Yet another article about mindfulness….:-/

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Neuroscience is still very much ‘du jour’ but even more ‘en-vogue’ at the moment is mindfulness which certainly seemMindfulnesss to be having an extended 15 minutes in the mainstream spotlight.  A random selection of recent articles includes:

Should we be mindful of mindfulness? (The Guardian)

Who, What, Why: What is mindfulness? (BBC)

‘Mindfulness’ therapy adopted by stressed Britons (The Telegraph)

And you must surely know you have arrived when there is an All Party Parliamentary Group set up in your honour?  The APPG is closely connected with theMindfulness Initiative (a collaboration of the Mindfulness Centres at Oxford, Exeter and Bangor Universities) which is particularly interested in mindfulness as it applies to:

    • mindfulness in schools to improve classroom behaviour, attention and focus, as a strategy to raise educational standards and supporting social mobility, and to develop young people’s tools for lifelong well-being
    • expanding the provision of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy within the NHS as a treatment for depression and other mental and physical health problems
    • mindfulness as a way to reduce stress and improve care, attentiveness and compassion amongst healthcare workers
    • mindfulness as a way to improve resilience, reduce stress and anxiety, and develop creativity in the workplace
    • mindfulness as a way to tackle depression, anxiety and stress in the criminal justice system (both staff and those in custody)
    • mindfulness as a way to cultivate overall health and well-being

This increased awareness of mindfulness has to be ‘a good thing’ given it’s established benefits and although at think. change. we rarely lead with it as a topic in our client work; we frequently refer to it as people ask us for suggestions on how to improve brain performance across areas such as efficiency, stamina and resilience.   And if the differences between ‘mindfulness’ and ‘mindful meditation’ get lost in this blaze of publicity, well, we can explain this later when some of the fuss has died down.