Mindfulness is the practice of shifting awareness to the present moment. This may mean that you practice paying attention to whatever is happening right now, be that your physical experience, your mental or emotional experience, and doing so without judging that.
Key concepts in Mindfulness
Awareness
Mindfulness means being present in your physical self. This is a counter to the tendency to project into other places or positions, such as imagining conversations or wishing yourself to be somewhere nicer.
The now
We move our self fully into the current moment. This counters the tendency to mentally moving around in time, to be predicting futures and ruminating upon the past when the current moment is the only one which truly exists.
Non-labeling
Mindfulness encourages a non-judgmental attitude to experience, where we don’t define or label it but instead experience it as what it is. Experiences are neither innately good or bad, but instead they are simply what they are.
Accepting experience
Within mindfulness we seek to accept all experience for what it is, even when that is uncomfortable.
What are the Benefits?
Studies have shown that mindfulness has a significant effect at reducing emotional reactivity, a core characteristic common to numerous issues such as anxiety, OCD, anger and PTSD, to name but a few (1). This effect appears to be stronger when mindfulness is taught by a facilitator rather than through other means (apps, recording etc) (1) and some evidence exists that it is more effective when integrated into a wider psychotherapy intervention(2). But how does it create these benefits?
How does mindfulness create these benefits?
Non- creation of anxiety and dissatisfaction
The movement of the awareness to the presence moment and situation, and thus away from the past/future or alternate place/situation, has an interesting effect upon the creation of anxiety and dissatisfaction. Anxiety is fundamentally about what may happen in the future, which is different from what actually happens in the future. We have developed the capacity to anticipate the future in order to plan and strategies, which are useful, however we often drift into a state in which this way of thinking becomes habitual and as a result are predicting futures that are worse than what actually happens. Every predicted negative future creates anxiety. By shifting more frequently and for longer into the present moment we avoid over predicting and thus reduce our overall anxiety.
In much the same way, the imagining of better places or futures, another capacity developed to help create better futures, may result in our current situation looking worse by comparison. This is especially true if the imagined future/ other place is perceived a too far from our current situation to be easily reached.
Cognitive shift – Survival of the moment
By moving into the present time we reduce the risk of what psychologists call catastrophising. Catastrophising is when our minds worsen the outcome of something, typical examples would be ‘This is never going to stop’, ‘This is the worst thing ever’ or ‘I can’t stand this’ . When taken on a moment by moment basis everything other than death can be coped with
Regulation of the nervous system
Many of the exercises involved in mindfulness help to re-regulate the nervous system. Mindfulness is heavily associated with exercises which could be associated with grounding and mediation, these provide opportunities for the nervous system to calm and as a result for the body to enter a relaxed state more frequently.
Mindfulness enhancing exercises
In order to learn to be in a more in-the-moment state of mind there are a number of common exercises which can be conducted
Mindful breathing
You focus upon a point in the breath (typically the nose or chest) where the movement created by breath can be observed. You do not seek to alter or control the breath in any way and in fact are explicitly accepting the breath how it is, be that fast or slow. When the attention wanders from the breath, you bring it back to the breath, without any criticism of the self for having allowed the mind to wander. This exercise moves the attention into the present (the current breath) and encourages and rehearsing of staying in the moment and returning to the moment.
Mindful listening
We hear with the brain as much as the ear, the brain offering simplification and interpretation of whatever sounds come it’s way. In this exercise you attempt to hear with the ear. To do this you focus on the sound of the world as your ear experiences it, trying to avoid allowing the mind to shape the sounds into specifics, but rather paying attention to what information reaches the ear.
Mindful eating
An exercise in which you slow down eating to fully experience, but without labeling anything, a piece of food or meal. This involves sitting with the food in front of you, looking at it, experiencing its smell, without judging or assessing these, progressing to tasting it and experiencing full all the elements of texture, temperature, flavor, again without judging them. Ultimately progressing through the entire meal at a pace which allows for a deep experience of the meal, whilst always learning to avoid labeling and assessing the meal.
Body scan
A body scan is an exercise in which you attempt to fully experience the body by applying full attention to one area at a time to be aware of textures, temperatures and pressures. Usually this is done by starting at the toes and moving up the body, but it could be started anywhere.
Mindfulness and hypnotherapy
When a hypnotherapist uses a mindful approach with their client they will often use the hypnosis in support of the learning and application of the mindful techniques and philosophies. To give an example they may deliver some of the common visualizations used in mindfulness in a light hypnotic state with the aim of deepening the involvement with the visualization and thus speeding the learning from it. Equally, it is common these days for a hypnotherapist to use some of the mindful exercises, in particular the mindful breathing and body scan, as a gentle introduction into the hypnotic space. Mindfulness is also an integral part of wider therapy approaches, such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).
References
- Raugh IM, Berglund AM, Strauss GP. Implementation of mindfulness-based emotion regulation strategies: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Affective Science. 2025;6(1):171-200.
- Buerkle JJ, Schmidt S, Fendel JC. Mindfulness-and acceptance-based programmes for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 2025:102977.