1
00:00:01,010 --> 00:00:03,440
Mindfulness is a form of awareness, really.

2
00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:10,370
It's a direct, intuitive knowing of what's going on from moment to moment, both in the outside world and in the inside world.

3
00:00:10,370 --> 00:00:13,780
And it's cultivated with forms of meditation,

4
00:00:13,780 --> 00:00:20,720
a sort of a secular form of ancient Buddhist meditations that have been cultivated for centuries in Asia,

5
00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:26,060
particularly in the monasteries in Asia, but now has come outside the monastery and to the west as well,

6
00:00:26,060 --> 00:00:34,340
and is proving of great benefit for many, many people. One of the really important things is to establish whether mindfulness really works.

7
00:00:34,340 --> 00:00:38,060
And so a lot of our research has been doing clinical trials.

8
00:00:38,060 --> 00:00:43,280
And what we've discovered is that for people who have the most recurrent forms of depression,

9
00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:51,770
it halves the risk of depression over that critical 12 month period where we know that two thirds or more would have relapsed.

10
00:00:51,770 --> 00:00:55,100
But it doesn't just prevent depression.

11
00:00:55,100 --> 00:01:04,880
Other studies have found that enhances wellbeing as well, and that you don't just need to be depressed to get the benefit from this practise.

12
00:01:04,880 --> 00:01:09,050
The three main ways in which people can learn how to practise mindfulness,

13
00:01:09,050 --> 00:01:14,630
they can either find a class in a hospital or a meditation centre near them,

14
00:01:14,630 --> 00:01:23,750
or they can read one of the books that usually have a C.D. that people can follow along for an eight week programme or they can do it online.

15
00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:28,970
And it's like training an attentional muscle, really, just like you don't go to the gym and do one pull up.

16
00:01:28,970 --> 00:01:35,060
You go over a series to us to get yourself fit. So we don't train attention in one minute or two minutes,

17
00:01:35,060 --> 00:01:41,480
but use eight weeks in which people take c.D home and practise every day and they learn where

18
00:01:41,480 --> 00:01:47,900
their attention is most likely to disappear from view without them knowing how to bring it back.

19
00:01:47,900 --> 00:01:53,990
So they're more in control. They have greater choice over where their attention is.

20
00:01:53,990 --> 00:01:59,690
One example of how small things can make a big difference is the example somebody gave.

21
00:01:59,690 --> 00:02:06,500
She was saying that in walking from the car park to her office, she found herself really noticing her walking,

22
00:02:06,500 --> 00:02:12,950
noticing as the feet touch the ground and noticing the the air in her hair and on her face.

23
00:02:12,950 --> 00:02:19,340
And this became for her a little space where she felt she could that it would nourish herself at the beginning of the day.

24
00:02:19,340 --> 00:02:26,420
And she found that it changed the whole day just to notice that there was a little space there in the walking.

25
00:02:26,420 --> 00:02:31,580
And she even started parking a bit further away from her office thinking this is really nice.

26
00:02:31,580 --> 00:02:37,970
Rather than actually frantically trying to get a parking space that would save her 20 yards of walking, which is what she'd been doing.

27
00:02:37,970 --> 00:02:52,524
And given the way her life was spinning out of control, this was really important for her.