How Mindfulness can add to your Well Being

A New Dimensions Media interview with Diana Winston.

About this 1 hour programme: One thing that shows up in the research across the board is that people who practice mindfulness report being happier. What doesn’t show up in the findings is that their lives automatically get better. They don’t necessarily stop getting sick or stop having difficulties, or challenges, or losing their jobs. They lead normal lives, like all of us do. But, the quality of their mind and their ability to be happy in the face of it is different. What mindfulness does is to shift and change our attitude, and create a way of being in the world with more peace and balance instead of being at the mercy of these ups and downs of life. 

Winston says, “Mindfulness can change your relationship to life from being stuck in it to having a little-bit of space around it… I like to use the definition of mindfulness as attending to the present moment and experiences with openness and curiosity.” So, when we are in the midst of our life, and we’re lost in an experience that is painful or unpleasant, we can learn to have a little space and not be so caught by the problems. (hosted by Michael Toms)

Topics explored in this dialogue:

- How Mindfulness changes your relationships to life
- What is the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA
- What are the conditions that create a mental health
- How can mindfulness help us to stay focused
- How mindfulness changes the brain in good ways
- Why paying attention to the breath can be a foundational practice in Mindfulness
- What are some of the beneficial effects of practicing mindfulness both physically and mentally
- How can mindfulness help with chronic pain

Listen to the interview:

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Listen to a 5 minute Breathing Meditation with Diana Winston:

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Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA, where she teaches mindfulness to the general public, health professionals, educators, and many others. She has been teaching mindfulness nationally since 1998 and is a member of the Teacher’s Council as Spirit Rock Meditation Center, in Northern California. To learn more about her work go to Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA.