The Science of Mindfulness
Watch this short video explaining some of the science behind what we do.
Can mindfulness really help me?
Mindfulness has been shown through numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies to deliver health and performance benefits. These benefits include promoting wellbeing, managing pain, improving sleep, recovering from injury, managing anxiety, improving resilience and improving attention and focus. If health and recovery is your focus, it's important to note that mindfulness is not a replacement for medical treatment, if used as a complementary practice it could significantly improve your wellbeing or recovery.
How is this possible?
Leading health professionals and researchers such as Professor Craig Hassed from Monash University explain that our mind and body are connected. The interplay is surprisingly powerful. You may have heard of the 'fight or flight' response triggered in our body in moments of stress. When our body over-activates or over-sustains this response it can have very real negative short and long term impacts on our health and performance. These impacts can cause the body and mind further stress. Mindfulness can break the loop and bring it back into balance.
Wait, how does that really work?
When we encounter a stressful situation, for a while the 'fight or flight' response can make us hyper alert, stronger and faster. That's generally a good thing! The problem is that our body can activate this response for too long or when it isn't required. This is a problem particularly in today's world of hyperstimulation. Like we are 'living on adrenalin' as the saying goes.
Bruce McEwen, a neuroendocrinologist and Eliot Stellar, a physiological psychologist coined the term 'allostatic load' for this effect. It can have a chronic impact on our bodies through what is termed 'immune dysregulation'. In this state we become not only anxious and unfocussed, but also prone to coughs and colds, to infection, more susceptible to inflammation. It even affects blood pressure and thins our bones.
Elizabeth Blackburn, molecular biologist and biochemist, won a Nobel Prize for her work together with Carol Greider and geneticist Jack Szostak on understanding the function of telomeres. Telomeres are protective segments of DNA occurring at the ends of chromosomes. Elizabeth also showed how stress shortens them, making us less healthy and age faster, and how mindfulness and other factors can change that for the better.
The positive benefits of mindfulness were noted in scientific papers by Professor Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s and the body of research and evidence continues to grow.
Mindfulness is embraced by leading performance coaches, business leaders and many others because it works! Present Sense techniques include some of those used by sports coaches, performers in the arts and elite defence force units. They aren't magic or a replacement for training and development in your field of endeavour. However they help to put you in a position in which you (and your team around you) can perform to your (and their) best.
How does mindfulness help me or my team to perform better?
It starts the same way that mindfulness improves your well-being. It breaks unhealthy fight or flight patterns which load your system and impact not only your health ongoing, but can impact your performance. The clarity mindfulness brings can help as you decide what to prioritise, how to approach challenges, and how to respond to unexpected results. It can prevent you doing something you regret! In addition, mindfulness builds greater self-awareness, which then helps you to better understand not only your own reactions to the world around you, but the impact you have on others. That can translate into improved resilience, superior focus, better team interactions, and ultimately into improved team work and performance.
Scientific studies have linked mindfulness to health benefits in many areas, including:
Enhanced Healing Processes
Sleep
There is strong evidence that when properly practiced, mindfulness can deliver remarkable health and wellbeing benefits, improved focus, and enhance team or individual performance. This includes health benefits such as managing pain, recovering from injury and managing anxiety or stress. From a performance perspective that includes performing physically or mentally in any field of endeavour whether in industry, sport, defence, academia, teaching or the arts.
We would be happy to provide you with more information if you are interested, just email us at: info@presentsense.com.au
The mindfulness experience you want.