Mindfulness is paying attention moment to moment to the present without judgment and with an open and curious intention. It is a way of cultivating a part of your brain that can observe without reactivity or the need to avoid or escape what is there in the present moment. 

We have been conditioned to operate in the doing mode of mind, where our minds tend to feel more useful. It's familiar and allows our minds to run on autopilot for a lot of our lives. This leads to a number of problems. If you are on autopilot, you are probably functioning o.k. on the outside in order to get things done, but you are not present for it. Instead you may be in the past or in the future. This isn't always "bad." But when the past is filled with regret or pain and the future is filled with fear or anxiety, we tend to experience these things as if they were happening now. But they aren't. And this leads to suffering. 

On the other hand, the "being" mode of mind simply observes, but also disengages the brain activity that elicit emotional reactivity, worry, panic, hopelessness, depression, and many other negative patterns of your mental life. By engaging the being mode of mind, you create psychological flexibility and thus, more options, and more freedom.

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