Mindfulness is the practice where you actively focus your attention on the present. Where you consciously decide that your energy is best focused on the problems or situations of today. Not tomorrow or yesterday but enjoying the "now". Anxiety can be caused by many things, one of them is too much worrying about the future and what it may bring. Thinking like that can sometimes lead to anxiety or panic attacks but through mindfulness it can ease some of those feelings.
1. Relieves Stress
When you take a moment and focus solely on what you are going through that day, it's an amazing moment of relief. In college, you have 40 different things to do, maybe even a job or two, plus the coursework and it's very easy to get lost in all that. Mindfulness encourages you to take a step back from all the things that aren't necessary to the day and focus on what happening in the moment you are in. Whether it's while studying for an exam, spending time with friends, or being on your own. Mindfulness teaches you took look through a lens where you take it slow and rather than send yourself over the edge with all the things that are needed tomorrow or that you didn't live up to yesterday, you are able to focus on what you did right in that moment or that day.
2. Helps identify the important things in your life
With all the things that happen in life, it is easy to forget one of the most important things. You. Anxiety can bring about all kinds of thoughts that can be filled with worry or doubt, in situations like that it's good to take a breather or set aside some time for yourself. When you start practicing mindfulness, you start to learn to take care of yourself in a new way. Where you spend time prioritizing things in your life and by doing that you take the pressure off yourself. You get the chance take care of yourself and worry about you. Maybe you realize while practicing mindfulness that when you're reaching for drink you can make a better choice and take a water instead of a soda. This practice not only helps you think about what's happening in your life but also how you treat yourself, whether that be mentally or physically.
3. Coping skill for anxiety
Anxiety, depending on how severe the case is takes a lot of work in order for a person to maintain a comfortable state of mind. So in turn, there needs to be a coping mechanism for you to use when needed. Mindfulness is a tough job if you try to do it everyday, while that can be done, if you're just trying it out it may take a few days or weeks until you start doing it naturally. For beginners, it's easy to fall back into old habits of worry but that's a great to use this practice. When anxiety sets in and your start to think about things that may be on the way in your life or just general worry, mindfulness can be used to ground you, help you get out of that mindset for a few minutes or however long you want. Just like any coping skill, it takes practice but the results are good ones.
4. Teaches you to take it easy on yourself
Anxiety can make you be really hard on yourself. Causes you to spend hours thinking about all kinds of stuff that may need that. The thoughts swirl around your head saying things like:
"What if they don't really like me?"
"What if I can't do it?"
Or it's just a general feeling of dread about things that may be on the way like tests, dates, or an interview. It's easy to fall back and believe the thoughts or question yourself constantly but with using the mindfulness practice you're able to focus on situation at hand. For instance, studying for a test and just focusing on getting through that and making sure you know the information rather than thinking the whole time that you might fail. Today, we tend to live in our heads more than ever and because of this become some of our worst critics, through anxiety in the mix and you get a bit of a mess. Taking the time to step out of your own thoughts and decided to not think about failing, friend's opinions, etc. You find that you are taking care of yourself in a whole new way as well as relieving some of those anxious thoughts and feelings.
