Jon Kabat-Zinn's definition: Mindfulness is awareness that arises from paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

The above definition of mindfulness refers to the mental capacity for mindfulness. This capacity can fluctuate throughout the day, but it can also be strengthened over time, much like a muscle, through consistent daily practice. The term trait mindfulness descries the baseline level of mindfulness - the steady, underlying mindfulness capacity of the mind. State mindfulness, on the other hand, refers to the momentary experience of mindfulness. A helpful way to distinguish between the two is to think of state mindfulness as answering the question, "How mindful are you right now?" and trait mindfulness as answering, "How mindful are you these days?"

Mindfulness practice refers to the activities and exercises aimed at cultivating mindfulness. It is the process that strengthens trait mindfulness, enhances the average level of state mindfulness, and generally improves the mind's capacity to be mindful. The term mindfulness practice can refer to: (a) a regular daily routine of practicing mindfulness, (b) a specific meditation session, (c) various types of mindfulness meditations, or (d) informal practices where mindfulness is applied to everyday activities.

Some common misconceptions about mindfulness:

Mindfulness is not the same as mindfulness practice: Mindfulness is a quality of the mind (see the definition of mindfulness question, above) that can be strengthened through mindfulness practice - a regular routine to cultivate this skill - just as a muscle can be strengthened via repeated workout.

Mindfulness practice is not the same as relaxation: While mindfulness practice may lead to calmness, its purpose is not relaxation. It's about paying attention to the present moment - whatever it holds - with openness, curiosity, and kindness.

Mindfulness practice is not a quick fix: Like building physical strength at the gym, mindfulness develops gradually with consistent practice. Without regular effort, mindfulness may weaken. Steady, ongoing practice creates lasting benefits.

Mindfulness is not about getting rid of thoughts or emotions: Instead of avoiding or suppressing thoughts and feelings, mindfulness involves noticing and accepting them as they arise, without attaching meaning or reacting to them.

Mindfulness practice is not a mental escape: When applied to daily life, mindfulness encourages engagement with whatever arises in the mind, rather than avoiding it. This distinguishes mindfulness from mental escapes like using substances or getting lost in daydreams.

Meditation encompasses a variety of practices used for different purposes across the world's major religions and secular traditions. Mindfulness practice, similarly, takes many forms. When a meditation practice directly cultivates mindfulness - it can be referred to as a formal mindfulness practice.

However, mindfulness practice - e.g, informal mindfulness practice - can occur without meditation (see the question below about informal mindfulness practice). Meditation can be one way to develop mindfulness, but mindfulness can be practiced at any moment, not just during meditation.

Formal mindfulness practice means setting aside dedicated time to focus on a specific meditation method. Informal practice is about bringing mindfulness into daily life. This may happen in two ways: (1) staying closely aware of everyday activities like eating or brushing your teeth, or (2) maintaining continuous attention on something like the breath or posture throughout the day.

Informal practice brings more ease, presence, and balance to daily life. It supports calm and clarity but may not, on its own, lead to deep insight. Formal practice allows the mind to settle more deeply - developing focus, tranquility, and insight - but without informal practice, its development is hindered.

Both forms of practice strengthen and support each other - formal practice builds the capacity for mindfulness, while informal practice keeps it alive throughout the day and deepens formal meditation in return.

Sustained progress depends on both. One without the other is incomplete.

In mindfulness practice, open awareness refers to a state of staying receptive to whatever arises in the present moment, without choosing a specific object to focus on. This approach contrasts with focusing on a single object, such as the breath, where attention remains fixed on just one thing, known as the "anchor."

With open awareness, the “object” (or "anchor") of meditation naturally shifts as new sensations, thoughts, or emotions arise, allowing for a dynamic and fluid focus. In such meditations, the anchor is the present moment itself, not a specific object within it. The term choiceless awareness, coined by J. Krishnamurti, is also used to describe this practice. It emphasizes the lack of preference for any particular focus, keeping the mind open and observant of the entire experience as it unfolds.

