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The word ‘mindfulness’ is rather a misnomer because it has nothing to do with mind-fullness. As an attitude and a practice, it is about sparseness and simplicity rather than saturation or embellishment. With mindfulness, less is always more. This essence is captured by the tiny, 2,500-year-old, Indian word va, meaning ‘just’, ‘only’ or ‘simply’.
An easy misunderstanding to fall into with mindfulness is to see it as purely (or mainly) psychological in nature. Its emphasis on embodied awareness offers a large clue that it’s as much an education in physicality as it is in mind and thought. In this regard, mindfulness-based approaches are an uneasy fit with mental health paradigms that prioritise what happens from the neck up.
Because mindfulness is a contemplative practice, it values simplicity and non-distraction. By extension, it holds silence in high regard. It is widely accepted that environments conducive to mindfulness practice are ones that keep the clamour and noise of everyday life at a distance. Classes, training courses and retreat centres tend to prioritise relative quietness. The rest of the time, however, just like everyone else, practitioners inhabit a busy world of human interactivity. This is where the practice gets ‘real’ and ‘interesting’ because we are obliged to engage and respond, to speak and to act. If our practice is in good shape, we will find ourselves reflecting on the causes and the effects of our speech and our actions.
What is your ‘felt sense’ in this moment? Yes, this moment. If you are not sure, pause and allow awareness to open to your physical experience. Deliberately inhabit the ever-present inner landscape of bodily sensations. Let the prevailing mood or atmosphere of body and mind become known to you. What do you notice about the overall quality of feeling you are experiencing now? Pause reading and just feel.
Working with difficult or painful emotional states is an understandably frequent topic of discussion on mindfulness training courses. Feelings will out – perhaps all the more so in meditation which is, after all, a purification of the heart.
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May 2026
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