What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the act of paying attention, in the present moment, without judgement.
Mindfulness is fully attending to what is occurring now. This can be choosing to pay attention to your breath, using all of your senses to eat a meal, or being fully present while listening to a song.
While being mindful, if a distraction arises that pulls you away from the present moment, the goal is to notice the distraction and return to the present moment. For example, if you are engaging in mindful breathing and you notice various thoughts arise you will notice that you are having the thoughts and redirect yourself to your breath.
Another example, if you are choosing to mindfully listen to a song and a memory arises, you will notice that you are experiencing a memory and redirect yourself to listening to the song.
It is ok to notice a multitude of distractions; the important pieces are redirecting yourself back to the present moment and what you have chosen to pay attention to and that you allow any judgmental thoughts to come and go without attaching to them.
What are the benefits of mindfulness?
Stress Reduction
Research shows mindfulness-based stress reduction can lower stress levels and help your body avoid the physical damage that usually comes with chronic stress. Studies find that people who learn and engage in mindfulness routines report reduced stress. Think of it as training your mind to respond differently when life gets tough.
Decreased Emotional Reactivity
People who practice mindfulness bounce back faster from negative emotions and don't get as overwhelmed when stressful stuff happens. Brain scans show that mindfulness actually changes how your brain responds to emotional triggers, especially reducing activity in the fear center. You're still feeling your feelings, but you're not at their mercy.
Improve Depression and Anxiety
Research shows that incorporating mindfulness techniques into therapy can significantly reduce symptoms of both anxiety and depression. The benefits come from learning to interrupt cycles of worry and rumination while building better skills for managing difficult emotions. When you work with a therapist who integrates mindfulness, you're learning practical tools you can use in real life—not just talking about problems, but actually changing how you relate to them.
Decrease Ruminating Thoughts
Mindfulness helps you step back from repetitive negative thoughts instead of getting stuck in them. By teaching you to notice thoughts without getting tangled up in them, mindfulness creates distance between you and the mental loops that keep you stuck. You learn to watch thoughts pass by like clouds instead of treating them as facts.
Improve Focus
Even 12 minutes of daily mindfulness practice can protect your attention from declining during high-stress periods. Your mind naturally wanders about half the time, but mindfulness trains you to notice when you've drifted and bring yourself back. This matters because stress, threats, and negative moods hijack your attention and make it hard to concentrate on what actually matters to you.
Improve Relationship Satisfaction
People with higher mindfulness tend to accept their partners more easily and handle relationship conflicts more constructively. When you're more present and less reactive, you show up better for the people you care about. Working on mindfulness in individual therapy can help you bring more patience and awareness into your relationships, even if your partner isn't in the room—you're changing how you respond, which shifts the whole dynamic.
Why Learn Mindfulness in Individual Therapy?
Working on mindfulness with a therapist gives you something you can't get from an app or a book: personalized guidance.
Your therapist can help you figure out which techniques actually fit your life and what's getting in the way when practice feels impossible. They can also help you navigate the challenges that come up, because let's be real, sitting with difficult emotions isn't always comfortable, especially when you're already struggling. mindful
In therapy, you're not just learning about mindfulness, you're practicing it in real time and getting immediate feedback on what's working.
Why Practice Matters Outside of Session
Here's the thing: people who actually practice mindfulness between sessions see bigger improvements in their symptoms than those who don't.
Think of therapy as learning to play an instrument—your therapist teaches you the skills, but you've got to practice at home if you want to get better. The more you practice noticing your thoughts and emotions without getting swept away by them, the more automatic it becomes when you really need it.