How Mindfulness Helps Reduce Stress, Build Compassion and Create More Joy

Can Mindfulness Change the Brain? The Science Behind, Calm, Compassion & Joy

Mindfulness was once viewed in the West as an alternative or purely spiritual practice.

Today, neuroscience research is helping us to uncover why mindfulness can have such a powerful influence on our emotional wellbeing.

For many busy professional women, this research offers something important:

Hope.

Because - what we might have perceived as "just us" is actually how the brain works. 

The good news - science now suggests that the brain can continue changing throughout our lives.

Can Mindfulness Change the Brain?

It all changed in the 1990s with the introduction of brain imaging technology and a little help from the Dalai Lama.  Using FMRI technology scientists began observing brain activity during different types of meditation. 

Researchers compared the brains of meditators and non-meditators during mindfulness practices watching different areas of the brain light up. 

They even tracked the brain's development in non-meditators learning to meditate.

One of the most significant discoveries - the brain can reshape its neural pathways.

This ability, known as neuroplasticity, means we are not permanently fixed in our emotional habits and stress responses.

The brain can change and so can our emotional patterns.

What Scientists Have Discovered About Mindfulness

Mindfulness research has uncovered benefits for:

• Improved stress regulation
• Reduced emotional reactivity
• Greater emotional resilience
• Increased self-awareness
• Increased empathy and compassion

And the Dalai Lama?

The Dalai Lama was asked to invite monks with decades of meditation experience, to take part in the initial research.  Observing that the West focuses too heavily on what is wrong, he agreed to take part as long as scientists also looked at the positive traits of kindness and compassion.

They agreed!  They soon discovered that kindness and compassion practices increase the size of the areas of the brain associated with empathy and compassion.  In long term meditating monks - these areas of the brain are thicker!

Why Self-Compassion Matters

For many women, self-kindness can feel uncomfortable at first.

We often associate compassion with weakness, indulgence or self-pity.

But emotionally, self-compassion is incredibly important.

It not only balances our emotional well being but what is less well known, is it's capacity to support our personal development.   As mindfulness increases self-awareness, we naturally begin noticing aspects of ourselves that may feel difficult or uncomfortable.

It can feel a little like opening that cupboard under the stairs where we've hidden the stuff we don't want to see. 

We notice:

• Stress patterns
• Emotional triggers
• Self-critical thoughts
• Old coping strategies
• Behaviours that no longer serve us

Some of us are chronic overthinkers and this can make mindfulness seem impossible.

Without self compassion, this awareness can quickly turn into more self-judgement.  This closes us down to our experience.  

We have to take it slowly and work with the edges. 

With compassion, we create a sense of emotional safety.  A container.

And it is often within that emotional safety that genuine change begins.

Mindfulness, Joy and Emotional Ease

Mindfulness is not simply about reducing stress.

Over time, it can also help us to reconnect with experiences that become lost beneath emotional overload and constant mental busyness.

Experiences like:

• Calm
• Connection
• Gratitude
• Presence
• Joy
• Emotional spaciousness

Joy in mindfulness is not about forced positivity.

It is often quieter than that.

It can be found in moments of ease, self-acceptance, presence and emotional relief.

A More Compassionate Way of Living

Mindfulness helps us become more aware of how we think, react and relate to ourselves.

And perhaps most importantly, it reminds us that change is possible.

No matter how long certain emotional patterns have existed, the brain remains capable of learning new ways of responding.

That is where hope begins.

And often, where joy begins too.

If you're interested in easing your way into a daily practice or learning more, try our calming app or download our free guide for overthinking and overwhelm.