Published on March 27th, 2018 | by Guest

Mental Health and Mindfulness [Infographic]

Mental health affects 1 in 4 people in the UK and one of the ways that we can start to reduce that number is by increasing the awareness of mental health, for both men and women all over the world. In many places all over the world, Mental Health is still somewhat of a forbidden topic, even though in the UK alone 16 million people suffer from ill mental health every year. This shocking statistic seems to be on the rise as more and more people suffer from depression, anxiety, panic disorders, addiction, psychosis, bipolar disorder and personality disorders. That being said, there has been an amazing movement and trend recently that has really helped with battling poor mental health; Mindfulness.

Although more popular than ever, many of us are left asking ourselves “but what actually is Mindfulness?” According to Google, this is ‘the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something. A mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique’. The simpler and easier version to understand is that Mindfulness is simply a way of calming the body, reducing stress and improving happiness through the means of meditation and relaxation. This is a relatively new subject in the western world but has been around for thousands years, tracing back to early Buddhist teachings.

The good news is that mindfulness isn’t as hard to practice as you may think. Through little changes at home you can really help to improve your overall mental state. You can find lots of great tips from experts on all the little things you can do at home to help practice Mindfulness here.

The more awareness we can raise for mental health then the more people will talk about it, thus helping to shatter the illusion that mental health isn’t a disease. Please find below an infographic with facts and figures that is there to shed some light on the current state of mental health within the UK and how Mindfulness can help.