The Power of Mindfulness for Everyone

by Amber Adrian

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One time a therapist told me I should “stay away from mindfulness.” This was several years ago now. My husband and I both deal with anxiety, and we’ve prioritized strategies like counseling to help us manage.

We’d been going to this counselor for several months, and we saw him both separately and together. He was a Christian, he specialized in anxiety, and he was helping us. He and I had connected personally too, because he was also a writer. (We even attended the same Christian writing conference one year, a sort of fun but sort of awkward coincidence.)

After one of our sessions after the conference, we were making small talk and he casually asked what I write about. Like many writers, I never know quite how to answer that question, so I replied with the tagline of my blog, “intentional living and mindfulness.”

I don’t remember exactly how the conversation went after that, but I remember these exact words he said: “I think mindfulness is something we need to stay away from as Christians.” 

Despite how much he’d helped us, I knew this wasn’t going to be a long-term relationship. I don’t think we went back after that.

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The Power of Mindfulness

Why such a strong reaction, you might ask. I suppose because of my lived experience. The practice of mindfulness – which is simply awareness of the present moment – is probably the single most helpful thing I’ve learned over the last decade or so of my life. It’s helped me so much, especially with anxiety (the irony). I felt that someone who didn’t understand the power of mindfulness couldn’t take me any further on my wellness journey. 

The awareness generated by a mindfulness practice – of your body, your thoughts/feelings, of what’s happening around you – is powerful. A practice that works well for me is simply naming my feelings. It sounds easy at first, but it’s actually pretty challenging for people to do naturally. It requires that you slow down and tune in to your body, and then name the feeling out loud.

“I’m feeling angry.”

“I’m feeling annoyed.”

“I’m feeling scared.” (This can be a tricky one, as people who feel scared often act angry.)

“I’m feeling anxious/worried.”

It’s harder than it seems (for lots of reasons), but the positive effect is almost instant. The act of being aware of and then naming your emotions out loud diminishes their power over you. You realize that you’re not your feelings (or your thoughts, for that matter) and that you have control over them. This is mindfulness: the ability to have the presence to be still and observe what’s happening in any given moment.

If you have young kids, you know that they’re absorbing everything all the time. They’re learning how to be a person from watching you, so they mimic what you say and do, for better or for worse (like the time my 3-year-old daughter announced “It’s frickin’ cold out here!”). 

Because I practice mindfulness, I’m more aware of my needs and feelings, and my daughter has picked that right up. She routinely tells me that she’s excited, or frustrated, or happy, or disappointed, or, most recently, “stressed.” She’s also gaining skills in knowing and expressing her needs: “I need some alone time” is a common one, and she’s recently been saying “I need some love.” (If we could all be that brave and aware!) 

It isn’t all by osmosis – I try to teach her mindfulness, too. We have a book in our house called Charlotte and the Quiet Place. In it, the main character is routinely stressed by her loud environment and her inability to find somewhere that’s quiet and peaceful. She realizes that if she just breathes and focuses on her breath, she can create a peaceful, quiet place herself, right inside her own mind. My daughter loves the book and asks for it regularly.

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Mindfulness Misconceptions

I realize why my counselor said what he said, or at least I think I do. Mindfulness sounds New Age-y. Its official roots reach back to Buddhism. It seems like the same logic as people who think Christians shouldn’t do yoga. (A friend described to me a situation where she was working in her church’s childcare room, and the kids were in a rowdy state. She gathered them and said they were going to do a little yoga together, and one of the girls promptly said, “I can’t do yoga. My mom says.”)

I get it. It feels threatening, like you might be partaking in a different religion or embracing a practice that isn’t Christian. But, that’s just not the case. When you do yoga or practice mindfulness or meditate, you’re participating in highly effective ways of managing your mental health, and you might also be surprised to know (as I was) that Eastern thinking and practices actually have history in Christianity. 

In recent years, I’ve learned about the “desert fathers and mothers” of Christianity, and it’s given me even more confidence that it actually makes perfect sense to embrace practices like mindfulness as Christians. Turns out there’s such a thing as Eastern Christianity, and therefore these practices, which are indeed very Eastern, might be considered as “Christian” as, say, reading the Bible and or taking Communion or singing worship songs with your hands raised.

This part of Christianity’s history is one that’s been largely left out of the narrative, at least in the Western world. Richard Rohr, a writer and Catholic priest, explains:

Early Eastern Christianity set the foundation and ground for what we would now call contemplation. They are, as it were, the “Buddhists” of Christianity. The Western Church was always more missionary-oriented, more practical, and also focused on academic learning. That made a big difference in our two approaches, and obviously there are strengths and weaknesses to both. Our biggest loss was that we did not balance one another out.

Mindfulness has been a powerful force for me in learning to care for myself, and we recently named our second daughter after an amazing woman from this early period of Christianity (Saint Clare of Assisi).  Whether you embrace this ancient contemplative Christianity as I have or remain steadfast in your chosen Christian brand – or wherever you are on your spiritual walk – it’s all beside the point here. No matter who you are, you can use mindfulness to help manage and improve your life.  

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To me, mindfulness is needed now more than ever. The famed Old Testament scholar Walter Bruegemann seems to agree. He said recently that what’s most needed in our world today is “non-anxious presence.” Our modern world is filled with anxious people, and isn’t the Bible’s most frequent command to not be afraid? 

We need to abandon the idea that mindfulness is something we should “stay away from as Christians.” Mindfulness is a tool, with strong roots in Christianity, available to anyone at any time. Practice it to your great benefit. 

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Call to Action: To join the rest of our Cultivate series and build positive habits for your mind, body, and soul, click here.  Upcoming topics include using our Emotions as Tools for Transformation, Overcoming Anxiety, and Managing Depression.

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About the Author: Amber Adrian is a former English teacher and current freelance writer. She’s an Enneagram 6 and mama to two little girls. Amber writes about personal growth, books, overwhelm, parenting, minimalism, culture, and mindfulness. She has a monthly newsletter called SLOW, where she links to thoughtful content, talks slow living, and gives away (real) books to her readers. To sign up for her newsletter, read more of her writing, or access her free resource 10 Mantras For Perfectionists, visit her at http://alternativegrace.com.