of gray matter in the hippocampus and frontal lobe. What does this mean? More experienced joy! Meditation helps us become observers of our lives, helping us observe pain and emotion as opposed to becoming the pain and emotion. 

What to expect in therapy. 

As a client, you can expect mindfulness to be a part of every single session we will have together. As a therapist, practicing mindfulness is an essential part of how I work because it helps me assess what my client is truly experiencing, as opposed to what they are verbally telling me. From body scan meditations to mindful movement, you will develop a wide range of tools and techniques to develop your own customized practice!