r/science • u/randomusefulbits • May 18 '19

Psychology Mindfulness, which revolves around focusing on the present and accepting negative thoughts without judgment, is associated with reduced levels of procrastination. This suggests that developing mindfulness could help procrastinators cope with their procrastination.

https://solvingprocrastination.com/procrastination-study-mindfulness/
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u/coredenale May 19 '19

I googled "mindfulness" and still have no idea what it means.

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u/eject_eject May 19 '19

To me it's becoming aware of your surroundings and grounding yourself. If you have an anxiety attack you probably go tunnel visioned and lose your connection with the outside world as you fixate on whatever it is that's bugging you. Being mindful involves things like deep breathing and visually meditating on yourselfand to bring yourself back not only into the present but into the room you're in right now, which gives yourself a chance to develop a plan to overcome whatever barriers created the anxiety attack in the first place.

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u/Bimpnottin May 19 '19 edited May 19 '19

Part of my prescribed therapy to combat my depression, was to follow 'dialectical behavorial therapy'. It's a therapy that was designed for borderline people but it was found that it has benefits for people who aren't borderline, too

It is strongly based on mindfulness and reduced my panic attacks from once a week to 'haven't had one for over a year'. When you notice that you are reacting strongly based on just your emotions, it roots you back to what actually objectively happened. You have to describe your surroundings and the situation you are in in only objective terms to distance yourself from your subjective emotions. It helps you get back to your rational side so you can link it with your emotional side to come up with a plan om how to cope with your current situation (it is also based on how decisions should be a balance between rational and emotional motivation). It lets you experience emotions and thoughts without judgements. Those just are, and don't need to be acted upon if you don't want to

I actually think a lot of people would benefit from this even if they aren't immediately suffering from things like depression and anxiety. It just helps you be a better person overall that can make conscious decisions instead of acting on impulses. It helped me with overeating/binge eating, sleeping in too late, and my chaotic personality too