There are many benefits of practicing mindfulness in our day-to-day life. Here, we discuss some of the main ones. Evidence has shown that mindfulness can help to:

Reduce stress – Many studies have shown that mindfulness lowers stress. It improves our brain’s ability to manage and control stress. 

Regulate emotions – Mindfulness helps you to restore your emotional balance. It can also decrease emotional reactivity and help you feel more able to manage difficult emotions. 

Reduce anxiety – Studies have shown that practising mindfulness can reduce anxiety, including the risk of developing an anxiety disorder. When anxiety does show up, mindfulness can help us cope better.

Reduce depression – Mindfulness can help reduce the risk of depression, manage depressive symptoms, and prevent the recurrence of depression.

Reduce fatigue – When you are stressed, it is normal to feel fatigued and have difficulties sleeping. Mindfulness can help reduce fatigue and improve your quality of sleep.

Improve physical health and reduce pain – Scientists have found that practising mindfulness techniques helps individuals to improve their physical health (e.g., immune system functioning improves). On the other hand, mindfulness can also significantly reduce physical pain.

Improve concentration – Practising mindfulness can improve our ability to concentrate and focus. It can also improve our memory, decision making and help us to ignore distractions.

Improve well–being – Being mindful helps us to have a satisfying life and health-promoting attitudes. Mindfulness has been found to help us savour the good moments in life, perform better, worry less, be less preoccupied with our image and appearance, and form more meaningful relationships. 

In relation to bullying, mindfulness can help everyone – from the bully, to the victim, and any other bystanders. Through mindfulness, bullies and their victims can both learn to develop greater insight into and awareness of themselves. Bullies, in particular, can use mindfulness to develop a greater sense of compassion for others, whilst victims can use the skills to build resilience and separate themselves from the bullies’ harmful messages. Both parties can use mindfulness to gain greater control over their actions and emotions.