Link to the Course: Link.
ROUGH NOTES (!)
Updated: 6/7/26
Course - 1 : Foundations
[Introducing Mindfulness]
During our busy and stressful lives, our attention is usually all over the place.
“People spend about 47% of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing.” - Gilbert, Killingsworth, 2010.
The same research says:
People are consistently less happy when their minds are wandering, even when the content of their thoughts is generally pleasant.
Why? Apparently: When we are not paying deep attention or when we’re operating with a kind of automaticity we’re virtually unprotected.
(It’s like the guard who’s been hired to keep us safe has fallen asleep on the job. We’re more vulnerable to anxiety, stress, and depression, and we’re more likely to be triggered or get our buttons pushed, and to respond in ways that are unhelpful and not very constructive. Living in this way we can really exacerbate our own suffering and miss out on quite a lot that life has to offer. We disconnect from our bodies and we can get stuck in mechanical, condition ways of thinking and being that really aren’t in alignment with how we want to be living.)
Tldr: Autopilot mode can go bad.
Mindfulness helps us reconnect to our basic ability to be fully present, and stay cognizant of where we are and what we’re doing. And it helps us to not be overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on. It helps us wake up and lift out of autopilot and take the steering wheel of our attention again.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness:
The act of paying attention, on purpose, to all elements of our experience with an attitude of open acceptance, non-judgement and compassion.
Firstly our attention is held on purpose. Mindfulness involves the conscious and deliberate direction of our attention.
(When we’re on autopilot our attention is being swept up by a never-ending and not always positive current of thinking. But when we’re mindful we wake up and step out of that current, placing our attention where we choose.)
Secondly, our attention is immersed in the present moment.
(If we leave it to its own device, our mind habitually wanders away from the present moment. It’s constantly caught up in replaying the past and projecting into the future.)
Mindful attention is being completely engaged in present moment experience, the here and now.
What are the benefits?
Not only does it help us be more available to notice beautiful and pleasant things. But when you step back and really consider the cost of our pre-occupation with things we can’t change like events from our past, as well as things that may never occur like worries about the future. You can begin to understand the benefits of paying attention to the present.
Attention is held without judgement. We pay attention to our experience with openness and curiosity.
We become a detached observer of our sense perceptions, thoughts, and emotions.
(Becoming a watcher in this way, we can spend more time interrogating our experience, and and learn to take what happens in our bodies and our minds less personally. This new approach helps increase our understanding of the thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and context that tend to push us into reactivity. And this understanding is a really important first step into breaking free from habitual behaviors and mental ruts that have caused us problems in the past.)
Mindfulness Demo
Taking a few moments now to turn away from your screen and finding a comfortable way to sit. Maybe settling back into your chair with both feet on the floor.
Allowing the eyes to drift close, and noticing here what this feels like. Feel yourself sitting here. Feel the weight of your body against the chair. The pressure of your feet on the floor. Feel your attention begin to turn inward. And then shifting awareness so that it’s focused on the breath, Bringing awareness to each breath, as if noticing breathing for the very first time. You might ask yourself, how do I know I’m breathing?
Maybe feeling air coming in and out through the nostrils. Or noticing the rise and fall of the belly and chest. And noticing if as you bring attention to the breath, it changes in any way. And if it does, seeing if you can let the breath be exactly as it is, there’s no need to control or manipulate it in any way. How do I know I’m breathing? Just this, on the inhale knowing breathing in. And on the exhale knowing breathing out.
And as you’re ready, opening the eyes, and turning attention back out again. Noticing as you do what this feels like.
Back to the class
It’s less important for you to focus on a single object of attention. And more important for you to notice when your mind has left that object.
(In mindfulness practice, we’re attempting to expand our capacity to pay attention for longer periods of time, with more stillness and stability. But it’s actually in the noticing of the wandering mind that we strengthen our capacity to become more consciously aware. Over time this training and noticing the wandering mind and coming back to experience helps us shift out of operating from a place of unconscious habit.)
Notice the wandering mind.