I think that direct experience is the best teacher for something like mindfulness, so here is something you can try. You will see mindfulness for yourself, with this simple practice. (hint: read instructions first and then try it for 10 minutes)
___Alert - Become still and alert - close your eyes, bringing your attention inward to your breath
Kindness - Simply observe your breath by bringing a kind, curious attention to the subtle sensations of your breathing, as it moves in and out of your body. (usually at or around the nostrils is best for this simple test).
Ease - Let go of everything but the breath, as best as you can. Find the beginning of your in-breath, and follow it all the way through to the beginning of your out-breath - follow this all the way through and begin again. Do your best to keep your attention rooted in this sensation of breathing in and out - relax into it without trying to alter the breath in any way.
Continue with the intention of keeping with this simple practice of observing the breath, one breath at a time. Keep the breath and only the breath in mind. Practice this for 10 minutes and come back to this post when you're done.
Did you keep the breath in mind the entire 10 minutes, without thinking about anything else - or did your attention wander? Where did it wander to? Sound perhaps, or other body sensations, or more likely thoughts about the past present or future, daydreams, planning, snippets of conversations from the day?
Wherever it wandered off to, at some point, you noticed that you were no longer paying attention to your breath - that you went somewhere else - usually without even noticing that you left the breath in the first place.
This is mindfulness. Not the wandering but that moment when you 'woke-up' and realized that your attention was no longer with the breath but somewhere else.
That is, the moment you 'wake up' from the trance of thinking or daydreaming and become aware that you're thinking and that your attention is no longer fully with the breath, that moment right there was a moment of mindfulness.
Most of our lives are lived in the state just before we wake-up and notice - a kind of automatic pilot - being pulled this way and that by the untrained mind, believing whatever it is we may be thinking, hanging on to pleasant experiences for dear life and at the same time frantically pushing away unpleasant experiences - hoping beyond all hope that we can tip the balance of pleasant vs. unpleasant in our favor and then at the end of the day we can maybe call this a pretty good life.
Kind of scary, huh?
Mindfulness offers us a way out. With enough consistent and sincere practice, we can develop this 'wake up' state so that it lasts longer and eventually becomes the norm. Once this happens, we can move on to the practice of the goal of mindfulness - a happiness and well-being that is not dependent on the ever changing conditions of our lives.
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
