Scenario
John (peer) is usually very unsettled. The best suspicion is that he suffers from an anxiety disorder. John always talks about big plans in life, right from excelling in academics, making money, and rising to become a prominent leader in his career. It is common to find him in some sort of a reverie or day-dream. The biggest issue is that he is always quite disorganized; talking about his plans is completely different from actualizing them. For instance, when John studies for a particular unit, he feels as if he is missing out from the others. Therefore, he sometimes tries to do everything at the same time, and this makes him very frustrated at times. Sometimes he takes on a part-time job in the hope of making money but that makes him skip classes and even miss out on some assignments. Despite John having grand ambitions, it is evident that he cannot do all things at the same time, and this realization is making him really irritated.
Overview of Mindfulness Meditation Techniques
Most of the time, taking a lot of time and effort planning, day-dreaming and even thinking can be too draining to the mind. When people think too much about different situations, it is likely that they could drift into depression, anxiety, stress, and generally, negative thoughts. Mindfulness meditation techniques seek to address such issues by emphasizing on the need for individuals to focus and be aware of what they are feeling or sensing at particular moments without judgment or interpretation. Mindfulness meditation techniques can specifically be traced to most Asian countries, especially India, China and Japan ( Chow, 2018) . In India, meditation seems to be intricately linked to the Buddhists (Loizzo, 2014). Individuals attempt to free up their minds and relax their bodies through meditation. For the case of John, different aspects of mindfulness meditation can be applied to help him manage anxiety and embrace positive wellness strategies.
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Strategies
Paying Attention
John’s biggest problem is that he is almost obsessed with achieving everything at the same time. His mind is involved in a race, and consequently, John seems to be competing with almost everyone. The first step is for John to slow down and experience one moment at a time. Secondly, he needs to experience his immediate environment with all his senses (Mayo Clinic, 2018). For example, while drinking his favorite drink or eating food, he needs to feel it and even smell eat. When one day-dreams the same way John does, they move out of reality; they begin to use their subconscious mind. That in essence is a state of fantasy. However, if John experiences his environment, he begins to see things and situations in their reality (Kim-Onnia, 2010). It will be the first step towards setting up realistic plans and trying to accomplish them in their order or priority. To some extent, the anxiety may reduce since he will think and implement one realistic goal at a time.
Focus On Breathing
Breathing exercises are central to mindfulness meditation. John needs to find a quiet place, sit down, close his eyes and breathe out. The process should be repeated even just for a minute for every session. The focus should be on the breathing movements; that means John’s mind will focus only on those movements and not any other thoughts (Mayo Clinic, 2018). The impact of this strategy could be tremendous. Firstly, the patient here thinks too much. The focus on breathing will relieve the mind because instead of focusing on many things, it will only focus on one. It could also be an effective way of teaching self-discipline, and when this exercise is done repeatedly, John’s mind could focus on fewer things, hence less anxiety.
Walking Meditation
This strategy is interconnected with the two mentioned above, only that the patient will be taking a walk. The best place for the patient to take a walk would be a place with little noise, and preferably, one with a lot of nature. The Buddhists are known to isolate themselves in serene environments such as around mountains or around large water bodies ( Bronkhorst, 2012 ). The patient is then supposed to live the moment and experience the surroundings. The experience is akin to casting burdens of the outside busy world and being aware of the soothing nature. Basically, the patient should take a break from the busy thinking and allow the mind and body to relax.
Conclusion
Mindfulness meditation as a therapeutic technique can be very effective in psychology, and especially in impacting wellness of patients with psychological problems. For a long time, healthcare has always leaned more on inventing drugs and treatment methods, which only seek to cure. When individuals fall ill, they only have to go to physicians or healthcare professionals who administer some sorts of algorithms and the patients get well. Prevention and management of mental and psychological conditions has been very challenging because of relatively little attention. However, therapeutic techniques such as mindfulness meditation are gaining more popularity currently because of their effectiveness. Mindfulness meditation can be self-administered at no cost at all, considering that many healthcare sessions are quite expensive. Healthcare and even professionals in psychological fields not only have the responsibility to treat patients with various conditions but also need to prevent and advice on the management of the conditions. In that light, mindfulness meditation is a better technique in addressing psychological conditions such as anxiety, depression and stress. In the emerging field of complementary medicine, mindfulness meditation is poised to become very popular.
References
Bronkhorst, J (2012). Early Buddhist Meditation. ResearchGate
Chow, S. (2018). Meditation History. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Meditation-History.aspx
Kim-Onnia, H. S. (2010). “Meditation changed my life": A study of experiences of Finnish meditation practitioners in Tampere. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/476a/54ec330305d001260b4029d9ec09a0907bbb.pdf
Loizzo, J. (2014). Meditation research, past, present, and future: perspectives from the Nalanda contemplative science tradition. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 1307 (1), 43.
Mayo Clinic. (2018). “ Mindfulness exercises”: Consumer Health. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/mindfulness-exercises/art-20046356
