When you hear the word mindfulness, what comes to mind? Do you picture a white-robed guru sitting cross-legged on the floor deep in meditation? Or maybe someone stretched out on a yoga mat, fully concentrating on their breathing?

Both these individuals can achieve mindfulness. And so can you…

When you’re being mindful, your awareness is focused on the present moment. At the same time, you’re calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations without judgment.

When I think of mindfulness, it’s usually as a tool or an exercise to calm and focus my mind. But recent research suggests the benefits of mindfulness can go even further…

Mindfulness improves well-being

Researchers from the University of Bath and the University of Southampton recruited 1,247 adults from 91 countries, most of whom were new to mindfulness.

Each participant was randomly assigned to either a 10-minute daily mindfulness routine or to a control group that listened to excerpts from Alice in Wonderland. The mindfulness sessions were delivered through the free mobile app Medito and included relaxation exercises, intention setting, body scans, breath-focused attention and self-reflection.

Over the course of the 30-day program, participants in the mindfulness group reported significant improvements in their mental health compared to the control group. Specifically, they experienced:

• A 19.2 percent greater reduction in depression
• A 12.6 percent greater decrease in anxiety
• A 7.1 percent more positive attitude toward health
• A 6.9 percent greater improvement in overall well-being
• A 6.5 percent greater increase in behavioral intentions to maintain a healthy lifestyle

What’s more, these benefits weren’t short-lived. Follow-up studies conducted one month after the program’s conclusion showed that participants maintained improvements in well-being, depression and healthy behaviors, including better sleep quality.

These results suggest the psychological skills developed through mindfulness — including increased awareness, self-control and intention setting — can help individuals adopt and maintain healthier habits ranging from regular exercise to improved sleep.

Technology is taking mindfulness global

This study was one of the first to show the well-being and mental health benefits of mindfulness could arise from the changes to lifestyle behaviors it encourages. Next, the team is eager to research the potential of mindfulness for promoting regular exercise.

“It’s exciting to see the benefits of mindfulness extending beyond depression, well-being and anxiety and into other health behaviors such as sleeping better and building stronger intentions to live a healthy lifestyle,” says lead researcher Masha Remskar, a psychologist based at the University of Bath. “Mindfulness builds the psychological skills you need to build healthy habits — we hope to show in future work that once you’ve got those skills you can use them to improve several health behaviors from exercising regularly to stopping smoking.”

According to the study’s co-authors, digital technology has the potential to make mindfulness accessible to a global audience.

“The research underscores how digital technology — in this case, a freely available app — can help people integrate behavioral and psychological techniques into their lives, in a way that suits them,” says Dr. Ben Ainsworth, who leads the Digital Intervention Group at the University of Southampton.

Luckily, there’s no shortage of mindfulness apps to choose from. Some examples to try include Medito (the free app used in the study), Calm or Headspace.

Suppose you prefer to take a non-tech-based approach to mindfulness. In that case, there’s always this simple technique developed by Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine. It only takes 10 to 20 minutes twice a day and can be completed without any special equipment.

1. Find a quiet place in your home (or favorite outdoor spot) where you can sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed.
2. Allow your muscles to relax and choose a word, phrase, sound, short prayer or mantra to focus on and repeat over and over.
3. If stray thoughts disrupt, let them come and go but return to your chosen word, phrase, or prayer to regain focus.

Sources:

Just Ten Minutes of Mindfulness a Day Significantly Enhances Well-Being, Study Shows — Integrative Practitioner

Just 10 minutes of mindfulness daily boosts wellbeing and fights depression — University of Bath

Mindfulness improves psychological health and supports health behaviour cognitions: Evidence from a pragmatic RCT of a digital mindfulness-based intervention — British Journal of Health Psychology