What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a moment-by-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations. But mindfulness isn’t just about paying attention. It is about HOW we pay attention. It is about intentionally paying attention in the present moment with kindness.
How it Helps
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present and not overly reactive to what’s going on around us. When we are mindful, we can see our thoughts, feelings, motivations, reactions, and responses with greater clarity. Through mindful awareness, we can respond effectively. This intentional pause allows us to choose the appropriate response right now rather than reacting.
Mindfulness allows us to unentangle ourselves from negative habitual thoughts and patterns.
Mindfulness enables us to separate our thoughts and feelings from our identity. We learn that our thoughts are just thoughts. Feelings are just feelings. But it is our judgments about our thoughts and feelings that cause us unnecessary suffering.
We tend to judge ourselves harshly, becoming our own worst critics. Mindfulness invites us to recognize judgment and take a more compassionate approach. This open awareness enables us to see things as they are and accept what we cannot change.
Mindfulness enables us to break habits that no longer serve us, replacing them with healthy habits that enhance our quality of life.
It’s easy to get caught up in ruminating patterns that distract us from the present, often causing unnecessary stress and anxiety.
Be present through mindfulness
By focusing our attention on the present moment, mindfulness counteracts rumination and worrying. Mindfulness teaches us to respond to stress with awareness so that we might focus on what is within our control—our response. In stressful situations, mindful awareness allows us to respond rather than react. We can intentionally choose our response instead of reacting in a way that we might regret. It gives us freedom of choice.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”- Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
3 Qualities of Mindfulness
Attention: Present
Our minds naturally wander (what mindfulness calls the monkey mind). All minds wander nearly half the time. We miss out on half of our lives! We are often pulled into the past or lost in the future.
Practicing mindfulness trains our brain to focus on the present moment so that we can be present to the possibilities all around us.
Intention: Purpose
Intentions allow us to live in alignment with our values. When we clarify our values, we can make meaningful choices. Purpose steers us in the direction we want to go. By holding our intention before us, we can stay on track with our purpose even when challenges arise.
As self-compassion and mindfulness researcher Shauna Shapiro says, “What we practice grows stronger.”
Ask yourself: What do you want to grow? [What matters to you?]
Attitude: Kindness and Curiosity
Adopt an attitude of kindness and curiosity towards yourself. When we are curious, we open ourselves up to the learning process. Cultivating a beginner’s mind allows us to see things as if we were seeing them for the first time. It widens our perspective so that we can view things from a different vantage point rather than respond to them with the same old patterns.
Kind attention bathes us in dopamine, turning on the reward center in our brains. Curiosity builds on reward-based learning.
Benefits of Mindfulness
Attention regulation: Allowing the mind to wander freely and gently guiding it away from negative, obsessive, and stress-inducing thoughts to the present moment.
Body awareness: Mentally scanning yourself from head to toe, especially those stress centers where you hold tension (neck, shoulders, jaw).
Try the body scan (link to guided meditation)
Change in self-perception: Improving the ability to see yourself as always changing can lead to enduring forms of happiness. The “self” is constantly evolving. Our internal narratives shape our world. Through introspection, we can begin to shift the story we tell ourselves.
Emotion regulation: Helping you adjust your emotional responses to unpleasant and pleasant situations. Mindfulness helps us manage emotions and respond to stress rather than react.
The STOP Technique
The “STOP” acronym stands for stop, take a breath, observe, and proceed.
Practice a Mindful Check in using the STOP Technique
Stop & Take Stock
- What am I experiencing right now?
- Head: Thoughts
- Heart: Feelings
- Body: Sensations
Take a Breath
- Direct awareness to the breath to anchor yourself in the present moment.
Open & Observe
- Expand awareness through senses–Notice what you see, hear, feel, smell.
Proceed with New Possibilities
- Cultivate curiosity about what is happening in the world around you right now.
Journal Exercise:
SIDE NOTE: The Guided Meditations are for the Mindfulness Library
Guided Meditation:
- Body Scan
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation
- Breath Awareness
- Self-Compassion
- Gratitude
- Mountain Meditation
- Lake Meditation
- Calm Place
- Yoga
SIDE NOTE: The Guided Meditations are for the Mindfulness Library
