Mindfulness is a state of nonjudgmental awareness of what’s happening in the present moment, including the awareness of one’s own thoughts, feelings, and senses.
Awareness: During a state of mindfulness, your mind gives room to notice your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations as they happen. The goal is not to clear your mind or stop thinking, as is common in 'meditation' practices. Instead, in mindfulness the aim is to become aware of your thoughts and feelings, without getting lost in them.
Acceptance: The thoughts, feelings, and sensations that you notice should be observed in a nonjudgmental way. If you notice feeling nervous, for example, simply state to yourself: "I notice I'm feeling nervous". There is no need to further anayse or change the feeling.
Mindfulness helps develop conscious awareness of one's own thoughts, feelings, sensations, and behaviors, without evaluation, or the formation of an opinion.
In recent years, mindfulness has worked its way into the world of mental health because of its many benefits to cognition and wellbeing.
This practice can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, improve memory and focus, improve ability to adapt to stressful situations, reduce rumination, and improve the ability to manage emotions. Even relationships can benefit when at least one of the individuals has a high level of trait mindfulness.
Mindfulness has also shown to help physical health, like lowering blood pressure, reducing chronic pain, improving sleep, and alleviating gastrointestinal difficulties.