Mindfulness & Mental Wellness
Mindfulness
Happiness
Many people are familiar with Mindfulness' benefit of reducing stress and overall anxiety, but mindfulness has also been shown to increase happiness and help individuals build better relationships, a key element in the health and wellness of individuals and their families.
Research is currently being developed on the power of Mindfulness as an intervention for a number of social-emotional and behavioral challenges in children and adolescents. Other benefits of consistent Mindfulness practice:
Increased focus supports confidence in sports and other physical activities, and heightens senses and awareness
Increased focus and concentration leads to greater
academic success
Improved friendships result from greater compassion, authenticity and active listening skills
Increased optimism leads to feelings of
contentment and a more positive state of mind
Mindfulness &
Meditation
Meditation has become a popular buzz word lately, with good reason, as research continues to prove its benefits. Harvard University and other neuroscience laboratories around the world have investigated ways in which meditation actually works to change the brain. Harvard’s 2011 study, for example, demonstrated significant increases in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress, effectively making study participants happier.
Mindfulness and Meditation have emerged as a fun and positive way to teach children skills such as self-awareness, self-esteem, resilience and how to manage the myriad emotional challenges they face in everyday life.
More and more children become affected by mental health issues each day. Families are frequently dealing with issues such as academic pressure, bullying, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and ADHD, to name a few, and it is difficult to know what to do as a parent or caregiver. A practice of mindfulness that includes meditation can help in the following ways:
