What REALLY contributes to better mental health? (From a trained counsellor)

What comes to mind when you hear the word “mindfulness?”

For me, it never fails to conjure up an image of a person sitting very still, eyes closed and possibly repeating some mantra. I used to think it’s about focusing on my breathing.

But the mindfulness or having “present moment awareness” that I’m going to share with you about today consists of five building blocks.

Five Building Blocks of Present Moment Awareness

Cognition
Emotion
Five-sense perception
Movement
Body sensations

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Five Blocks of Present Moment Awareness: #1 Cognition

These describe your experience of the moment or the meanings that you’re giving to your experience. They can be thoughts only or verbalised. For example, they can be positive interpretations of a mistake you’ve just made, such as “It’s okay to fumble because I’m new at this.” They can also be harsh and critical, such as “I’m stupid” or “I never get anything right.” These cognitions can also relate to others or the world around us. They can be positive, such as “I trust that others would be forgiving and understanding.” They can also be negative, such as “they must be judging me” or “they would never want to be my friend again.”

Popular counselling theories such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy address what they term as “cognitive distortions.” They are default interpretations, meanings or theories you may have about certain experiences. There are various types of distortions. One of which could be extreme in nature, such as using the words “always” or “never.”

Five Blocks of Present Moment Awareness: #2 Emotion

You may have seen Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions before. It provides a set of vocabulary that explains how you might be feeling, and a visual representation of how some feelings might be similar or different from one another. It is a useful tool in expanding one’s vocabulary so that you are more able to communicate how you might be feeling and made more aware of the nuances of various emotions (Brikc, 2024).

We tend to default to emotional experiences that were frequently experienced in the past. For example, if you have a generally happy and contented childhood, you might experience generally positive emotions in adulthood. Likewise, if you are often distressed and have unpleasant emotions in childhood, you have more trouble with positive emotions. You might feel uncomfortable when you’re happy or content, and wonder if these feelings would last. You may also feel more worried, anxious or dreadful.

Five Blocks of Present Moment Awareness: #3 Five-sense perception

This refers to your five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Sensory experiences can trigger memories, even unconscious ones. For example, we might enjoy the smell of freshly brewed coffee and the taste of fresh bread. We feel warm and comforted with that experience. Although we may not remember the specific memory linked to this sensory experience, the trigger stays with us.

Five Blocks of Present Moment Awareness: #4 Movement

This refers to gross motor movement such as crawling and walking, and fine motor movements such as picking up objects with our fingers. Movement also encompasses facial expressions and postures. We may have created “muscle memory” for certain postures over time. For example, if we were criticised for being visible, then we may have developed the habit of slumping our shoulders or lowering our heads. If we learned that being loud and strong protects ourselves from danger, we may then have developed the habit of angling our chin upwards and puffing our shoulders back.

We respond to our experiences with movement and movement also affects other blocks of the present moment awareness. For example, if we saw someone else with chins up and shoulders back, we might think “this person is big and strong” and feel intimidated.

Five Blocks of Present Moment Awareness: #5 Body Sensations

Body sensations give us information about our body’s movement. They can also inform us of what’s happening with our internal organs. The “rush” of adrenalin, face flushing, “butterflies in the stomach,” or clammy hands are ways we describe body sensations.

These five blocks of present moment awareness are constantly interacting with one another. Earlier, I explained how when we see (five-senses perception) someone with puffed up chests, chin up and distinctive frown (movement), we may:

Think to ourselves: “this person coming is strong and powerful” (cognition)
Feel intimidated or threatened (emotions)
Our body tenses up and heart rate increases (body sensations)
And we tell ourselves “we need to protect ourselves.” (cognition)
Mirror them (movement)

It’s NORMAL.

It’s NATURAL.

Your body is DOING ITS JOB.

This mostly automatic response is quick and intended to keep you safe.

A lot of these responses are also formed from many, many years of habits.

It’s not going to be easy to just “snap out of it” or “grow up.”

Show yourself some compassion.

What you CAN DO is to start with awareness.

You cannot change what you’re unaware of.

Remember, this is not your “sit down-breathe-meditate” kind of mindfulness. It’s building the five blocks of present moment awareness.

I have also explained every single challenge from the 25 days here, along with clickable links for further resources.

References

BRKIĆ, Goran. VOCABULARY BUILDING IN EFL USING PLUTCHIK’S WHEEL OF EMOTIONS. European Journal of English Language Teaching, [S.l.], v. 9, n. 2, may 2024. ISSN 25017136. Available at: <https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejel/article/view/5387>. Date accessed: 06 January. 2025. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v9i2.5387.

Ogden, Pat and Fisher, Janina. Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: Interventions for Trauma and Attachment. Published 2015. IBSN: 978-0-393-70613-0

Thriving New Mama