Mindfulness means paying attention to the present moment with a non-critical, non-reactive and accepting attitude.
The core principles of Mindfulness are known as equanimity and impermanence.
Equanimity means a neutral response to something we experience. It is a state of consciousness in which we do not feel aversion to unpleasant experiences or a craving for pleasant ones. Other ways to describe equanimity are poise, calm, and composure.
Impermanence signifies the changing nature of all things, including our own thoughts and feelings. By experiencing the changing nature of inner experiences, we can let go of rigid viewpoints that can sometimes lead to stress and unhappiness.
Do you see how mindfulness can be helpful for eating disorder treatment? It helps us develop the state of balance or equanimity in which we do not dislike unpleasant experiences or crave pleasant ones.
When you binge, right before you start you always have these overwhelming feelings of food cravings. Before starving himself, he has feelings of aversion or disgust with himself and his body, so he stops eating.
With mindfulness, you’ll be able to see your eating disorder as a strange voice (or person) sitting inside of you telling you what to do. When you practice mindfulness, you will be able to separate yourself from this strange voice and be free.
Mindfulness is a subset of meditation practices. To be aware first of all you must learn to meditate. Mindfulness and meditation are similar but not exactly the same. As we have already explained, mindfulness is awareness of the present moment. Purpose Meditation is the intentional self-regulation of attention. During meditation you regulate and control your attention. And this is a development of mindfulness.
In mindfulness you learn not to judge and not to react. Observe what happens without judgment, from moment to moment, without any reactivity towards any part of the experience, be it thought or sensation. By decreasing our hyperactivity in the critical part of the mind and the reactive part of the mind, our nervous system learns to change its pattern. It becomes less critical, less reactive, more objective, giving us more opportunities to handle life whatever the problem.
This method is not limited to eating disorders, anxieties, fears or depression. People of different religions have been practicing this method in different ways for thousands of years. This is certainly not limited to psychological or emotional problems.
Everyone will benefit by decreasing reactivity, decreasing biased judgments, providing new parameters to the nervous system, and more insight and focused attention. In a nutshell, the purpose of practicing mindfulness training is to develop a degree of acceptance of one’s own experience and, of course, an equivalent degree of awareness. When things become acceptable on the inside, it seems that people find things more acceptable on the outside as well. The world becomes a better place.
