Mindfulness in Therapy -What is “mindfulness”?

Over the past 10 years, mindfulness gradually became more important in my personal and also in my work life. Why this is the case and how mindfulness affects therapy is a topic that I would love to share, in order to help colleagues and patients understand how we can both benefit from adding this simple practice into our life.

But before we dive directly into it, let’s maybe clarify what 'mindfulness' actually means and what my definition of it is when I am using the term.

Mindfulness is a perceptive stage in the present moment, meaning I am able to observe what is going on around me and inside of me, without being greatly affected by it.

For example, you are seated on a chair with your eyes closed and your practice is to focus on the sounds around you. This could look like this: You observe pleasant sounds like the birds singing, wind in the leaves of the trees, and you feel how you become slowly calmer. This is one part of mindfulness—pointing your focus to one subject and observing it. So far so good. But suddenly, the truck of the construction across the street arrives and the noise of the engine and some loud voices interfere with your peace. A common reaction of our mind is that we are getting upset because the truck of course had to arrive exactly in these 10 mins that we have chosen for our meditation. Are we still mindful when this happens? The answer lies in the inner, and then the following outer reaction to it.

Scenario A: You hear the noise, you become upset, you open your eyes, and call this meditation over. Mindfulness? -No, you lost it when you gave the anger about the truck so much space that it carried your focus away from the present and into your mind where the sound of the truck was probably linked to the feeling of stress, so your reaction was: 'No, I cannot work under these circumstances!'

Scenario B: You hear the noise, you feel that it upsets you, you take note of your inner reaction to it. You observe the arising emotion, you see if you can let go of it, and if yes, you will be open and receptive to newly arriving sounds again. Mindfulness? -Yes.

This was a tiny example of a mindfulness meditation. There are many more practices out there that improve your mindfulness, and just like in so many other parts of life, it doesn’t matter which way works best for you. What matters is that you learn to be present and to observe without getting attached to the observing object, feeling, or thought (like in scenario A).

If you got curious about how this ability affects therapy, stay tuned for the upcoming post.