Mindfulness .. way of being or mind training technique?

I heard a discussion on 'BBC Breakfast' this morning about 'Mindfulness' and I found it interesting to hear it described as a 'brain training technique.' And I guess it is that, but I've always though of mindfulness as a 'way of being.'  Two different perspectives or ways of thinking about the same thing ...

For me, mindfulness is a state of peace,stillness and focus.  Of simply 'being' in the moment.  Of being aware of only what I'm experiencing in that specific moment.  A state of focused awareness as all attention is focused purely on what is happening, what I'm seeing, touching, feeling, hearing, experiencing at that moment.  No distractions from 'inner chatter', no worrying about the past or the future, or thinking about anything else.

Pure experiencing, living, being, in the moment ...

And yes, it does take practice to be mindful.  It doesn't come easily to many people, especially when we live in a world of competing distractions and demands, of multiple things to be doing and thinking about.  And all of these things just get in the us simply 'being.'

So, in this way, I can see how mindfulness can be viewed as a 'brain training technique.'  In order to be mindful, we have to train our brains to be quiet, train them to think, to focus in a different way.  We have to train them to switch off the inner chatter and all other distractions and focus all attention onto the specific moment and what is being experienced within that moment.

So; whether we think of mindfulness as a way of being or as a mind training technique, it's a very useful state / skill to develop and be able to access.

It's something I often talk to clients about.  It can help people experiencing both depression and anxiety; two different experiences in which people aren't living in the moment.  In depression, people tend to be dwelling in the past, thinking about what's happened, what could have been differently, what they wish had happened, etc., etc.  In anxiety, people are living in the future; worrying about things that might happen, that might go wrong, that might hurt them, etc., etc.

In this view, neither the past nor the future are 'real' ... they're memories of times or something that has already happened or future memories and fantasies of what might happen at some future time.  The present, and only our own present which we are currently experiencing is the only thing that is real.

Now, of course, it's useful and comforting at times, to look back on memories, to reflect and learn from experiences.  And it's also good to look ahead and create future plans, future goals to work towards.  But it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking too much about the past (either just earlier that same day, yesterday, last week, last month or years ago) or the future (projecting into the next hour, the next day, week, month, year, decade).

But if we could all spend a little more time living in the 'here and now,' experiencing our present, and being more fully aware of what we're experiencing, thinking and feeling at the precise moment at which we're experiencing, thinking and feeling it, we can only benefit.

  Living mindfully ... our mental health would improve and we'd experience life much more fully ...