What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness as a state of clear, nonjudgmental, and undistracted attention to the contents of consciousness, whether pleasant or unpleasant. It is the practice of paying close attention to the present moment—observing thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise without getting lost in them or reacting impulsively.
Mindfulness is the ability to notice what’s happening in your mind right now—say, the feeling of frustration or the pull of a wandering thought—without being hijacked by it. Sam Harris often uses the metaphor of thoughts being like clouds passing in the sky or reflections passing in front of a mirror: you can observe them without clinging to them or pushing them away. It’s not about achieving some blissful state but about breaking the illusion that you ARE your thoughts.
Mindfulness is a way to cut through the default mode of human suffering—our tendency to be trapped in ruminations about the past or anxiety about the future. It’s a skill that reveals how much of our unhappiness comes from misidentifying with our thoughts. By practicing mindfulness, you can gain freedom from this mental noise, improve focus, and respond to life more deliberately. Mindfulness meditation can also rewire attention circuits in the brain, reducing activity in the default mode network (the part linked to mind-wandering and self-obsession).
It’s not just self-help nonsense—it’s a practical antidote to the human condition, a way to live more fully in reality as it is, not as your mind distorts it. It’s one of the few tools we have that lets you see through the trick your brain plays on you every day: convincing you that you’re a prisoner of your own thoughts and narratives.
Resources:
Apps:
Books:
- Waking Up (by Sam Harris)
- Awareness (by Anthony De Mello)
MGD’s 