Mindfulness is a very simple form of meditation that was little known in the West until the last few years. It is defined as “a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.”
Mindfulness meditation involves focusing your whole attention on how you are breathing as it flows in and out of your body.
By focusing on your breathing in this way it allows you to observe your thoughts as they arise in your mind, and bit by bit, to let go of them.
As well as experiencing good feelings, people need: a sense of individual vitality to undertake activities which are meaningful, engaging, and which make them feel competent and autonomous a stock of inner resources to help them cope when things go wrong and be resilient to changes beyond their immediate control.
It is also crucial that people feel a sense of relatedness to other people, so that in addition to the personal, internally focused elements, people’s social experiences – the degree to which they have supportive relationships and a sense of connection with others – form a vital aspect of well-being.
What is happiness? People have agonised over this question for centuries, but only recently has science begun to weigh in on the debate.
But what isn’t happiness? Happiness is Not: Feeling Good All The Time Skeptics have often asked whether a person who uses cocaine every day is “happy.”
If feeling good all the time were our only requirement, then the answer would be “yes.” However, recent research suggests that an even-keeled mood is more psychologically healthy than a mood in which you achieve great heights of happiness regularly.