What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is commonly described as attention to and awareness of present moment experience and, as an ancient practice, is at the heart of the historical teachings of Buddha. It's more than 25 centuries old, yet in the last two decades there's been a surge of both popular and scientific interest in mindfulness.
The rapid advancements in technology allows us to more accurately understand how mindfulness impacts, or changes, the brain, which is contributing to what we know.
2. What is overlooked in the conversation about mindfulness?
We're at a turning point in this field. Just for example, there were 39 scientific papers published about mindfulness before the year 2000. Today that number is 6,000. It's staggering to think about the how mindfulness practices and interventions have innervated nearly every sector of society including health care and schools to corporations, corrections, the government and military, as well as social justice and mobile technology.
There is a lot of hype around the benefits of mindfulness and it is getting oversold in popular culture relative to the scientific evidence supporting its benefits. That's not meant to be discouraging but it is an opportunity for researchers to accurately describe and contextualize how mindfulness can be applied in everyday life.