Finding Our Way Through Challenges: Applying Mindfulness

Life is a journey in which we experience a full range of emotions, both good and bad, and stressful circumstances. It can be easy to want to practice mindfulness when in a good headspace and oftentimes when we’re experiencing stress or hard circumstances, mindfulness may be the last thing on our minds. However, it can be an extremely helpful tool when navigating hard times.

How Mindfulness Helps Us Navigate Challenges

Mindfulness is not about pushing feelings away or even embracing them – it is about allowing them to run their natural course while not consuming you, and simply observing how they feel. Mindfulness also helps reduce activity in the sympathetic nervous system (the system responsible for fight or flight responses), which in turn lowers stress and anxiety.If this feels like it may be overwhelming, you can start by practicing with small situations. For instance, if something slightly stressful happens, you can practice turning inward and observing the feeling without deflecting from it.

Mindfulness Increases Self-Compassion

Sometimes, when faced with a difficult circumstance, it's easy to turn inward and blame yourself. Mindfulness practices encourage us to instead turn inward and simply observe our emotions instead of placing blame on ourselves.Studies on Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) practices have shown a range of benefits including lowering levels of anxiety and depression, decreasing negative self-talk and judgment, and increasing optimism, forgiveness, and emotional intelligence.If you’re looking for more resources on how to put mindfulness into practice during hard-times, we invite you to join our Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR). The MBSR course is an 8-week program in which you will learn how to access and cultivate your natural capacity to actively engage in caring for yourself with compassion while accessing your own inner resources for coping, growing, and healing.