Mindfulness for Medicos

    The last few decades have seen an explosion of mindfulness related literature. There is mindfulness meditation, mindful breathing, mindful eating and so on. Anyone trying to search on how to manage stress on the internet is likely to come across the term mindfulness, for sure. Yet, a lot of this information available on internet does not clarify the basic tenets of mindfulness. Origin of Mindfulness The essence of mindfulness derives from  Buddhist and ancient Hindu philosophies  like Vipassana which had been practiced by monks and ascetics for thousands of years. The term is loosely derived from the Pali word  ‘sati’   or Sanskrit word   ‘smrti’   which means ‘remembrance or reminiscence or calling upon mind’. The most popular of all mindfulness exercises, mindful breathing is de rived from Anapanasati, is the quintessential form of Buddhist meditation and has been mentioned in different sutras. Anapana means inhalation and exhalation, sati m...

   “Sometimes there’s just no way to hold back the river.”  – Paulo Coelho Let them flow! Many a times, we all may have experienced that when we let our emotions move freely, give them a breathing space, just feel them without acting on them or suppressing them, after a while, they will change. In therapy, we call it grounding or anchoring ourselves in the midst of emotional waves.   Try doing this for a minute or so. Say you are feeling anxious for any reason, and instead of avoiding the uncomfortable sensations, running away from your feelings, pushing it or challenging yourself to feel this way or that way, try sitting with the emotion and holding it.   Open yourself to this emotion and soon it will change to some other emotion, like sadness, which may transform to shame or guilt and your mind may be telling you that you are hitting rock-bottom and soon that transforms to gratitude, then to joy or humor, or happiness and love and may be compassion and agai...