Did you know this?

‘Mindfulness’ is not the same as ‘meditation’, although mindfulness exercises may include meditation practices. ‘Being mindfully attentive’, which originates in Buddhism, is something you learn and practise through meditation. However, treatments based on mindfulness are not all wishy-washy. On the contrary, mindfulness training is backed by science and also used for the treatment of psychological issues. A number of studies prove that mindfulness training is highly effective in treating stress, anxiety and depression.

Focus on your attention

Mindfulness trains you to contemplate your thoughts and feelings without diving into them and without judgement. While practising, you learn to be attentive in a curious and gentle manner to both external stimuli (such as sounds and smells) and internal ones (like thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations).

While practising mindfulness you focus on your breathing. Every time your thoughts wander off, you redirect your attention to its anchor point, your breathing. In this way, you start to perceive nagging worries, and you learn to simply be aware of them and observe them, and to distance yourself from those negative automatic thoughts.

Mindfulness: anything but wishy-washy

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) are the best known and studied treatments. They target people dealing with chronic pain, chronic stress and/or psychological issues and disorders. These techniques show you how thoughts, emotions and behaviours influence one another. The effects on stress, anxiety and depression prove to be equally positive as those of other scientifically based treatments.

A caring approach

Mindfulness is omnipresent and hot. We are seeing more and more workshops, courses, seminars, training sessions and apps cropping up. However, mindfulness is not a miracle cure for everything and everyone. If you are keen to try mindfulness, choose a reliable, qualified professional to guide you.

Keen to learn, read or hear more about this topic?

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Websites

  • Leuven Mindfulness Centre: here you can find an overview of interesting training sessions, recent research results and lectures on mindfulness. (Dutch)
  • Moment vzw: here you can find a qualified trainer in your area. For each trainer, you can view details on their education background and intended target group. (Dutch)