Mindful Awareness

Historically, mindfulness and meditation have been thought of in relation to Eastern spirituality.  Now, in addition to the testimonials given over two-and-a-half thousand years, several decades of research tells us that mindfulness is an inherent quality of the human condition and that it can be developed.  The development of mindfulness through the practice of meditation and other focused-awareness exercises has been shown to reduce the suffering that is associated with a variety of psychological challenges, including anxiety, depression, traumatic stress and addiction.    


Many therapeutic approaches to healing teach mindful awareness skills for the purpose of improving the quality of one’s life.  Mindfulness meditation helps one to develop an increasingly accurate, sustained, and non-biased awareness of the present moment--an honest acceptance of now.  By developing this awareness, the one who practices mindfulness is able to disengage from beliefs, thoughts, and emotions that are not useful and are otherwise limiting. This results in a greater sense of emotional balance and well-being.


Mindfulness meditation (and other exercises meant for the development of mindful awareness) not only increases activity in a brain area associated with attention and decision-making skills, mindfulness practice also causes a decrease in activity of the brain area associated with emotional reactivity. This increased ability to pay attention and make decisions while remaining emotionally balanced is a main reason why mindfulness interventions are being applied to a variety of clinical conditions--including trauma, anxiety, depression and addiction.  

  

       

The ability to be fully present in the moment is generalizable to all situations: it’s always now!

 

Meditation has enriched my life for over twenty years and I have practiced and studied with discipline for over ten of them.  My experience with meditation includes: Board of Directors, Arcana Meditation Workshops; Advisory Council, Meditation Mount; a doctoral dissertation on Mindfulness-Integrated Interventions for the Treament of Generalized Anxiety Disorder; numerous ten-day silent mindfulness-meditation retreats; Successful completion of a three-year Wisdom Group Meditation Teacher Training program;  11 years association with The New Group of World Servers, a global group focused on the development of human consciousness and relations through meditation, study and service; and the continued application of techniques that work with subtle body energy to address emotional, mental and spiritual disturbances. 

The development of mindful awareness will play an important role in our work together. Formal meditation practice may not be helpful in your situation and it is never a requirement. - Jay