week 6 post 2 for mrs dunley

Week 6 post 2
The practice of mindfulness is a vital part of human happiness and functionality. Mindfulness is the 'non-judgmental, moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment,' according to the greater good science center. It is important because it allows people to be more in control of their thoughts and actions as well as their emotions. It does this by promoting a sense of focus and awareness, which is something many people lack in modern society due to the fast pace at which everything moves. It allows people to look at the world from a very neutral, passive tone, which in turn takes away a lot of the stress behind many situations. All of this, in turn, makes for happier, longer lives. A major part of mindfulness is the awareness of one's thoughts. The pace of modern society has people thinking more about the past and the future than they ever do about the current time. The present is when relationships are cultivated, and life is happening. it is essential to be able to focus and be able to be aware of one's thoughts because there is a strong correlation between mind-wandering in the present and being unhappy a short time later. there is a study done by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert about how when our minds wander we tend to think about unpleasant things and people are enormously less happy when they do that because they are thinking about things that they need to get done, that they need to plan, rather than focusing on what they can do at the moment and appreciating what they have.That is not to say that all mind-wandering is bad, but what it is more important to realize what one's thoughts are about and that it is important to be focused on the moment, which is why mindfulness is important. when people can tap into mindfulness they can be so much more aware and control of their emotions and actions which allows them to be more empathetic because it takes away some of their own opinions and enters a more understanding, less self-centered point of view which in turn makes people happier because when people are worried about themselves all of the time it is hard to lead a fulfilling life because ultimately happiness is dependent on things such as giving and understanding others. Another way that mindfulness can help with the cultivation of happiness is that it creates a sense of gratitude because it helps people to appreciate things at the moment. a consensus many scientists have come to is that mindfulness can improve attention, allow people to be in better touch with emotions, strengthening immune systems, more resiliency to stressful situations, change habits of thinking towards more natural human mannerisms such as optimism, kindness and other prosocial actions. this leads to the question of how can mindfulness be applied to someone's everyday life?

     The scientific research shows that using meditation and incorporating mindfulness-based activities into schools could lead to a much more focused, relaxed, healthy learning environment. For example at Toluca Lake Elementary School in Los Angeles, some of the teachers were having issues with aggression among students, trouble focusing, and trouble getting students to understand what they were teaching so the teachers began to lead the children through a 45-minute set of exercises focused on breathing listening movement and reflection. this in turn led to better test scores, a Better Learning environment, less aggression, and many of the students looked forward to school rather than being stressed out by it; for example a seven-year-old named Emily talks about why she likes the class "I like the class because it makes me calm and soft inside and makes me feel good". for a 7-year-old student to be able to recognize how this straightforward Act of focusing had a positive impact on her life shows that it would be beneficial to incorporate into other classroom situations. It was found by tara Healy that when small increments of 5 to 15 minutes of meditation were used in work settings, people were able to work more cohesively; people were able to work more calmly, people were less stressed, and there was less tension in the workplace. Women and parents who used mindfulness and meditation throughout their pregnancy found that there was a boost in positive emotion towards their new child, lowering of pregnancy anxiety, it reduced the likelihood of postpartum depression, and reduced negative emotions towards the new change in their life in a study done by Jon Kabat Zinn. The question that arises after all of these points is, why isn't this a more widely accepted, widely used method? The reason is that people are afraid of the stigmatism that comes with it.  People have this idea that it is a practice used by hippies and people who should not be taken seriously. people need to incorporate it into settings such a school, work, and even Homelife because it has such great scientifically proven statistics that show less stress and greater happiness. One last thing is that there are so many different forms of meditation that it is hard for people not to be able to find one that suits them. For example, painting can be a form of meditation, or the loving-kindness meditation, or the body scan meditation, or mindful breathing, which are all promoted by the greater good science center.