What is it?
Mindfulness is a way of befriending yourself and your experience so that you can really embrace what is good in your life and turn towards the difficult with greater resilience.
The definition I usually work with is borrowed from Jon Kabat-Zinn (the man behind the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction MBSR course): it’s the practice of “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally”.
This kind of attention allows for an open, friendly awareness of what’s going on inside us, our thoughts, emotions and body sensations, even when we don’t like what we find!
Practices can be formal meditations, or they can be informal. A “formal” practice might involve, for example, sitting and focusing on the breath in one particular place and bringing the attention back whenever it wanders off. And it will – over and over again! Informal practice could take the form of intentionally noticing sensations in the body and any accompanying thoughts and emotions whilst taking a hot shower or washing up. Whatever the form of “meditation”, regular practice of this kind of noticing without judgment can allow us to find the beauty in everyday life and the space to respond to our more challenging experiences in a different way.