How can mindfulness help us - Hedy Kober

• Technique - Attend to & accept any sensation you experience of physical pain without making any judgment of "goodness" or "badness" of that sensation. You can ask yourself - "I am feeling pain right now but can I be Ok with this feeling?"
• A Yale study showed mindfully accepting pain can -

1. decrease pain intensity ratings (about 27%).
2. Mindful reaction decreases response in brain's pain matrix (brain's regions involved in experiencing pain). It decreases neural response to pain about 40% - 68%.

A little bit of mindfulness at the right time can go a long way. Practice makes it even more effective.

Our experience of life is influenced by the events that happen, but more so by how we respond to them.

We have the power to choose or at least practice getting better at choosing our response to what happens in life. Mindfulness helps us do this effectively.

Our attitude cannot erase physical pain or the need for may be medical assistance, but it can help make the experience better, or at least stop it from feeling worse -

1. Realize you have the power to choose.
2. Stop the kind of respsonses you actually want to have - feeling annoyed, angry, 'why me'.

More than 100 psychological studies support the fact that mindfulness meditation improves increased overall wellbeing including

Psychological functions -

• Stress
• Anxiety
• Cognitive function
• Depression
• Addiction
• Problem eating

Biological functions -

• Blood pressure
• Pain
• Stress markers
• Cellular health

• Close your eyes & notice the movement of breath through your body... in and out. 
• Mind will start wandering uncontrollably to memories, planning for something, things we wished we had done, judging ourself for having wandered, distracted to the incomplete to-do list.
• Practice mindfulness - notice & accept that your mind wandered. This is the best practice to develop the skill of mindfulness & applying it to everyday events.