Mindfulness And Remedial Massage
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is being aware of the present moment and what is going on around you without reacting to the situation in an overwhelmed state.
You are mindful when you attend to your senses and what they are experiencing in the moment around you. For example, feeling the slight breeze on your skin and tuning in to the birdsong around you.
It has been researched that while training yourself to be mindful your brain structure begins to remodel itself. This remodeling of the brain shapes our brain pathways into more positive thoughts and feeling positive emotions. Mindfulness allows us to see our stressors from a different perspective and how to react more positively to the stressors that have been presented.
Our mindfulnes facilitator, Marié Wilken, describes her role as guiding and facilitating people to learn the habit of practicing mindfulness to get a different view and release anger, stress, trauma, problems, anxiety and grief.
Mindfulness shapes our brain pathways.
How does mindfulness work?
There are a few methods one can use to practice mindfulness. These are:
Meditation
o This is where you go and sit in a quiet place. And intentionally quiet the mind for a few minutes.
Body scan
o This is done by sitting or lying down. You start to breathe and then slowly scan the body starting from the nose and mouth down to the toes and then back up to the head. Throughout the process you spend a breath or two feeling the sensations of the area and if there is any discomfort.
Mindful moments
o This method can be used anywhere and at anytime during your busy day. This is where you bring your mind to the present activity. For example, while brushing your teeth in the morning you can try focus on the feel of the bristles of your brush on your teeth and the motion of your hand moving back and forth. And if your mind wanders you acknowledge the thought and try come back to the present moment.
Body scan.
What are the benefits of mindfulness?
Decreases stress shown by decreased levels in cortisol.
You become aware of your true self.
Improves working memory which helps in increasing your course marks.
It assists in managing stress for many situations.
It has been shown to improve the brain’s functioning and protective mechanisms against mental illness.
It benefits your brain’s emotional processing even when you are not actively being mindful.
It improves one’s compassion for others.
It can lower one’s risk of developing depression.
It can improve your sleep.
It benefits your brain’s emotional processing.
How does Mindfulness work with Therapeutic massage?
Therapy can be enhanced if you have a mindful therapist. A mindful therapist will be present in your session and will therefore be able to pick up on the finer details of your condition. This will make for a much more successful treatment than if your therapist is spending her time thinking on other things that are not important to the moment.
A mindful therapist is also in more control of their personal emotions and so can give more to you in the therapy. Being present also allows for your therapist to be focused on the finer details and observe your thoughts and feelings without being judgmental.
If you as the client are mindful you will be able to pick up more detail on where your discomfort lies. This enables better feedback to your therapist which will help shape the bigger picture towards your condition.
A mindful therapist can pick up the finer details.
If you are interested in taking a mindfulness course try Mindful Vision.
Contact:
Marié Wilken
073 207 6925
mindfulvision@outlook.com
A mindful therapist will be present in your session.