Mindfulness can mean different things to different people depending on circumstances or situation. What is important to know is YOUR value and the tremendous potential you have to offer. YOUR potential can only be fully realized for others to witness and experience when starting with oneself. Mindfulness is looking at oneself as a third party – think of a drone peering over you in a supportive way. We have all experienced this in various ways like “listen to your inside voice” or “what would your conscience ask you to do” or “try to put yourself in their shoes” and the list can go on. Regardless of the different phrases used, the overarching theme is to be aware of both yourself and others around you. Too often, we either focus on others around us as to what would make them happy or sad, and we forget to ask the same of ourselves. As they say during flight safety instructions in the case of the oxygen mask being deployed, put the mask on yourself first, and then help someone else, such as children or the elderly. Something similar applies when one chooses to become mindful; once you are self-aware, you can help yourself and then anyone else around you as needed. Practicing mindfulness can significantly increase quality of life and equips us with tools to deal with the ups and downs of life.

Mindfulness can be practiced for any situation causing stress or anxiety or other health conditions. A recent study showed mindfulness can work at least as well as some prescription drugs and with fewer intrusive side effects. The focus of this page is to show how mindfulness can be yet another tool in your toolkit for dealing with differences of sex development (DSD) issues, whether you are an individual living with DSD, including family members, children, caregivers, providers or anyone who is a part of their support group. This page does not intend to provide an exhaustive list of all the benefits of mindfulness nor provide step-by-step instructions to practice mindfulness as there are plenty of resources available for that. The intention of this page is to present mindfulness as a potential solution to several DSD related issues and inspire those impacted to either incorporate or continue to enhance (if already practicing mindfulness techniques) when seeking further guidance, depending on your situation and circumstances. Stress and anxiety can lead to other issues like lack of sleep, lower immunity (causing other health-related issues), lack of proper communication, misunderstandings, self-doubt, and overall impacts your general sense of contentment or quality of life. Everyone deserves to be happy, and it first starts with getting to know yourself. Let’s kick it off: “Hi, I am [yourself] and I would like to get to know you”. The most important thing in any relationship is trust; and let us start by building trust in ourselves.

There are several techniques you can use to practice mindfulness. There is no one size fits all solution to mindfulness. What may work for one person may not work for someone else. The intent is to learn and practice different techniques for mindfulness and see what works best for you. Once you understand a technique that works for you, practice it diligently. You can also choose to share and learn from others and fine tune as needed. Sometimes, we may want to implement minor changes so that the technique does not become monotonous. Then again, if one is mindful, how can mindfulness technique become monotonous? Finding a technique that works for you may not come overnight and can take time. One of the main reasons is that your journey to finding a mindfulness technique that works for you is also a journey in becoming self-aware as to how you are wired as an individual- your thoughts, your experiences, your availability to oneself and so on. There are many revelations you will have unearth about yourself through this journey. To others it may seem like just another “technique”; however, for you, it is about discovering or re-discovering of yourself and the journey to get there is a lot more than just about technique. It is this knowledge that will catapult you into giving the best YOU have to offer and reaching YOUR fullest potential – first for yourself and then to others around you. 

Mindfulness can be practiced by itself or in partnership with other medical assistance/practices. There is no age limit and anytime is a good time. There is no need to be diagnosed with a medical condition and mindfulness can be practiced with or without a medical condition at any time. Once you have figured out the technique that works best for you, the time duration for each session is undefined – as short as two minutes or longer. The message is mindfulness can be practiced any time. Becoming self-aware through mindfulness has several benefits. For those with DSD and anyone supporting them, it can help with situations like how to deal with your emotions the first time you find out your diagnosis, or perhaps if you are not getting satisfactory answers from your medical providers or family members/caregivers, etc. Perhaps you decided to undergo elective surgery and are now dealing with anxiety and stress issues post-surgery and/or from the medical treatment you are receiving. It is important to understand that in some cases just as the person is being flooded with too much information initially, family members and caregivers are also in the same situation, and in certain cases, sometimes the medical professionals you have access to may themselves be overwhelmed by new information or may not be well-equipped to address all the concerns that may arise. Others around you may have good intentions but may also be lost and feel stressed and anxious, just like you. There are lots of parallel issues going on within the ecosystem to support individuals with DSD, and mindfulness can help bring clarity to distinguish amongst these parallel issues and help you ask the right question to the right resource leading to getting the quality care you deserve.

In summary, there are many benefits to utilizing mindfulness, which can help one deal with anxiety and stress, and improve other associated conditions like sleep, immunity, communication, relationships, or self-doubt leading to happiness for yourself and for those around you.

Contributed by Maulik Modi, our Board Member