Six Most Powerful Mindfulness Quotes with Benefits

Scientific studies confirmed that benefits of mindfulness-based meditation are remarkable. I discussed here, the six most powerful benefits of mindfulness meditation with six inspirational quotes. Whether you are doctor, engineer, lawyer or any other professionals, practicing mindfulness will give you immense benefits.

The cultivation of joy is an important element of mindfulness practice. Joy helps us to be more fully present to life, and it also gives us the motivation. The actual practice of mindfulness involves moment to moment happiness awareness of what is happening now, both internally and externally.

 

1 Mindfulness as Collaboration with Nature:

A University of Washington study divided participants into three groups. One received an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation, another received some training later and the third received only body relaxation training.

Only the individuals who received the meditation training showed cognitive improvements on the test and those participants’ concentration abilities “improved significantly.”

This change is thought to be due to the way meditation improves neural communication, including among attentional networks and between those areas and the frontal region.

 

Collaboration is the essence of life. The wind, bees and flowers work together, to spread the pollen.  — Amit Ray

 

2. Mindfulness to Conquer Pain and Anxiety

Studies have repeatedly shown the efficacy of meditation as a method of managing chronic pain. Research shows that the benefit is achieved through reducing pain intensity by activating specific areas of the brain related to “pain processing.”

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath. – Amit Ray

 

3. Mindfulness Reduces Loneliness, Inflammation

In 2012, a small study was launched to see the effects of meditation on a group of seniors versus a control group who did not meditate.

The results were clear: meditating seniors were less lonely and physically healthier. The physical benefits were linked to “a significant drop in the expression of inflammation-related genes.”

In every bend of time there is some surprise, joy and beauty. Mindfulness is the light to discover it. — Amit Ray

 

4. Mindfulness Improves Stress Resilience:

Mindfulness improves self-control, objectivity,  tolerance, enhanced flexibility, equanimity, improved concentration and mental clarity, and emotional intelligence.

Study found that people who practice mindfulness meditation appear to develop the skill of self-observation, which neurologically disengages the automatic pathways that were created by prior learning and enables present-moment input to be integrated in a new way (Siegel, 2007a). Meditation also activates the brain region associated with more adaptive responses to stressful or negative situations (Cahn & Polich, 2006; Davidson et al., 2003). Activation of this region corresponds with faster recovery to baseline after being negatively provoked (Davidson, 2000; Davidson, Jackson, & Kalin, 2000).

Life is a collection of moments. Mindfulness is beautification of the moments. – Amit Ray

5. Mindfulness Improves Emotional Intelligence and Attention

Another study examined how mindfulness meditation affected participants’ ability to focus attention and suppress distracting information. The researchers compared a group of experienced mindfulness meditators with a control group that had no meditation experience. They found that the meditation group had significantly better performance on all measures of attention and had higher self-reported mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation practice and self-reported mindfulness were correlated directly with cognitive flexibility and attentional functioning (Moore and Malinowski, 2009).

Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance. – Amit Ray

 

6. Mindfulness enhances creativity

The two main factors that determine levels of creativity are: divergent thinking (coming up with lots of ideas) and convergent thinking (solidifying those ideas into one brilliant concept.)

Researchers at Leiden University led by Cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato studied the effects of two different types of meditation practices on divergent and convergent thinking. They found that mindful meditation significantly improved both divergent and convergent thinking.

 

Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world. – Amit Ray

 

If you are interested about mindfulness and meditation, commit to a daily practice. Start by committing to a time-frame that you can be easily achieved.  It can be  5-10 minutes per day. After practicing for a week, re-evaluate and see if you’d like to meditate longer or shorter. The most powerful evidence of whether these practices will “work” for you isn’t a study, but direct experience. So, give it a try and understand for yourself.

 

Source: From the book:   Mindfulness : Living in the Moment – Living in the Breath By Amit Ray