Who uses mindfulness?

Mindfulness is an individual’s ability to be conscious and aware of something. This could mean people, places, things, situations, and self, of course. In this mindfulness, one is more present in the here and now and with a higher degree of mental and emotional connectedness. It is my clinical opinion that we all use mindfulness to some degree or another. Some individuals can use it more effortlessly and efficiently. In contrast, others struggle to become more aware and focused on what they want or need to focus on. Mindfulness is an approach that can be taught and easily integrated into everyday life.

One of the clearest examples of someone who uses mindfulness is a psychotherapist. The therapist must be present here and now to provide the client an increased amount of benefit from their sessions. The therapist must also use mindfulness to learn how to evaluate the client through their skillset, thereby implementing evidence-based clinical approaches to elicit a change response. The mindfulness a therapist attains occurs over years of training and clinical practice, which means it has been a learning experience and continues much more into the future.

Mindfulness is used in every profession, from doctors, lawyers, and engineers to teachers, carpenters, and plumbers. Athletes are individuals who are very much in tune with consciousness and awareness. Consider in baseball how a pitcher and a batter must be present enough to focus on the minute details needed to execute their outcomes as planned. Please think of how a boxer uses his awareness to gauge and calculate his offensive and defensive strategies. Mindfulness is an essential approach, and some would say tool for advancing their wants and needs by rationalizing and attuning to where their attention might best be suited. Once an unaware individual begins to use mindfulness, they will immediately understand the immense benefits of being of a more present mind and raise their degree of self-control and at times be able to leverage factors previously outside of their reach. We all use mindfulness; we may have called it something else. However, we have definitely used it.