The Science of Mindfulness

Mindfulness and Behavior Change

Mindfulness for First Responders

First responders are driven and motivated individuals. Things don’t get done if people just sit around all day. We balance demanding personal and professional lives, flip-floping between these identities; as easily as one changes clothes. When we don the uniform, our personal goals and identities are left in a locker, while we respond to the needs of a community. Shifting gears between these lifestyles takes engaged effort. Sure, sitting down once in a while sounds great, but seems hardly productive. However, consider the way first responders see physical fitness as an important adjunct to their personal health and wellness and simultaneously training for the profession. Many of us are able to tap a 2-for-1 here, one of the best ways to improve both sides of our divided lives. In fact, our weekly fitness routine even helps many of us bridge the divide.

Physical fitness wasn’t always “normal.” Only within the last hundred years really, did the word “exercise” become part of society as more sedentary lifestyles forced people into chairs 40 hours a week. However, our minds are busier than ever now, filtering large amounts of information and responding to hundreds of false emergencies daily. Happily, science has begun to demystify some of the strange claims and false religious dogmas that has held meditation practice back in the west. Imagine if bodybuilding was first discovered and practiced by a Nunnery in the year 1212 and the muscular gains in strength and size was attributed to chants, prayer and counting beads on a necklace. Sister Schwarzenegger might’ve been worth the confusion.

Mindfulness is simply a skill and meditation practice is the gym. Within the same sports club, you’ll see many people with unique styles and routines that all promise to improve health. Common struggles include: people waste their time on fad exercise routines, chit-chatting, not understanding their own goals, struggling to make progress and others spend little time doing anything but looking in a mirror.

The benefits of mindfulness for our mental health and overall wellness is undeniable. Also undeniable, is the mental health crisis we face as an industry. It is time we stop taking a reactionary stance here with endless therapy sessions and poor coping mechanisms. Here you can be proactive about your mental health as well.