Tips to Increase Happiness Through Mindfulness

Posted by Joseph Franks on September 24th, 2019

Mindfulness is an effective technique for mental wellbeing. This technique originates from the 2,500-year-old Buddhist contemplative practices. It is adapted to suit non-religious contexts such as boardrooms, corporations, hospitals, schools, and sports teams. 

It helps an individual to stay focused on what he/she are doing. Precisely, it is a powerful antidote to the distractible nature of the mind and the information overload in our digital world. Hence, when practiced regularly, it can bring more calm and effectiveness into everyday life, resultantly reducing stress and enhancing mental capacity.

Here are three effective ways mindfulness can make you happier:

1. Get out of negative thought loops

So often, our happiness is restricted by the tendency of our mind to fall into unhelpful loops of negative thinking. This propels us into a downward spiral and affects our lives in many unhelpful ways. Mindfulness meditation is a form of positive rigorous training of the mind that helps us to become more familiar with the nature of the mind and more skillful in noticing when our minds are being caught up in these unhelpful patterns of thought. Therefore, when we learn this skill, we can choose to disengage our mind from negative thoughts and move our attention in ways that support us rather than pull us down. Whether it is loops of worry, planning into the future, replaying events from the past, or caught up in bad marriage, the skill of mindfulness and awareness helps us in opening up a new possibility toward greater happiness in our lives. We begin to have the power to be the master of our lives, rather than the slave of our mind.

Therefore, next time you catch yourself in a negative thought loop, see it for what it is, and try to simply disengage from that pattern of thinking and move your attention to something positive. Try to divert your attention by engaging yourself in some kind of physical activity. It will break the loop of negative thinking and ground you back to the here and now.

2. Makes you feel more connected to others 

Humans are social animals that have evolved to be in a relationship. Undeniably, the healthy development of our brain requires healthy social interactions. Loneliness is known to be a risk factor for diseases ranging from cardiovascular disease to Alzheimer, and others. Hence, to flourish, we need to feel connected to others and be more cooperative with each other. Furthermore, mindfulness helps in deepen as well as enrich our relationships as we bring a quality of present-moment attention to the people around us.

3. Connect you to a sense of inner contentment

Many of us can need outside world endorsement for happiness and pleasure. Either it is money or success, our happiness is dependent on external factors that are temporary and over which we have no control. Then, there is another form of wellbeing and happiness known as eudaimonic happiness. It is not dependent on external circumstances, rather emerges from an inner sense of wellbeing, and a living in alignment with one's values. Hence, mindfulness is a practice that can help us cultivate a sense of inner wellbeing, which allows us to feel content and well without external approval from the outside world. Henceforth, it is a rare feeling in this age of consumerism, but it is available to all of us at any moment.

 Author Bio:

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