Mindfulness:
Learning to Live in the Moment
April 15, 2010
- What is mindfulness and at what age can a person do this? What about children?
- How effective is mindfulness in producing significant stress reduction in Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
What is mindfulness and at what age can a person do this? What about children?
Mindfulness has two parts, first it is an awareness of one's experience (sensations, sounds, feelings, thoughts), or paying attention to those experiences moment-to-moment and secondly, accepting what you are experiencing in that moment, as it is without judgment.
This can be done at any age, although it has to be tailored to the developmental level of the child/adolescent. There are a number of new materials and books available for enhancing mindfulness with younger children.
How effective is mindfulness in producing significant stress reduction in Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
Mindfulness is very effective with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) because the practice of forms of mindful meditation leads to an overall reduction in general arousal. Thus, the anxiety experiences may remain they become much more tolerable, less intense and tend to occur less frequently with shorter duration.
