1. What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present in the moment, to observe oneself and one’s thoughts in a very non-judgemental way, to not dwell in the past or projecting the future rather being highly aware of small things and feelings around oneself. Be there the thoughts that cause happiness, anxiety or anger, the practice of mindfulness involves silmply observing the thoughts as they are and treat them in a very non-reactive way.

2. Name one positive change to the brain due to mindfulness?

• The Pre-frontal cortex of the brain is responsible for problem solving, planning and so on. Through the practice of mindfulness, the grey matter of this area can become thicker which results in better and more fluent acitivity in this area.
• Practicing mindfulness can increase concentration and the ability of being present drastically
• Mindfulness also infuses a better self control response and can be used to get rid of bad addictions.

3. What mindful activity have you engaged in since the last 24 hours?

In the last 24 hours, I have been involved in 2 mindfulness activities that I’m aware of, Mindfulness meditaion and journalling. I have been doing guided mindfulness meditation for more than 4 years now. The kind I generally do is centred on the idea of focusing on how I’m breathing and how a harmony is created with the rhythm all over my body. I have been journalling on and off for about 2 years now. I generally try to write every night but it generally ends up happening on days where either I’m stressed, anxious or on days when I’m brainstorming and need clarity in my thinking to understand what I’m thinking in a better way.

3.1. How did it make you feel in your body?

Meditation makes my body feel like i have hit the reboot button as it makes me feel fresh. Last night was quite an anxious one for me and the mindfulness meditation helped me calm my heart beat and my out of place breathing. The act of taking deep breathes in through the nose and exhaling all of it through the mouth at the end of every guided meditation helps a lot in this regard. Maybe It’s because of keeping the eyes closed for 10 minutes but I also see the world glowing for a solid 10 seconds or so.

Journalling doesn’t do much physically in my case.

3.2. How did it make you feel in your mind?