Mindfulness and Meditation in Psychology

Mindfulness and Meditation in Psychology

INTRO

Clients seek psychological therapy for mental health issues because they have come to a point in their lives that they feel that an improvement in their mental state would have a positive affect in their personal lives. A client’s behavioral health affects how a client thinks about themselves and how the client interacts with the world around them.

Mindfulness is, “Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Mindfulness and meditation empowers the individual to work with one's own stress, illness, challenges, and demands of daily living. By incorporating mindfulness and meditation into therapy for mental health and mental illness, optimal therapeutic effects may be achieved.

Mindfulness and meditation involves a cognitive change in lifestyle by the client. This behavioral change helps people to relax mentally as well as emotionally which eventually leads to a strengthen immune system. The purpose of this paper is to describe the optimal therapeutic effects achieved by mindfulness and meditation.

DISCUSSION

Humans are emotional creatures, they think and react emotionally. By training the brain to practice mindful meditation and similar techniques, a person can learn to be more objective in an emotionally difficult situation. Client’s who suffer from chronic and terminal illnesses, such as breast cancer, also suffer from depression associated with emotional stress.

In an article by Krasner, it was noted that a group of 27 breast cancer patients showed a significant decrease in levels of anxiety, a positive increase in mental adjustments, and a diminished sense of helpless. Mindfulness helps a patient