How Mindfulness helps a congressman in Washington stay calm

Moris Beracha.-  

Tim Ryan, Representative for Ohio’s congressional district, has become one of the greatest advocates of practicing Mindfulness. The politician says that mindfulness can have benefits for veterans, schoolchildren and average Americans.

Ryan indicates that the ordinary citizen is living under a lot of stress and anxiety and that the practice of Mindfulness is paying attention to the 'present moment'. "While your mind may try to go to the past or the future, you try to discipline your mind to increase your awareness of that present moment, what’s going on around you and, but also, what’s going on inside you," said the congressman. "So you can better understand your own habits, your own emotional states," Ryan said.

Stress reduction, increase focus, the boost of the immune system and better decision making are some of the benefits mentioned by Ryan.

In 2008, Tim Ryan's signed up for a mindfulness retreat to get a break from his exhausting schedule as a congressman in Ohio.

"It really is a profound experience to start to see what happens when you don’t have your cell phone, you’re not writing letters or doing anything for work, and in some of these retreats you don’t even talk over the course for a few days," Ryan said in an interview with Business Insider.

Professional players like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan, as well as many CEOs, are using these kinds of practices, because "they are very simple, but very powerful".

Currently, the congressman has risen over $ 3.6 million to fund Mindfulness research and programs.

Anyone can be part of these programs. Ryan explained how meditation helps people in less benefited sectors. Veterans are getting off medications to treat post-traumatic stress, because it has helped them deal with the disease when meditating.

Children who live in violent neighborhoods have also shown an improvement in their behavior because meditation helps them make better decisions, focus and pay attention and increase their cognitive skills.

"The best advice I can give is just to start," he said.