What is mindfulness primarily focused on?

Concept — Mindfulness is a form of trained attention. Psychology defines it as the awareness that arises from deliberately attending to what is happening right now, held in an accepting, non-evaluative stance. It therefore has two defining criteria: attention anchored in the present moment, and observation of that experience without rating it as good or bad.

Application — Each mental activity offered here can be mapped against those two criteria — where the attention is pointed in time, and whether the experience is accepted or evaluated:

Reading across the grid, only one activity is both present-centred and non-evaluative: being intensely aware of the present moment without judgment.

Cross-check — Jon Kabat-Zinn, who introduced mindfulness into clinical practice through the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programme, defines it as "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally." The APA Dictionary of Psychology and the US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health both describe it the same way — present-moment awareness held without judgment.

Result — Mindfulness is primarily focused on being intensely aware of the present moment without judgment.

Classroom note — School mindfulness activities such as breath awareness, mindful listening or a one-minute silent pause train attention regulation and emotional self-awareness. They ask a child to notice and name a feeling as it happens, which is the opposite of bottling it up, and they do not require the child to analyse the past or rehearse the future.