Mindfulness is big! And that in itself can be a barrier. We worry that if too many diverse benefits are claimed to flow from mindfulness then perhaps it is too good to be true, like the magic elixirs peddled by snake oil salesmen of old. And if too many practices are labelled as mindfulness then it can't be anything special. But perhaps the real barrier is that it isn't something you get from explanations of theory, it is something you can only experience by doing - a "praxis" you need to practice.
But why practice mindfulness? Most commonly it is positioned as being about well-being. But, to me, that is simply one subset of outcomes that may flow from the practice. I see mindfulness as essentially about intentional change - whether that is in well-being, in performance, in personal behaviour, or in relationships. I'd go further and say that mindfulness is essential to intentional change.
Mindfulness means paying more attention to what is really going on, both externally and internally. It takes us off "auto-pilot" so that (a) we become more aware of the choices we have in front of us and (b) we make our choice consciously rather than by unconscious reflex. In other words, we can act intentionally, with full awareness of our actions.
Conceptually this sounds simple - and it is. But it isn't easy! Neuro-biologically it means more processing in our Pre-Frontal Cortex (which is the part of the brain where we make conscious decisions based on our imagination of possible future consequences). Unfortunately, the PFC is a very energy (resource) hungry processor and our brain has evolved to try and avoid using it. Our tendency to be on auto-pilot most of the the time is actually a very energy efficient design! This tendency becomes even more extreme under stress (ie threat), when the chemicals produced literally shut down PFC processing as an unnecessary "luxury".
And this brings us back to the reason for practice. In a calm moment when we are not stressed, and when we are able to spend the energy on doing it - and often with someone else's help - we can all become mindful and plan to do things differently. But change only happens when we can take our intention into real-life and interrupt our reflex reaction "in the moment". This interruption is what needs practice. It literally builds new brain processing capability, in the same way that physical exercise builds new muscle.
So whatever you are trying to change, start a daily mindulness practice (eg go to http://mindfulnessatwork.com) and see what happens.
