Mindfulness

Posted On February 12, 2024

Have you ever had that day where you feel disconnected and pulled too many directions at once? Under those circumstances, it is difficult to concentrate, and you may feel overwhelmed, anxious, and depressed.

 

This article will tackle a subject we have written about before mindfulness. Mindfulness is a critical concept to grasp to enhance your journey down the healing path from dissociative identity disorder.

 

What is Mindfulness?

 

 

One definition of mindfulness is that it is the essential human ability to be fully present and aware of who we are, where we are, and what we are doing. When practicing mindfulness, you are not reactive or overwhelmed by what is happening because you sit with your emotions and thoughts without judgment.

 

Mindfulness requires that you focus primarily on yourself while you spend time thinking about your thoughts and reactions to the world around you. Being mindful can help you avoid reacting automatically and enhance your cognitive awareness.

 

Often, mindfulness is used as a tool to enhance one’s mental health. This practice is also helpful with many mental health conditions, lessening anxiety, depression, and stress reactions, and has helped people with addictions.

 

Starting and Ending Your Day Mindfully

 

 

 

If you are like many people, morning is when you get out of bed and face a tough time because you focus on your many responsibilities throughout the day. However, there is a mindfulness practice that can help with the morning doldrums.

 

The first thing you do before even uncovering is to recognize and name an intention, referring to underlying motivations you may have for everything you think, do, or say. This is because when we act in unintended fashions, there is a deep disconnect between unconscious and faster impulses of the lower brain and the slower conscious parts of the brain.

 

By setting intentions, your brain makes connections that help to strengthen the connection between the conscious and unconscious regions of the brain.

Here are a few prompts to help you think about the activities and other people you will face throughout the day.

 

“How can I have the most impact today?”

 

“What must I do to keep myself healthy and care for myself?”

 

“How can I connect well and feel more fulfilled?”

 

“How can I have more compassion on others and myself?”

 

By asking yourself these prompts and others like them, you can set up your day to live it with intention and not simply allow it to pass unnoticed. Throughout the day, check in with yourself by pausing your daily activities and examining your motivations and needs. Then, in the evening, you will be aware of your accomplishments.

 

You can employ many other methods for your daily dose of mindfulness.

 

Growing Mindful on Your Healing Journey

 

 

The central tenant of mindfulness is to focus on yourself with all your flaws and accomplishments without judgment. Chronic stress leads to the formation of distress and overwhelm, which can then enhance your chances of developing a mental health condition.

 

Mindfulness is a tool that helps people remain grounded and increases their self-esteem. Growing research suggests that mindfulness increases one’s mental health and eases the negative impacts of stress on people.

 

On your healing journey, you will encounter stress on the job, at home, and when being among family and friends. Using mindfulness during your days to get yourself emotionally regulated makes stress have much less of an impact on you, making you happier and more grounded in the now.

 

Mindfulness is Not for Everyone  

 

 

Mindfulness allows you to manage your whole person, including your brain, mind, behavior, body, and personal relationships. Because there are so many benefits to mindfulness, it is often practiced in psychotherapy to treat major depression and dissociative identity disorder. Some also use it to overcome addictions and eating disorders. Scientific evidence suggests that using mindfulness might prevent relapse in mental health disorders and addictions.

 

However, while mindfulness is a valuable arrow to keep in your quiver, it is unsuitable for everyone. Some of us with dissociative identity disorder experience more stress, insomnia, and having too many memories and emotions come at us at once caused by concentrating on ourselves. New memories or information about our pasts can erupt from our minds and cause some to think of dying by suicide.

 

Some multiples who use mindfulness experience extreme emotional dysregulation and emotional numbness in which they feel no emotions at all.

 

I heavily advise that anyone who has DID and wishes to explore the benefits of mindfulness do so in the presence of a mental health professional so you don’t get lost in the past.

 

Mindfulness and Chronic Pain

 

 

A leader in mindfulness practice, John Kabat-Zinn, once stated, “Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.”

 

Mindfulness principles are proven to help people manage the many symptoms of stress, depression, and anxiety. Still, research has also shown that mindfulness is effective as a tool for the management of chronic pain.

 

Mindfulness improves the psychological experience of pain by:

 

• Decreasing reactivity and rumination.
• Improving the person’s emotional flexibility.
• Increasing a sense of acceptance of pain.
• Reducing avoidant behaviors and rumination on the pain.
• Inducing relaxation and decreasing stress.

 

Mindfulness will not cause pain to go away, but it can make it more bearable.

 

Ending Our Time Together

 

Mindfulness is not difficult to practice. Indeed, it may be so easy you’ll wonder why you didn’t try it before. Practicing mindfulness gives one a tool to use when under stress or in chronic pain.

 

When used by multiples who have dissociative identity disorder, mindfulness might not be advisable when first entering treatment unless it is done in the presence of their therapist.

 

I have practiced mindfulness now that I am far down the road to healing. I have used it when I’ve been under tremendous stress or want to take better care of myself.

 

Be careful if you are newly diagnosed as a multiple. Tell your therapist you are considering exploring mindfulness and follow their guidelines.

 

“If it’s out of your hands, it deserves freedom from your mind, too.” – Ivan Nuru.

 

“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.”

– Sakyong Mipham.

 

“In a world full of doing, doing, doing, it’s important to take a moment to just breathe, to just be.” – Unknown.