MEDITATION ORIGINS. Part 5 of 5.

A recent study, which was published in the prominent medical journal The Lancet, goes even further: It demonstrates that mindfulness — specifically, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) — can avoid the return of depression as efficiently as antidepressant medicines, and perhaps more so in individuals who have had severe childhood trauma.

Why don't clinicians prescribe mindfulness to their depressed or anxious patients before potentially harmful mind-altering medicines, given that mindfulness has similar benefits on anxiety and pain? The United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), where MBCT originated, advocates mindfulness for depression. The growing acceptance of MBCT suggests that if it isn't currently available in a psychiatrist's office near you, it will be soon.

The growing emphasis on test scores in the education system has resulted in a de-emphasis on essential skills such as social and emotional intelligence, stress management, and attention control, which research shows are just as crucial for success and well-being later in life. The expanding mindful school movement emphasises mindfulness meditation's advantages in lowering stress, establishing more harmonious classrooms, and making students and teachers happier, more focused, and more compassionate.

Through numerous organisations around the world, teachers may now learn how to practise mindfulness meditation and then offer mindfulness to their children in methods tailored to the needs of a developing child. Mindful Schools, the most well-known of these organisations, claims to have educated over 50,000 teachers from more than 60 countries.

Though there has been some criticism that meditation promotes a particular religion — an issue that is receding as mindfulness becomes an essential and well-researched component of the worlds healthcare system — the data speak for themselves. Consequently, an increasing number of teachers and schools around the world are including basic mindfulness training — or at the very least a brief pause at the outset of class for a few moments of calm and reflection — into their curriculum.

Most individuals spend most of their time at work, and the quality of their experience there considerably influences their physical and psychological well-being. If you are always stressed or worried, your overall health and happiness will suffer, and so will your attention, effectiveness, and productivity. All those glowing studies touting the benefits of mindfulness have finally caught the attention of the corporate world, and an increasing number of companies — including some big names like Apple, Google, Fcebook, and Microsoft — are now incorporating it into their on-the-job offerings to employees.

Be well.

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