Open awareness is an advanced practice. For individuals with highly distractible minds or those new to mindfulness, it can be particularly challenging. Instead of cultivating mindful openness, the experience may easily slip into mind-wandering (see the question below about how mindfulness differs from mind-wandering). For most people, it is advisable to still the mind first, e.g, via mindfulness of breathing, before switching to open awareness.

Open awareness can serve as a valuable preparatory step for focused meditation such as awareness of breathing. Starting with open awareness before focusing on a single object helps ease the transition from a scattered, everyday state of mind to focusing on just one thing. A brief period of open awareness at the start of a session allows the mind to settle naturally into the present moment, creating a gentle bridge toward a refined focus on a single object.

When we let our minds wander, our thoughts drive us from one idea or emotion to the next, as if we're in the passenger seat while our thoughts do the driving. In mindfulness practice, however, we notice our thoughts when they appear, but we don't let them drive us. Instead, we gently and kindly return our focus to our main object of meditation. Here are some important differences between the two:

• Intention and Control

  Mindfulness involves a deliberate choice to stay in the present moment, while mind wandering happens unintentionally and often leads to distraction. With mindfulness, our attention is guided intentionally. In mind wandering, however, attention operates on its own, without conscious direction.

• Present Moment Awareneess

  Mindfulness anchors us in the present, helping us see reality as it is, whereas mind wandering is often about the past or future. This contrast could clarify how mindfulness practice strengthens our ability to engage fully with life as it unfolds.

• Emotional Awareness

  mind wandering might trigger emotional reactions that go unnoticed. For instance, thoughts can drift toward worries or regrets, creating stress or anxiety, while mindfulness invites us to notice and be with these emotions.

• Brain and Health Benefits

  Mindfulness not only enhances focus and emotional resilience but also has proven benefits for brain health. By training the mind to stay present, mindfulness reduces stress, improves cognitive function, and fosters greater emotional regulation. In contrast, mind wandering can often lead to rumination and heightened anxiety, which can negatively impact both mental well-being and overall brain function.

Prayer can be seen as a conversation - expressing gratitude, seeking guidance, or making requests. Mindfulness, in contrast, is about being fully present without trying to change anything. Instead of asking for something, mindfulness involves observing thoughts, emotions, and sensations with openness and non-reactivity. Practicing mindfulness can help us engage with life as it unfolds - with greater clarity and acceptance.

Mindfulness is not a religious practice and does not conflict with prayer. In fact, the two can complement each other. Mindfulness can make prayer more intentional by helping us be fully present - whether by meditating before prayer or by approaching prayer itself as a mindful practice. Conversely, the repetition in some forms of prayer can foster a meditative state - allowing the mind to settle and the heart to open to deeper spiritual experiences.

It's common for tension to build in the body during meditation. Here are some brief suggestions for managing body tension during meditation:

• Intentional breath reset

  Temporarily shift to intentional breathing - gently take full, long breaths, letting the out-breath be slightly longer than the in-breath, for 3-4 breath cycles. Then allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm - without controlling or shaping it. This kind of reset often helps calm the mind and reduce distractibility.

• Awareness of tension and its relation to the breath

  Bring your attention to the area of tension. Notice the sensations and where they’re located, while staying aware of each in-breath and out-breath. As you breathe, observe how each part of the breath - the in-breath and the out-breath - affects the tension. Acknowledge the tension without trying to change it, with kindness, patience, and self-compassion.

  Visualizations can help: for example, on each in-breath, imagine oxygen nourishing every cell in body, especially at the tense areas. On each out-breath, envision that releasing what your body no longer needs helps further release the tension.

• Whole body awareness and its relation to the breath

  Expand your awareness to include the entire body, while staying connected to the awareness of each in-breath and out-breath. Breathing in, feel the whole body; breathing out, feel the whole body. This broader focus can sometimes help shift attention away from specific areas of pain or tension.

