“Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment.”
—Greater Good Science Center, University of California.
Mindfulness meditation is a practice that helps us to develop this kind of awareness in our daily lives, as we work, play and connect with the people we love. It’s a proven method for letting go of the concerns and preoccupations that can so often come between us and the loving, accepting awareness that is our deepest nature.
Because carers matter. We matter to the people we care for, to ourselves, and to the community at large.
Because carers stand to benefit a great deal from anything that decreases stress and increases resilience.
My primary work is caring for my two children, one of whom has a severe disability that affects his behaviour and interactions with other people. My daily mindfulness practice helps me to remain calm in stressful situations, accept the uncertainty of my son’s life, connect to the love I feel for him even at difficult times, and enjoy the happy times more fully.
I hope that having a course specifically for carers will provide us with opportunities to connect with other people who have some understanding of the challenges we face, and give us an opportunity to work together to see how mindfulness can best be applied to our lives.
It has certainly worked for me and many other ordinary people I’ve met.
Also, a growing body of research, including over 7,000 academic studies, shows us that mindfulness meditation can improve health and wellbeing in a wide range of ways such as increasing people’s capacity to connect with one another, reducing stress, and increasing resilience. Not every study is well designed and sometimes conclusions are overstated, but the general picture is very positive indeed.
If you’d like to know more about the scientific study of mindfulness meditation, this summary from Monash University’s Dr Craig Hassed is clear, well researched and very readable.
For a more sceptical look, there’s The Buddha Pill by Dr Miguel Farias and Dr Catherine Wikholm.
Or if you’d prefer to watch something, this Catalyst episode offers another good summary.