What is Mindfulness? There is no single answer. To me it represents two things:
(1) To learn to rest ones mind. I did a course in Mindfulness, three hours a week for six weeks. This was really enjoyable as the lady running the course was very laid back and and it was a real joy to meet the other people on the course. We learned to relax our minds in “Mindfulness Practice”, as the lady called it. She didn’t like to think of it as “Meditation” as meditation suggested thinking about “something” and the idea is to try to let your mind go blank for a while so it does actually get a rest. Now the notes and hand-outs that the lady gave us, produced by some central source, actually did call it “meditation” rather than “mindfulness practice”. As I say, there is no single answer.
(2) When one has a problem, especially if it is critical and immediate, the temptation is to react, instinctively one will panic and maybe shout or blame someone else or any number of reactive things. See my example below about entering a restaurant and not being able to find a clean empty table.
So the other aspect of Mindfulness is learning that one can and ought to actively solve the situation, rather than reactively panic! To be mindful of ones ability to think a problem through, quickly if necessary, and come up with a solution. Often any reasonable action will help you find the direction of the solution. It is not always possible to find the solution just by sitting on ones bottom and meditating, or even by Googling it.
Actually, as an aside, I’ve just proved this. There was a quote that goes something like this: “If you can’t think of what to do then do something. Action has a majesty to it and forces will come into play to guide your hand in further actions”. But can I find it? Nope!
So if Mindfulness is meditation and thinking things through then what’s new? Well, there is nothing new under the sun. What is new is the concept, the idea is simply to be mindful that one has these options to both rest ones mind and to actively, rather than reactively, solve problems.