Mindfulness can be a tool to find the pleasures in everyday experiences, despite tough situations—even a cancer diagnosis. Patients with cancer and other serious illnesses tend to reminisce about the times before their diagnosis, but this way of thinking limits patients from creating new, pleasurable experiences, because they become attached to feelings that are only temporary, Kate Adelstein, a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia School of Nursing, explained at the 2015 meeting of the Association of VA Hematology/Oncology.
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Ms. Adelstein suggested the use of mindfulness to replace the temporary negativity by paying attention to current thoughts, senses, and feelings and then letting the emotions pass. She explains that as clinicians, we should let patients know that “It’s okay, whatever it is, to explore it with curiosity, but also understand that the negative thoughts are going to pass eventually. All thoughts, sensations, and emotions are fleeting, so they shouldn’t have control over you. They shouldn’t define your experience.”
With many thoughts and senses engaged at once, Ms. Adelstein also explained how mindfulness has many benefits for clinicians during their day.
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“Mindfulness can help by allowing you to tune out the distractions in your own head. To really focus on what you’re doing, really have the experiences that you’re having, to take a few breaths between each experience so you can be fully present.”
Mindfulness also has other emotional benefits, such as boosting self-compassion, which helps develop compassion for others.
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Ms. Adelstein also suggested trying mind-body practices, such as yoga, meditation, body scanning, and guided imagery, as mindfulness exercises to achieve a “state of being.” She made it very clear that mindfulness is not about being in an altered state of mind or distracting oneself. The concept involves acceptance and being in the moment without judgement and helps “ease the grip of disruptive thoughts and emotions.”