What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is one of those concepts that seems to be popping up everywhere, but what is it, and how use it to enrich our lives?  Mindfulness involves being aware, conscious, and awake. It requires that you pay attention to each moment with a sense of nonjudgmental curiosity and openness. It is the intentional acknowledgment of all thoughts, feelings, and sensations you are experiencing in the moment. Many different skills can help you harness the power of mindfulness.

People tend to hear “mindfulness” and think of meditation. However, a big difference between the two is that meditation is often focused on clearing the mind, while mindfulness is focused on embracing the fullness of the mind and any thoughts that present themselves in the moment. If you have ever tried meditation and immediately disregarded it because no matter what you do, your mind won’t empty itself, hope is not lost. Enter: mindfulness! Being mindful means being interested in and open to any and all thoughts that come up. Mindfulness is not a different way of thinking, but a different way of attending. It doesn’t require you to change your thoughts, only to change your attention (Harris & Hills, 2023). It is a way to get in touch with our inner experience. We live a life of distraction, often times very out of touch with how we are truly feeling or what we are thinking. Mindfulness is a valuable check-in with yourself, it “improves our self-knowledge,” allows us to learn more about how we think, how we feel, and how we react to what happens around us (Harris & Hills, 2023). Mindfulness requires an attitude of openness and curiosity, involves flexibility of attention, and includes a quality of kindness, it is a warm and caring attention, one without judgment or labels (Harris & Hills, 2023).

Do not set out on mindfulness exercises expecting them to take away negative emotions or completely relax you, as neither of those things are the aim of mindfulness practices. You can be perfectly mindful and still feel negatively. In fact, if you are being intensely mindful, these negative feelings will receive a level of attention that they don’t usually. I am not saying these feelings will get more powerful or intense, but that we will get a chance to explore them, we explore how they feel, how they sit in our gut, or even how they keep us from wanting to be mindful. The aim of mindfulness is simply to live more consciously, this can help us increase our psychological flexibility and life satisfaction (Harris & Hills, 2023). So, let’s get into how to start being more mindful.

Engage All Your Senses

The very popular 5-4-3-2-1 method is a helpful way to engage in the present moment mindfully. Name five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can touch, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. You can also engage all your senses in a simple task, such as peeling and eating an orange. Feel the peel before you break it, the bumps, the dimples. As you break that first part of the peel, inhale the smell, the fresh citrus filling your nose. Watch how the peel breaks away from the fruit. Listen as you break each section of the orange apart, paying attention to the slight ripping sound that occurs. Then finally, feel how the orange sits on your tongue, how it breaks beneath the pressure of your teeth, then taste the juice as it explodes across your taste buds. There you have it; you’ve been mindful while peeling and eating an orange. This can be applied to nearly any activity. As I sit in this chair and write this blog post, I hear the clicking of the keyboard, I feel the floor under my feet, I smell the candle burning in the other room, I can taste the lemon water I just sipped, and I can see each letter as it appears on the screen. It’s as easy as that, try it out! (Note: if you are engaging in a mindful activity that does not involve food, it’s okay to just pay attention to the taste of your own mouth. There is a need to lick your book or blanket to engage all those senses.)

Make it Work for You

Life is so busy with different things demanding our attention each moment. Many people do not even try meditation because of the time and effort it can take. In my opinion, mindfulness is much more doable, and there are so many ways to engage in it, so make it work for you! If the only chance you have to engage in intentional mindfulness is while you eat a meal, do it. Notice the temperature, the color, how it smells, and how it feels in your body to take each bite. Even as I write this blog post, I can engage in mindfulness (see previous paragraph to see the breakdown of how my senses are experiencing this moment). It doesn’t require you to drop what you are doing and sit on the floor crisscross-applesauce and focus on your breath, although you can engage in mindfulness that way if you’d like. Try out some different ways of being mindful, find what works best for you, what feels right, and what helps you ground yourself in the present moment.

Do One Thing at a Time

Ahh, sounds so easy, right? But how many of us scroll TikTok while eating our breakfast, play games on our phone while riding on the subway, or listen to music while taking a walk? Our brains are not good at paying attention to multiple things at once. We may be impeccable at quickly shifting our attention, but I don’t know that this helps people strengthen their ability to be mindful. I think that this quick shifting of attention actually hinders our ability to fully engage in the present moment. So, try doing one thing at a time. Instead of listening to your audiobook and cleaning the house, maybe take 10 minutes to pick up a physical book and just read. Instead of scrolling TikTok or Instagram while eating, set the phone down and really pay attention to the food in front of you (also a good way to engage in intuitive eating, but that’s for another blog post). Instead of listening to a podcast while walking to the store, unplug and listen to the noises around you, feel the wind on your face, and really take in the sights. Try doing one thing at a time and see how your ability to pay attention changes.

Mindfully Scan Your Body

If you’ve been in therapy, or have tried meditative practices before, you may be familiar with body scans. These involve taking inventory of the sensation and tension in all areas of your body. I like to view it as a big cup of warm water being poured on my head and flowing down my body (if you want to actually do this while in the shower or bath, go for it! It’s a great way to help learn the method of mindfulness body scanning.) Start with your head, your ears, notice any tension behind your brow or in your forehead. Continue this kind of attention as you move down your body, from your shoulders to your ribs, down to your hips, legs, and feet. You don’t need to massage out any tension you feel or correct your posture, although ou can if you’d like. It is all about noticing, paying attention. So, feel your body, from the top of your scalp to the bottoms of your feet. As you feel your body in this way, notice any thoughts that come with it, acknowledge your inclination to judge these sensations, then do your best to just be open and nonjudgmental to whatever your body is experiencing in that moment. Easier said than done, we are taught to label, to make sense of sensations, to judge our existence. Remember, mindfulness involves an attitude of openness and curiosity, loosening our grip on judgment and control.

Mindfulness looks different for every person. Make the changes that are practical for you, find ways to incorporate it into your daily life. The more you are able to be mindful in simple and calm moments, the easier it will be to utilize mindfulness is more difficult moments. Being able to be mindful with ourselves allows us to truly know ourselves, how we experience the world, and this often gives us indicators of what parts of our lives need more attention. In our very disconnected and distracted world, the ability to be mindful is priceless.

Harris, R., & Hills, H. (2023). Act made simple: An easy-to-read primer on acceptance and commitment therapy (2nd ed.). Tantor Audio.