Nowadays conversations are full of “mindset” and “mindfulness” talk….but what is all this talk about?
Mindset
Your mindset refers to your set of assumptions, methods, or ideas regarding your abilities, intelligence and talents. Your mindset determines how you will handle situations and what you will do.
- People with a fixed mindset believe that these qualities are inborn, fixed, and unchangeable.
- Those with a growth mindset believe that these abilities can be developed and strengthened with time and experience.
And why does this matter?
Your mindset plays a critical role in how you cope with life’s challenges. In school, a growth mindset can contribute to greater achievement and increased effort. When facing a problem such as trying to find a new job, people with growth mindsets show greater resilience. They are more likely to persevere in the face of setbacks, have a natural hunger for learning and tend to view failure as an opportunity for growth and change.
In contrast, someone with a Fixed Mindset experiencing these same setbacks will be more likely to give up. Fixed mindsets, tend to create a need for approval so that this individual is forever seeking confirmation for their personality, intelligence or character.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness refers to active attention to your present thoughts, body sensations, environment and feelings. We observe these with acceptance and without judgment, as being without right or wrong. A mindful individual lives in the present moment without thought of past or future.
Practicing mindfulness is often represented as a practice of meditation. Being mindful and practicing mindful meditation can lead to reduced stress, increased self-control and focus and a boost to coping, healing and growing.
Benefits of Mindfulness:
- Reduced rumination and provides relief from the excessive fixation on the cause of your distress.
- Stress reduction.
- Boosts to working memory.
- Improves focus and reduces distractibility.
- Less emotional reactivity and increased ability to disengage from emotionally upsetting situations.
- More cognitive flexibility resulting in better learning.
- Improved relationship satisfaction
- Other potential benefits: enhance self-insight, morality and intuition, increase immune functioning, improve well-being, reduce psychological distress, and increase information processing speed.
The difference appears to lie within the practice: The practice of Mindfulness is a conscious process of attention to the present thoughts, feelings and sensations without judgment. This shows intention.
Your Mindset is your thoughts and beliefs about yourself and lies within the subconscious level but is one of the key determining factors in how you cope with life’s challenges.
What’s your mindset? Want to change?