What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a term translated to mean awareness, circumspection, discernment, and retention and directs us to remember to pay attention to what is occurring in one’s immediate experience with care, purposefulness, and discernment. One of the most well recognized western definitions of mindfulness comes from Dr. Jon Kabat Zinn. He defined mindfulness as, “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgemental”. To further grasp the definition of mindfulness, the term can be contrasted with experiences of mindlessness that occur when attention and awareness capacities are scattered due to preoccupation with past memories or future plans and worries; this, in turn, leading to a limited awareness and attention to experiences in the present moment.Being mindful increases engagement with the present moment and allows for a clearer understanding of how thoughts and emotions can affect our health and quality of life. Mindfulness can be cultivated through meditation practice. Mindfulness meditation practices have been formalized in programs such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) as well as other programs. Please see this link for more information. (http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/02/12/is-mindfulness-based-cognitive-therapy-effective)
Using CBT and Mindfulness Therapy, Veronica will help you gain insight and awareness into the mental and emotional processes that trigger you to slip into an “automatic pilot” mode, wherein you feel, react and do things, and wonder why later. Using MBCT and other interventions, you will start to become more aware and mindful of habitual thinking and feeling patterns and you can then start to actively choose different behaviours to meet your valued goals.
Veronica helps clients become more mindful so they can more easily increase their awareness of the internal triggers, and to enhance their awareness of and ability to alter judgement of self, others, emotional experiences pass by without necessitating reaction. In this way, clients gain more insight, awareness, and control over how they respond to internal and external triggers and begin to feel more calm and confident in themselves and their ability to handle challenging situations.
