Mindfulness, from what I understand, is staying within the boundaries of your senses. It means choosing to stay in the present moment. Despite the root word, there is not much mental activity involved, at least from my experience so far. From what I have observed, moments of mindfulness resemble the “flow” state that athletes and artists describe, a feeling of peaceful presence, where action leads seamlessly to new action and thoughts are quiet and purposeful.

If Mindfulness is absolute presence, then the opposite, Mindlessness, is a state totally divorced from the present. When I catch myself behaving mindlessly, I am usually doing one of the following actions:
– bouncing my leg
– fidgeting
– scrolling endlessly on reddit
– sitting with poor posture
– making judgements of the past and treating them with certainty
– making predictions for the future and treating it as certain
– having conversations in the present with people who aren’t nearby, just on my mind
– stalling, not choosing on purpose because the choice may be difficult
– experiencing cognitive dissonance (which I identify as a conflict between WHAT IS and what we EXPECT IS)

Each of the above actions demonstrates a lack of engagement in the present moment in one way or another. Nowadays when I catch myself performing one of these, I think “Ah, mindlessness!” to myself, and usually can steer myself clear of it for that moment.

An important realization is that, for right now at least, continuous mindfulness is impossible for me to maintain. With that in mind, I endeavor to treat myself with understanding and compassion, recognizing the change I hope to bring myself over time, celebrating the time I spend accomplishing that change, and relaxing through the times I am less able to be mindful.