How a week of trying to be mindful left me more stressed

Sign up to our free Living Well email for advice on living a happier, healthier and longer life Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter Live your life healthier and happier with our free weekly Living Well newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. People say that by “practising mindfulness” - for it is something you practise, don’t you know - you’ll become more focused, happier, thinner, funnier, cleverer and your snot will sparkle like glitter. “We need to be mindful of the media hype about mindfulness - the benefits are often very overstated,” clinical psychologist Catherine Wikholm, co-author of The Buddha Pill, told The Independent. There are a lot of misperceptions about its therapeutic efficacy.” And this often leads to people becoming stressed out about getting it right and disappointed when they don’t get the results they were promised. “Given some of the pervasive misconceptions about mindfulness - such as that it works the same way for everyone, and that it’s a straightforward route to feeling happier and less stressed - one common problem people may encounter is that they just don’t experience the benefits they were expecting,” explains Wikholm.