Do you ever notice that you are going about your day and you find yourself on a negative thought train? You keep repeating the same negative sentence over and over again.
“I don’t like about my job.” “I don’t like about my body. “My life just isn’t what I want it to be.”As you stay on this negative thought train, you notice your body feeling tense and your overall enjoyment of the day going down. Research shows that obsessive thinking and rumination are associated with binge-eating, anxiety, depression, lack of self-esteem, and greater irritability and restlessness.
Our ability to make judgements about our environment helped us survive when we were hunter-gatherers. However, this way of thinking doesn’t benefit us so much at the supermarket, in the office, or in bed. Furthermore, obsessing and ruminating about the past or the future will only lead one to feeling disempowered and frustrated. Why? Because all we have control over is right here in this present moment.
This is good news and research has found that by training the mind to be here with mindfulness, we can reduce anxiety (1), depression (3), enhance focus and attention (2) and reduce binge…
