What is Mindfulness?

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Mindfulness refers to a collected presence of mind that allows (non-resistance, non-judgment) and receives (feels) our sense experience (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and cognition/thoughts) and includes an element of recognition of the experience/orientation. For example, maybe we are being mindful of a feeling of sadness in the body - Mindfulness accepts and allows the feeling, feels the heaviness, achiness, upwelling of tears, and is able to recognize/orient toward that sensory experience as ‘sadness’. Alternately, we might be being mindful of doing the dishes - here we connect and receive the feeling of the warm soapy water while gently noting ‘washing’ (noting is meant to support recognition/orientation and collectedness of mind, which are connected qualities).
 
This combination of allowing, feeling and recognition/labeling requires balance. If you find yourself overwhelmed by a sense experience then executive function (the ability of the mind to orient, or to recognize and understand experience) goes offline. On the other end of the spectrum, we can remain fairly disconnected from the body and focus on intellectual recognition alone/mental orientation, but this is not sufficient for mindfulness to deepen. The unique combination of being connected and clear can allow us to be responsive to the inner or outer situation (or both!) and cultivate ease and freedom in the midst of a range of experiences. 
 
This awareness/presence of mind can then be turned to various particular experiences/phenomena for various purposes/intentions. For example, secular mindfulness in the west was drawn from ancient Buddhist meditation practices in which mindfulness was turned toward the process of experience changing/arising and passing away. This was intended to support us feeling more free and flexible because it allowed people to practice seeing that difficult moments would pass and that fixating on good moments also wasn’t beneficial. 
 
We can use mindfulness to focus on a variety of experiences with a variety of intentions and our intention is always critical to what benefit we find from practice. For example, if we use mindful attention to try and control our experience, we will often start to feel frustrated or to suffer. However, if we use mindful attention with curiosity and kindness we will often find benefit. The practice of honing beneficial intention is a whole practice in and of itself and is something we can bring mindfulness to as well!
 
There are times when we might find ourselves trying to practice mindfulness but feeling more and more stuck - sometimes when we are overwhelmed/having trouble finding balance then other tools are needed before we return to mindfulness practice. For example, if we have a strong emotion or difficult memory coming up, we might try mindfulness but find that we are very lost or feeling emotionally overwhelmed. At that time we might need other coping strategies, distress tolerance skills, or support for trauma responses, and you should feel free to shift over to that content and return to mindfulness content when you’re feeling more resourced.