Mindfulness

The practice of directing non-judgmental attention to present-moment experience — bodily sensations, breath, thoughts, and emotions — typically cultivated through structured meditation, body-scan exercises, or informal awareness in daily activity. Rooted in Buddhist contemplative traditions and operationalised in Western psychology by Jon Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programme (1979), mindfulness has a strong evidence base for reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. Mindfulness is a frequent target of digital mental-health interventions — apps, VR environments, biofeedback devices — though accessibility considerations apply: audio-only guided meditations exclude Deaf users, long sessions can be executive-function-heavy for ADHD and autistic users, and interoceptive focus can be counterproductive for people with trauma histories or alexithymia.