Mindfulness

This video explains the concept of mindfulness and how it can help individuals to think logically rather than being led by emotions. It uses the example of a girl named Louisa to illustrate how mindfulness can help break negative associations and improve decision-making.

"What is mindfulness?" Mindfulness and meditation practices help to build awareness and focused attention. The term "mindfulness" refers to your mind paying full attention to what's going on. Everyone has the ability to be mindful; you just have to learn how to access this ability. Mindfulness can help change one's mindset. The brain has a tendency to create associations between situations, events, people, emotions, and everything else. These associations help categorize the overwhelming amount of information the brain is constantly being presented with. By making these categorizations, the brain is able to refer to past experiences to decide how to handle situations that seem similar. However, the brain is not perfect, and these associations may be incorrect. For example, consider Louisa. She attends a friend's party and has a horrible time. The next time she's invited to a party, she feels dread and says no right away. Because of Louisa's poor experience at one party, she thinks that all parties will make her feel bad. Louisa's feelings are valid, although it likely isn't true that all parties will make her feel bad. Using mindfulness can help Louisa think about what she didn't enjoy the first time and avoid those things that make her feel bad, rather than avoiding all parties. Mindfulness practices cultivate awareness of what's going on in your mind. Through being mindful, you can slow down your thoughts and recognize when associations, like Louisa's association with parties, are taking place. Overall, mindfulness helps you think with logic rather than being led by emotions.