Mindfulness technique, that is, conscious awareness, is an ancient teaching, a miraculous technique with a history of thousands of years that allows us to contact ourselves and become aware of the moment we live in. What does mindfulness mean? This technique, which is very old in Eastern culture, is a versatile functional technique that accelerates the recovery of the client in psychotherapy, whose effects have been proven by research on the brain, which we discovered while searching for a solution to the stress of city life.
Our brain is not designed for the modern life we live. . Our brain cannot adapt to such a rapidly developing and changing world. From the moment we wake up in the morning, we constantly have to make choices and decisions. Choosing clothes, choosing breakfast, choosing the route to be taken, the list goes on and on. Since our brain still has the same settings as in wild life, making so many choices is far beyond the brain's capacity. Therefore, instead of consciously reviewing all these options and making the best decision, the brain puts it on autopilot. In this way, it reduces its burden and makes choices faster.
We Do Fifty Percent of What We Do on Autopilot
Fifty percent of the time we are awake, we either live in the past, we imagine the future, or we criticize and judge ourselves. , we either blame others or compare ourselves to others. Our minds are constantly busy, there is a never-ending flow in our minds. This never-ending flow in our minds prevents us from being aware of the food we eat, and prevents us from remembering where we put the glass of water we hold in our hands. Therefore, it prevents us from contacting ourselves, it prevents us from contacting the environment we live in, it prevents us from contacting the people we are in contact with.
Four Basic Principles of Conscious Awareness
-Being Aware
- Paying attention
-Remembering
-Moving slowly
We use conscious awareness in daily life by paying attention, being aware and remembering. Moving slowly is the most important of these. As our movement accelerates, we miss the moment we live in. Trying to do many things at the same time and not being able to focus on any of them upset. We walk fast, talk fast, move fast. As we slow down our body, the speed of our thoughts also begins to slow down. This way, we have more choice. Attention is the second most important. We start by paying attention to what is going on inside us, what is happening in our body at that moment, our shoulders may be tense, we may be hungry, we may feel a slight pain in our stomach, our palms may be tingling. These are all things that tell us what is going on in our body. When we turn our attention outside, we notice what is happening around us, the voice of the child passing by us, the coldness of the wind on our face, the color of the building in front of us, what is happening in my body and what is happening outside like a secret observer, we live by being aware and feeling.
Consciously. Awareness Exercise
Take a look at what's going on in your body while you're reading this article. You may feel your eyes burning, you may notice your heart beating a little faster with the excitement of learning something new, you may feel the fatigue on your shoulders. You have come into contact with all these emotions, so you are here right now.
Paying attention is a brain feature that can be developed. When you practice mindfulness, you first intend to pay attention to what you are doing. For example, let's say you want to be aware of the moment you are experiencing while brushing your teeth, you start by saying I intend to stay in the moment I experience while brushing my teeth. You started brushing your teeth, a minute later your mind started to wonder what to cook, you listed the alternatives, you thought about what it would be like to eat out... You stopped brushing your teeth. At the fourth minute, you realized that you were disconnected. You slowly call your mind back. You have just moved on to the back teeth and at that moment you just realized. After a few minutes, your mind wanders again. This time, you are thinking about the meeting at work, a colleague of yours that you don't like comes and you rehearse in your mind how you will behave with him, how you will answer whatever he asks... When you come back to the moment, you realize that you have finished brushing your teeth and washed your mouth. The thought will go, it is impossible for the future not to go. went to When you call back the thought, recall is what strengthens the muscle.
We Can Contact Ourselves by Paying Attention
You may have seen clouds moving in the sky. The mind lists interconnected thoughts one after the other, just like the clouds moving in the sky. So the flow in the mind never stops. We do not interfere with the flow that exists in our minds. We respectfully call our minds back to the present moment. We respectfully call our thoughts back to the present moment. As we do this exercise, the part of our brain related to attention begins to develop.
It is Possible to Change the Brain Structurally
Research and EEG studies show that we can change the brain structurally. When you exercise every day, you will see that your muscles develop, and when you do this work on attention and awareness, the brain muscles in your mind develop. Conscious awareness therapy is not a therapy technique in itself, it is one of the techniques we use in therapy.
Benefits of Conscious Awareness in Psychotherapy
-The most important problem of a depressed person is that he constantly criticizes himself, gets angry, humiliates himself, and tries to get rid of everything in his mind. It is the cruelty of your inner voice telling you that things will go badly. Conscious awareness enables a person to become aware of negative thoughts on automatic pilot. When the thought is gone, calling the thought back to the moment stops the flow of disaster scenarios in the mind. Therefore, it helps cure depression.
-It is useful in relationships between lovers, partners and spouses. In bilateral relations, it allows you to see the emotion that a word said or a behavior performed by the other person creates in you. For example, when your spouse complains about the mess in the house, it makes you realize how angry it makes you. It accelerates healing in clients who come to couple therapy.
-It provides insight and accelerates healing in therapy. In therapy, it enables clients to see their unconscious processes consciously. What did I react to and why, how did I experience this in my childhood, how can I transform this behavior now? The events we experience in daily life are connected to our childhood. related events. When we realize this, we take control of our lives. Otherwise, we keep repeating the stories we experienced in our childhood.
-It makes learning easier. Being aware of the moment we live in makes us aware of the content of the book we are reading. It strengthens our focus and allows us to learn more with less effort.
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