• Posture adjustment

  Adjusting your posture can sometimes ease tension, but frequent shifting tends to distract the mind. Try to minimize major movements unless truly necessary. That said, even when the body seems still, it's always in motion - the breath, the heartbeat, circulating fluids, and subtle muscular shifts are constantly happening. Rather than trying to be perfectly still, which can create resistance and more tension, you might experiment with gently tuning in to these natural movements. This shift in perspective can support a more accepting and relaxed relationship with physical discomfort.

It's totally understandable to feel like you don't ‘get' breath meditation. But the good news is, meditation isn't about getting it right - it's about showing up. Every time you sit, you're training your mind in some way, even if it doesn't feel like it. There's no such thing as a bad meditation. Maybe you notice frustration, restlessness, or boredom - that's insight. Maybe you notice tiny moments of focus - that's also insight. The key is to keep practicing and stay curious about whatever shows up, with openness and kindness.

It's also useful and important to keep practicing regularly - not just formal practice of at least ten minutes per day, everyday, but also informal practice throughout each day, such as mindfulness of posture, mindfulness of breathing in and out in all activities, or mindfulness of daily activities. It's also useful to know that it may take a long time until we notice the positive changes that the practice brings.

It's natural to feel like you need to sort things out before meditating - but one of the best ways to train the mind is to meditate even when it feels inconvenient. This is why it's helpful to set a clear intention for practice, to schedule a start and end time, never stumbling onto meditation by a fluke. For example, we might commit to meditating every morning as soon as we wake up or every time we gather in class or with a group. Setting this intention ahead of time helps us stick with practice even when thoughts feel overwhelming - we know this is our time to put them aside, trusting that we can return to them later. If we're able to do that, then when we come back to these thoughts after formal meditation, the mind will be clearer and better able to deal with them. A calmer, more concentrated mind always sees things more clearly - allowing us to handle those thoughts more skillfully than if we had rushed to address them and skipped meditation instead.

In principle, one should be able to meditate in any situation - even in the middle of a crowded train station or a household with kids yelling, TV blaring, and phones ringing. But the more your senses get bombarded, the harder it is for the mind to become undistractable.

When advice is given to meditators to accept whatever comes up without judgment - whether it's discomfort, restlessness, or distraction - and to return to the object of meditation again and again, that doesn't mean you shouldn't make your meditation experience as supportive as possible. In fact, especially as a beginner, it's completely fine - and even wise - to lean on helpful outer conditions like a calm environment. These are not crutches - they're supports.

Even the Buddha began his meditation instructions encouraging finding useful external conditions: “Having gone to the forest, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut...” The setting matters. A peaceful space makes it easier to settle the body and mind. And that's true whether you're a beginner or not.

In short: whatever you can do to make your meditation more comfortable, more pleasant, and last longer - go for it. Just keep an eye out for a few common pitfalls:

• Don't overdo the setup. If you find yourself constantly tweaking, preparing, or delaying your meditation until everything is perfect, it becomes a reason not to meditate.

• Don't get attached to your setup. Eventually, you'll find yourself without your setup - when traveling, visiting family, or just having a busy day. Instead of seeing that as a problem, treat it as a gift - a teacher. It's a chance to train in flexibility and resilience.

• Make a commitment to stay. Whatever your setup, designate the minimum time you'll be meditating before you begin. If you realize mid-meditation that you forgot some part of your setup - don't stop your meditation. Stay with it until the end of the time period that you had committed to. Let that moment be part of the practice.

• Start with a preparation phase. Before you meditate, but after you have already assumed a meditation posture, make sure you have a preparation phase. A strong preparation sets a strong foundation that prevents the meditation from collapsing too easily.

And finally, remember that inner conditions matter too: kindness, curiosity, patience - these are at least as important as silence or other supportive external conditions. As you continue, you'll build the strength to meet a wider range of conditions, inside and out, with presence and ease. It's a gradual training, and you're already in it.