Mindfulness

Mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness has been shown to exert a powerful influence on one’s health, wellbeing and happiness (Williams & Penman, 2011). Mindfulness is defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn the founder of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme in Massachusetts as follows: “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” (Kabat-zinn, 1994). Mindfulness was derived from the Buddhist belief system but is not classified as a religious practice. Mindfulness was firstly introduced in Ireland over 20 years ago and has thrived dramatically since. Throughout the assignment the author will critically discuss mindfulness, its numerous amounts of benefits and what hinders the beneficial aspects of mindfulness. Buddha quoted ‘’mindfulness is the direct path to freedom’’, (Batcheor, 2007). This concept will be explored throughout the assignment in great detail.

Mindfulness is known and defined as placing attention in a particular way. Mindfulness practice have been utilised by human beings for many years, and has been demonstrated to be effective both in clinical environments and in laboratories over the past thirty years plus, during in which time mindfulness has become an intimate part of modern medicine and health care in many different ways ( Krasner et al.2009: Ludwig and Kabat-Zinn 2008; Didonna 2008). It is better suited to some individuals than others, such as in the case of anxiety. As mindfulness focuses on the present moment, in the case of anxiety when particular attention is paid to certain thoughts and feelings, it can heighten the intrusive thoughts and the panic associated with anxiety can increase rapidly leading to more frequent panic attacks (Peterson, 2014).   With regards to mental health and well-being, mindfulness is a huge feature, as for some the key for mindfulness is its wordlessness, it is based on a deep intimacy to your own thinking in the present moment (Mace, 2008). Due to this fact a lot of mental health service users are attracted to such a quality as the majority of their care and recovery is based on communicating their thoughts and feelings with nurses and doctors, which some find very difficult. The silence associated with mindfulness allows service users to reconnect with their thoughts and emotions in a very deep personal manner. Mindfulness is a learnt initiative, and in order to achieve all the benefits from mindfulness i.e. finding peace with your thoughts, it should be trialled on a six to eight week basis. The Health Service Executive (HSE) has focused in on mindfulness meditation. The HSE refer to this as a self-help approach, which is used widely by mental health professionals who come into contact with clients or service users who suffer from depression, as they realise the benefits of mindfulness outweigh the limitations of using medication to treat the symptoms of depression (HSE, 2013). To follow on from the benefits the HSE had covered, the University of California (2016) carried out a study on 173 adults over an eight week period who all suffered ‘’treatment resistant depression’’ with no significant remission periods over the last six to eight years, the results show an extraordinary increase in symptom reduction of 25.3% and an increase of remission period to 13.9 %. All results were based on an eight week mindfulness course carried out and monitored by the university.

Mindfulness is not just useful for mental health clients alone. It has also been recognised as a meditation for mental health professionals working in acute and community settings and also their colleagues in a general hospital setting.

Mental health nursing is an integral part of the continuum of nursing practice. The American Nurses Association describes mental health nursing as ‘’a specialised area of nursing practice committed to promoting mental health through the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of human responses to mental health problems and psychiatric disorders’’ (ANA,2007, p.1). As mindfulness is a self- help based approach and can be practised anywhere from sitting down after work at home to on a bus there is no excuse not to practise mindful meditation on an on-going regular basis. It can be time consuming in some regards but it predominately focuses on breathing techniques and a relaxed, calm state of mind.

A study was completed on a total of forty nurses in Australia in 2013 by Foreur et al, twenty nurses and twenty midwives. This category was specifically selected as this group experience high levels of stress in their jobs. As part of the study all forty nurses and midwives attended a one day workshop on mindfulness meditation and mindfulness based stress reduction. The nurses and midwives were instructed to meditate daily for eight consecutive weeks. On commencement of the meditation programme the nurses and midwives completed several questionnaires regarding their general health and well-being, stress and anxiety levels and a variety of depression scales. All forty completed the eight weeks of mindfulness meditation and the findings concluded to show significant improvements on stress and anxiety scales in the workplace and in daily living. Participants commented saying they felt ‘’it was beneficial and would meditate again in the future’’ (Foureur et al, 2013). Meditation is a learnt process and as shown above can be used in stress based jobs including but not specific to nursing careers with particular significance based on mental health nursing and the stress related to such a profession.