Research has proven that mindfulness is great for anxiety. There are plenty of ways to practice mindfulness:
Mindfulness eating, use of breathing exercises, progressive relaxation for adults and children, yoga, flow activities where we are 100% concentrating on the task in hand such as horse riding, running, team sports, dancing – each person has their own “flow activity” that appeals to their personality and temperament and also all those books that have flooded the market on mindfulness colouring – Because colouring in the intricate designs in a mindfulness colouring book distresses the individual. Mindfulness changes the brain by strengthening the prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that calms down fear) and decreasing the size of the amygdala (the trigger centre of the brain for the fight, flight or freeze response to fear or anxiety). Mindfulness activities also decrease cortisol (the stress hormone) levels in the body and increase neurochemicals (gamma-aminobutyric acid [GABA]) that calm down the brain cells when they get overexcited. Practising such activities when we are not anxious, means that when we recognise the signs that we are becoming overwhelmed, we can use mindfulness to decrease the impact of stress within our body and therefore become calmer.
