What Is Mindfulness Meditation?

So what is mindfulness and how do we meditate?

Mouthfulness is the awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.

Little bit of a mouthful,

But let's break it down.

Basically it means that we become aware of what is arising and we accept it.

This is the nature of the present moment.

Nothing else.

The way we practice mindfulness is we pick an anchor to focus on.

Traditionally,

That anchor is the breath.

You focus your attention towards that anchor.

You can try it a little bit now.

Focus your attention on the sensation of the breath at the nose.

Then,

When you notice your mind wandering,

Distracted,

Thoughts,

Memories,

Sensations,

Anything else?

You bring it back.

Your mind wanders,

You bring it back.

The goal isn't to empty the mind or to have no thoughts.

The goal is to notice where the mind is.

And then gently and lovingly bring it back to the point of focus.

This trains awareness of our mind space,

Where our mind has gone.

It also focuses our attention.

That's it.

The awareness that arises from purposely paying non-judgmental attention to the present moment.

This is the present moment.

Maybe the mind has wandered.

That's the present moment.

We bring it back again and again and again and again.

That's it.

That's the basics of mindfulness meditation.

And if you'd like to learn a little bit more,

I've got a collection of audio and video content available for you here on Inside Dharma.

I'll see you there.