What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness. It’s a pretty straightforward word. It suggests that the mind is fully attending to what’s happening, to what you’re doing, to the space you’re moving through. That might seem trivial, except for the annoying fact that we so often veer from the matter at hand. Our mind takes flight, we lose touch with our body, and pretty soon we’re engrossed in obsessive thoughts about something that just happened or fretting about the future. And that makes us anxious.

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.

Mindfulness is a quality that every human being already possesses, it’s not something you have to conjure up, you just have to learn how to access it.

The Types of Mindfulness Practice

While mindfulness is innate, it can be cultivated through proven techniques. Here are some examples:

Seated, walking, standing, and moving meditation (it’s also possible lying down but often leads to sleep);
Short pauses we insert into everyday life;
Merging meditation practice with other activities, such as playing a board game or volunteering.

How can you practice Mindfulness?

There are many ways in which you can practice mindfulness. After all, there are many ways in which you can anchor yourself to any given moment. Many people practice mindfulness of breathing, because the breath is always here and always in the present moment. The breath is a wonderful anchor, and it can really get you in touch with your own body and what is going on there, but there are other ways to practice mindfulness too. Here at the HUB we try to incorporate Mindfulness in all our activities, whether thats playing a game of dominoes, going for a wellbeing walk in nature, volunteering at the Donkey Sanctuary, National Trust or Powderham Castle, or joining one of our Wellbeing Sessions and learning to meditate. Mindfulness is simply being present in the moment – not thinking about things in the past or projecting forward to the future. Just being right here, right now.