Mindfulness

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Although Mindfulness is recognised as a beneficial meditative practice in all walks of life it does have its own limitations. If mindfulness meditation is not practised correctly and often, it will not have the same recognised beneficial factors as it would if completed correctly. One of the few downfalls of mindfulness research studies and articles is that it predominately focuses on only participants that complete an eight week meditation programme, it does not focus on the reasons as to why participants decided to leave the study or meditation programme (DeSole, 2013). Following on from that, another more relatable limitation to mindfulness is that it can be very time consuming when compared to other holistic approaches such as reflexology. The author of the assignment participated in an eight week programme based on mindfulness meditation as part of a module in the mental health nursing degree programme in third level education. Although it had many beneficial factors, the time allowance was found to be particularly difficult to maintain in a home life setting. In total, to practise mindful meditation daily it took over an hour. An hour may not seem a predominately long session but in a busy hectic life of a third year student in a nursing degree programme an hour is time consuming when there are other elements to take into consideration including other modules. For mental health nurses with families and other distractions an hour after a busy stressful twelve hour shift not including commute times and other key elements is somewhat unrealistic and unfavourable. While the author recognises that some individuals may not see this aspect of mindfulness meditation as a disadvantage or limitation personal experience does somewhat outweigh others views.

With regards to mindfulness for depression relapse in mental health clients, Hick et al, 2010 conducted a study to show and portray the limitations in relation to relapse prevention when using mindfulness meditation in the relapse of depression and concluded that Segal et al. (2002) pointed out that mindfulness meditation is specifically designed for those who have been depressed in the past but are relatively well when they start the mindfulness program (p. 318). Therefore, mindfulness meditation does not target patients who are acutely depressed because poor concentration and higher intensity of negative thinking among those patients would affect their focus and attention required to develop the core skills for mindfulness mediation.

In conclusion, Mindfulness practice is constantly developing in all areas especially mental health nursing, with beneficial factors both for the client and the nursing profession. In this assignment both beneficial factors and limitations were explored to gain a better understanding of mindfulness as a meditative practice is mental health settings. Studies were carefully selected and examined to portray a clear overview of the mindfulness process and the evidence to show why it is working so well in this current society. In contemporary Irish culture, mindfulness appears to be extremely relevant to all walks of life; currently mindfulness seems to be a practice which is looked at favourably by many within medical and nursing profession.

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