Why should you practice Mindfulness?
- It increases positive emotions while reducing stress
- It increases density of gray matter in brain regions associated to learning, memory, emotion and empathy
- It cultivates compassion and enhances relationships
- It helps us focus by improving memory and attention skills
What about Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence uses emotional information to guide thinking and behavior. It’s a set of verbal and nonverbal abilities that enable us to generate, recognize, express, understand and evaluate our own and other’s emotions in order to guide thinking and actions that successfully cope with environmental demands and pressures. It has been proven that people with higher EQ have greater mental health, better job performance and more potent leadership skills.
Call it mindfulness or call it emotional intelligence it seems that the goal here is to be able to relate to your own emotions as well as what other people are feeling, and use those emotions to get the best out of ourselves and others!
Part of living a full life is to truly experience the world around us and within us.
Mindfulness could be a big word to understand, so to put it simply, mindfulness = awareness. It is noticing our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and anything around us that is happening right now. Mindfulness, then, is simply inviting us to stop and observe and to be present in the moment. You don’t even need to name it “mindfulness.” It can be listening, feeling, noticing or being aware.
For many who practice yoga, the concept of mindfulness is familiar and well-practiced. But if we keep our mindful techniques to ourselves, we aren’t sharing an important tool of living a full and happy life.
And who else could greatly benefit from practicing mindfulness? Our children.
Teaching our children to experience, question and value the world around them not only adds to their childhood, but helps to build inquisitive and insightful adults. Children are naturally curious and uninhibited and those traits can be quite powerful, especially when focused on and expanded upon.
Studies have shown that children who practice mindfulness will experience better moods and a higher self-esteem. They may perform better academically and have improved social skills, like the ability to navigate and peacefully resolve conflicts.
Mindfulness is also considered an effective tool to deal with anxiety and aggression.