Your Guide to Mindfulness and Wellness

Are mindfulness and wellness really related? Can a few minutes of meditation a day actually improve your overall health? More and more studies are suggesting that to be the case. In this article we will break down what mindfulness and wellness mean, as well as how you can apply mindfulness techniques to your everyday life.

Here is your introduction to mindfulness and wellness.

Are you Just Healthy or Really Well?

To begin with, let’s talk about what we mean when we talk about wellness. Taking care of your health doesn’t mean just going to the doctor when you’re sick. It also means taking care of yourself even when you’re healthy. Wellness is all about making decisions while we’re feeling good to foster better health, before, during, and after an illness. It can mean maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, or making sure to see your doctor for regular check-ups. 

One piece of wellness that medicine is just beginning to explore is the role that our minds play in maintaining our health. Mindfulness meditation has been proven to reduce stress, and improve chronic pain or disease. 

But why is that the case?

What Connects Mindfulness and Wellness?

Mindfulness practices are all about focusing on the present. They’re designed to snap practitioners out of ‘auto-pilot’ mode; to create space for calmer and better decision making. And what’s so unique about mindfulness meditation is that it is not something which requires a lot of time. You can practice mindfulness in a few minutes every day. But what links those few minutes of mindfulness and wellness?

While the exact mechanism that connects mindfulness and wellness is still being studied, we do know one major factor: Stress.

Stress, Mindfulness and Wellness

Stress is implicated in a wide range of ailments – both physical and emotional. Science has shown that stress can exacerbate autoimmune disease, cause heart disease, and contribute to psychic distress. So doctors are constantly looking for ways to help their patients manage stress.

And mindfulness is proving to be a great answer. Mindfulness based stress reduction, or MBSR, is a clinically proven method for reducing stress. A meta-analysis of all of the research into MBSR found that it impacts the level of stress that people experience, as well as the detrimental impacts of that stress. 

In other words, by reducing stress and promoting happiness, mindfulness is improving people’s health.

How Can You Benefit from Mindfulness and Wellness?

If you want to access the health benefits of mindfulness, we recommend you check out Alpe Audio’s Everyday Mindfulness course. This audio course was designed and delivered by Dr. Dina Wyshogrod, a certified MBSR practitioner. Over the course of nineteen lessons (and seventeen guided practices) you will learn the skills of mindfulness based stress reduction – without ever having to attend a lecture or sit down in front of your computer.

Download Alpe Audio and get started on your mindfulness and wellness journey today.