Most mental health issues arise out of an unhelpful ways of thinking, feeling, unhealthy beliefs or actions that are result of our learnings from our past, our life situations, our role models, how powerful or powerless we felt, our trauma and so on, as well as a genetic, family history and bodily disposition towards mental health issues. Mental health difficulties may take the form of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, sleeplessness, addiction, relationship issues and many others and range from severe to mild. In most of these conditions, over time unhelpful messages are given to the body by the brain, things are perceived through a biased filter by the brain, similar neurotransmitters are increased or decreased and slowly the symptoms join together to become a disorder or a habitual wiring pattern in the nervous system. Now the brain works on its own and even if we do not want to have certain thoughts or feelings, we continue to do so, even if we do not want to binge eat or give in to our addictions, there is an internal push. It feels like all this is out of our control.  Mindfulness can help to change this habitual wiring. This is due to one feature of the brain called neuroplasticity. The brain is always changing and learning. Just as overtime it has learned unhelpful patterns, with mindfulness, focus and meditation it can learn different and more helpful patterns. However, just as it has taken time to learn such unhelpful patterns and to develop into a mental health condition, so it will take time to learn a new pattern to get out of the mental health condition. Some improvement in symptoms is rather quick and can be seen even in a few weeks of regular mindfulness practice. However, complete resolution may take time. Also mindfulness meditation is ideal for mild to moderate mental health conditions. Severe conditions, where self-harm or extreme symptoms are involved, may need a combination of medication and psychotherapy as a treatment of choice. Even in severe situations, mindfulness may eventually be introduced when medication and therapy have helped stabilize the individual. In such cases mindfulness is beneficial for long term recovery as it involves changing the way one relates to one’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs and emotions.