What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness refers to a practice, and a state of mind-body complex that can be attained through the practices, as well as the tendencies that appear in daily life even without the practice. Mindfulness is a translation of the word ‘sati’. Nyanaponika Thera explained sati or mindfulness as ‘bare attention’ devoid of any habitual judgement or mental projections. William Dreyfus suggested the concept of mindfulness as ‘the ability to retain’. On the other hand Bikkhu Bodhi suggested ‘lucid awareness’ As contemporarily and clinically presented by Jon Kabat-Zinn, “mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally..” By combining three elements of attention, awareness, and acceptance, Christopher Germer defined mindfulness as the awareness with acceptance of the experiences of the present moment. Three major techniques are used to cultivate mindfulness in clinical practice. Focused attention, open-monitoring, and compassionate acceptance. “Mindfulness is an incredibly simple way to change one’s relationship with one’s experience. This is accomplished by being aware of the autopilot reactions to our experiences. Once we are aware of our autopilot reactions, we can choose to stop it.