Benefits & Neuroscience

Lifestyle related diseases such as Hypertension,  Diabetes, Heart Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome are common worldwide. They are modifiable and possibly preventable through adoption of a healthy lifestyle. Life style modifications like healthy diet, exercise, sleep improvement and positive mental health through mindfulness and yoga are widely implemented to improve health and wellbeing.

Life transforming benefits of practicing mindfulness include :

Stress reduction                                   Clarity and focus

Greater resilience                                Reduced anxiety and depression

Enhanced creativity                             Improved work-life balance

Improved relationships                       Greater work satisfaction

Improved concentration                      Memory enhancement

Rapport and communication              Intuitive ability

Pain reduction                                          Happiness

Improved Health and Wellbeing         Better control over emotions

 

• Backed by many scientific studies, mindfulness has proven to improve overall health and wellbeing by rewiring the brain.  
• Mindfulness helps cope better with pain and low mood, anxiety, irritability and poor sleep associated with chronic pain. Enhanced awareness helps localise pain and through various techniques like breathwork, focus & attention, you can reduce the intensity of pain and ease the secondary emotions which arise as a result of pain. You can learn to build a different relationship with pain. 
• Practicing mindfulness can also help lower blood pressure thus reducing the risk of complications associated with hypertension.  
• Mindfulness helps us feel calmer and more connected with life.
• By developing awareness of thoughts and emotions you can have a better control over your thinking mind leading to a more fulfilling, rewarding life and enjoy life’s experiences to the fullest.
• You can also learn how to separate yourself from ruminative thinking and develop ways to consciously ‘respond’ to situations rather than ‘react’ in harmful ways.
• When you are not paying attention to something, your brain goes into default mode loosing concentration and causing anxiety and poor communication.
• Mindfulness has proven to bring clarity and improve focus and attention.
• You will learn how to stay focused in the present and develop awareness of your external and internal worlds, feel calmer and less stressed.
• Practicing Mindfulness will teach you to be more compassionate and approach life with a balanced mind-set at a steady pace (more speed does not necessarily mean we achieve more).

Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity :

• Mindfulness meditation has been scientifically proven to enhance neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the constant adaptive ability of the brain to form new neural networks in response to stimuli allowing the brain to change its function and behaviour. 
•  Meditation improves function of the key regions of the brain thus harmonizing both of the hemispheres achieving a state of whole brain synchronisation.
• Scientists agree meditation is the no.1 brain changer.
• Meditation is often described as exercise for the brain, where you are consciously working to bring your attention to one single point building a better brain.
• The meditators brains have shown to upgrade the key regions of the brain such as prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and pons along with activation of corpus callosum and the temporo-parietal junction.
• These changes benefit with better focus and attention, enhanced creativity, memory, better relationships, emotional intelligence, clearer thinking and improved sleep.
• Practicing mindfulness has shown to down-size amygdala, which helps reduce stress and anxiety in turn reducing irritability, fatigue and lack of interest or motivation.
• It also de-activates the parietal lobe improving a sense of oneness and feeling of being connected.

Better control over thoughts :

• By consciously directing your attention where you want it to go, you are not overthinking yourself into stress
• Practicing mindfulness helps people limit negative thoughts, unwanted beliefs and counterproductive habits.
• It also helps with recurring depression, the latter when combined with cognitive behavioural approaches.

Mindfulness also helps tackle unpleasant situations :

• Most of us have been in a situation where we didn’t like what happened to us; some kind of embarrassing incidence or  unwanted situation.
• While the mind automatically gets stuck over these situations, practicing mindfulness and being present in the moment helps being aware of these unpleasant situations and associated thoughts, acknowledging and giving attention they deserve before moving on.
• Being mindful also helps improve concentration by giving full attention to what’s at hand rather than getting absorbed in thoughts and constantly thinking of something else or worrying.

Improved relationships :

Mindfulness practice is also known to improve relations, rapport and communication by enhancing listening and focusing on other people and their needs.