I believe that embracing a mindfulness practice can be a very powerful and impactful addition to anyone’s lifestyle. Not only does research suggest a number of significant health benefits, mindfulness shows serious promise in helping to overcome symptoms associated with trauma.

Let’s first take a quick look at all of the researched health benefits:

• Reduce stress and help to cope with stressors, de-activate negative stress responses, and offer an alternative coping skill (source)
• Higher brain function (source)
• Increased attention and focus, clarity in thinking (source)
• Improvement in decision-making (source)
• Better immune response (source)
• Lower blood pressure and lower heart rate (source)
• Improve mood regulation (source)
• Decreased depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as help with emotional and self-regulation (source), possibly including decreased depression related to bullying (source)
• Calmness and internal stillness (source)

Additionally, a 2016 study showed positive changes “in prosocial behaviors, emotional regulation, and academic performance” in children. And yet another study found mindfulness to improve emotion regulation, mood, coping/social skills, confidence and self-esteem, empathy, and ability to pay attention and focus in vulnerable children.

This is reason enough for me to make mindfulness practice a priority in my home. So many children, especially those with developmental trauma and special needs, have difficulty with those exact skills. How incredible to think that we parents can proactively support our children to develop those necessary abilities.

Not only that, James Gordon, author of The Transformation, boldly claims that mindfulness is an antidote to trauma. As it “calms the storm,” he explains that it accounts for “better self-regulation, enhanced memory, clearer thinking, greater ability to deal with life’s stresses, and quicker recovery from anger and distress.” (chapter 3) He writes that in addition to all of the physical health benefits, mindfulness’s ability to help us work through maladaptive stress responses is essential. It has the power to calm the amygdala (that part of your brain responsible for flight, flight, freeze reactions) and balance the nervous system, thereby reversing the damage of trauma. Of particular interest, studies are suggesting that mindfulness can even lower cortisol (stress hormone) levels.

Additionally, adopting a mindfulness practice as a daily routine has the potential to rewire those maladaptive stress responses into new, healthier coping skills. By repairing the brain tissue that’s been damaged from trauma, in addition to promoting new tissue growth in the frontal cortex, we have the ability to effectively rewire our brain to make new connections. Pretty cool, huh?

Gordon writes that we can gain strength in self-awareness, thoughtful judgment, and compassion. Not only that, mindfulness practices present the opportunity to work through the limiting beliefs that are so prevalent in those who have experienced trauma. It offers a tool to replace those negative thought processes with empowering alternatives.

The idea of mindfulness can mean a lot of different things to different people. As a Christian I do not subscribe to ideas like meditation or chanting. Instead I believe it’s mostly about noticing.

Noticing feelings.

Noticing thoughts.

Noticing emotions.

Noticing physical sensations.

By being aware and focusing on the present, and by paying attention on purpose, mindfulness helps us figure out what’s going on in our bodies and how to live less on auto-pilot so we can understand how stressors and everyday situations are impacting us, as well as how we interact with others. Mindful defines it as “the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”

You see, normally, our thoughts, feelings, and reactions happen so quickly, they’re almost unconscious. Our stress response, particularly, happens without us even trying. Dr. Dan Siegel shares that we rarely decide which state to be in because our bodies automatically choose based on current circumstances, memories of past experiences, and our innate temperaments. But being aware of ourselves helps us take notice of our responses so we can adjust accordingly, which allows us to be open and receptive to changing our reactions. We can re-center and pay attention to what stressors are having an impact on us and how we move through the world and interact with others.

Though there are a lot of formal ways to practice mindfulness, it’s easy to get started by simply paying attention to our feelings, thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. That alone, can make a huge difference in our ability to gain self-awareness and thoughtful judgment, as well as reduce stress. And don’t we all need more of that?!

Next month, I’ll be sharing about more ways to cultivate a mindfulness practice in daily routines.  For both us and our children.  Especially with the hope of reduced stressed and so many other potential health benefits, what do we have to lose?