7 Problems We Can Tackle With Mindfulness Training

We live in an era when distractions are everywhere. We’re encouraged to pack our schedules, we’re told we should be distracted 24/7, and we’re made to believe that we’re not ambitious enough if our plates aren’t overloaded. Is it any coincidence that we’re also living in a time when stress-related diseases and conditions are running rampant from obesity to high blood pressure? Practicing mindfulness, whether it’s meditation, forest bathing, asana or another method, is critical for holistic well-being. Mindfulness can help with a variety of issues, but here are seven top reasons why being mindful should be a priority:

1. Increase our intuition abilities. Intuition means being aware, observing, and active listening. It sounds simple, but it’s a skill that many of us don’t come close to realizing because of our lack of mindfulness. With better intuition, we can increase our compassion, empathy, and improve all of our relationships. A better romantic partnership, better relationship with co-workers, and more harmonious relationship with all of humanity is certainly a reason to be mindful
2. Help with holistic addiction treatment. Addiction levels are at an all-time high from technology addiction to the opioid epidemic in the U.S. Mindfulness training has been a proven method for optimizing comprehensive addiction treatment, particularly for long-term success.
3. Eating disorder treatment. Eating disorders include a wide range of issues such as Binge Eating Disorder (BED), Night Eating Syndrome (NES) along with the more well-known anorexia and bulimia. Orthorexia, or an obsession with healthy eating, is expected to become an official eating disorder soon. Eating disorders are the deadliest and most under-diagnosed of mental disorders, and mindfulness training can be a vital part of management.
4. Struggles with priorities and shorter attention spans. In western countries, we’re expected to wear a number of hats on the job. Simultaneously, the human attention span is shorter than ever (shorter than a goldfish’s, in fact). Mindfulness can help us learn to triage, prioritize, and increase our attention spans. It goes hand in hand with decreasing our dependence on technology.
5. Mood swing and Problems We Can Tackle With Mindfulness Training and road rage. The inability to control our emotions is exacerbated by the fact that few of us practice mindfulness on a regular basis. If you find yourself getting quickly angered when someone cut in front of you at the coffee shop or stewing for days over a slight the other person may not have realized at all, mindfulness can help you learn to let go.
6. Re-condition negative self-talk. How we talk to ourselves plays a big role in our self-esteem, self-value, and overall health. Our culture reveres sarcasm and self-deprecation. However, if you don’t speak kindly to yourself and encourage yourself, who else will? Mindfulness can help us with “cognitive reconditioning” and undo years of negative self-talk.
7. Anxiety. We’re being diagnosed with anxiety and related disorders at an astounding degree. Sometimes anxiety can be crippling and overlap with conditions such as agoraphobia while virtually halts a healthy life. Anxiety and mindfulness go hand in hand. If you struggle with anxiety, or simply feel anxious and worried more often than you’d like, then you might find that reconnecting with a mindful way of life can be soothing.

These are just a few of the problems many of us face on a regular basis, but mindfulness can be a balm for nearly every issue. There are many ways to incorporate mindfulness into your life—many are free, relatively easy, and accessible. You may need to try a few approaches to find the best fit for you. Don’t give up if the first few attempts don’t resonate with you.

Emily is an experienced content writer. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Communication in Journalism. She has written about an array of topics, from business, health, and technology to travel, culinary, education and even fashion & lifestyle. In her free time, Emily enjoys traveling, training for half marathons, and cooking for her family.