Best Businesses for Mindfulness in Virginia

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which individuals focus on the now, reawaken oneself to the present, and maintain awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress. During a mindfulness session, individuals reconnect with their body and the sensations they experience. This means being aware of the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. Mindfulness can be cultivated through seated, walking, lying (body scan meditation), standing, and moving meditation; short pauses individuals insert into everyday life; merging meditation practice with other activities, such as yoga or sports. Practicing mindfulness exercises can be effective in alleviating stress, anxiety, pain, depression, high blood pressure, asthma and fibromyalgia. Other benefits include improved attention, decreased job burnout and better sleep quality. It allows individuals to accept themselves as they are, rather than judging themselves all the time, and also to exercise greater choice in life. Mindfulness Based Approaches have also been used to support the treatment of addiction, cancer, eating disorders, chronic pain, anxiety, suicide, borderline personality disorder, relationship enhancement in couples and many other areas. Anyone can practice mindfulness, it is safe to do, and can be practiced as often as necessary.