Mindfulness for Beginners

21 May 2025


Mindfulness for Beginners



Have you heard of “mindfulness” but don't know what it is or why it's important? We'll discuss all that in this video.

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✅ Some good intro books on mindfulness:
Bhante Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English https://amzn.to/30m7Nvn
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness https://amzn.to/308ZOGP
Joseph Goldstein, Mindfulness http://amzn.to/2mC8OgY

✅ A more scholarly treatment of the original sutta on mindfulness:
Anālayo, Satipaṭṭhāna http://amzn.to/2DCty05

✅ The original sutta on mindfulness meditation (The Four Foundations of Mindfulness): https://suttacentral.net/mn10/en/sujato

✅ My playlist on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0akoU_OszRjItCXmF-MMPdKwTdtGSxl-

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Maybe you've heard of mindfulness, mindfulness meditation and just don't know what it is Or maybe you've heard about it and know something of it But just want more of a refresher and get a sort of an understanding, A deeper understanding of why it's important, and why we should think about it, and how we should practice it So that's what I'm going to discuss in today's video, coming right up I'm Doug Smith of the online Dharma Institute, that's onlinedharma.org If you're new to the channel and interested in living a wiser, and a kinder, and a calmer life, consider subscribing to the channel. And click the bell if you want to receive notifications whenever I release a new video. And, I should also add, if you're interested in taking a deeper dive into certain elements of the early Buddhist Dharma, the teachings of early Buddhism, Check out onlinedharma.org and some of the courses that I have over there So what I'm gonna do in this video is first I'm gonna talk about what mindfulness is and why it might be important to us to pursue and then later I'm gonna talk about Some of the practice and how we practice it and talk about a few Potential books or other sources that might interest you if you want to read further or learn further. so in general mindfulness in English means to be aware of or attentive to something or conscious of it, and it's opposed to, let's say, being distracted or inattentive or in some way not present. And, So mindfulness is the practice of substituting awareness for inattentiveness it's a practice of being really and fully present with the way things are right now as opposed to being lost in thoughts about the past, or lost in reminiscences of the past, or lost in thoughts about the future: what we're going to do tomorrow or What we need to do in the rest of the day. And here it's good to keep in mind that The past is beyond us. The past is already over. There's nothing we can do to change the past. And the future isn't here yet, So there's nothing we can do right now about the future Where we act, where we live, is in the present moment only so it's the present moment that we really should focus on and The point is not that we don't focus on the present, or that we should never think about the past or the future, of course not. The point is that mindfulness is a practice of spending more time where we really live and where we really act, which is right here and now, as opposed to Losing so much of our lives in in pointless thoughts about times that we really can't affect. When we do a practice like this, however, of, let's say, trying to stay in the present moment for a time We find certain things pretty quickly And I would say you should try this yourself Because that's part of the practice. But I think we generally find things pretty quickly First of all, we tend to find that there are certain things that annoy us in our surroundings. Not always, but often. A sound that we don't like; A way we're sitting or standing that we don't like over a period of time; Some smell in the air perhaps; maybe some light that we don't like, it's too bright or not bright enough And so, the mind begins to wander and begins to sort of think about ways to change that. Let's say we're sitting in an apartment building. We have neighbors upstairs and the dog is barking So our mind immediately goes off into some kind of a story about how we can stop that from happening about if we get up right now and go out our front door and walk upstairs and knock on their door and We come up with these stories We see how the mind works and we also note that This kind of working of the mind has taken us out of the present moment It's taken us into a future that doesn't exist yet It's taken us into a kind of a story about how we could act in the future and change things Nothing wrong with that and in its right place, but right now we're trying to practice being in the present moment Also, we might be in a situation where there's something that we really enjoy. Perhaps a nice smell of food That's being cooked. Perhaps a nice cool breeze that's wafting through the the room that we're sitting in. Perhaps it's a Beautiful kind of filtered light that we really love, or the warmth of the Sun on our back. All of these things may be, or others as well, may be things that we enjoy, perhaps it's even music that we enjoy and What we'll find then is often That we'll want that to continue. And, if it changes or stops, We may again be lost in thoughts ruminations about how to bring that back, about Worries or wishes of it coming back. If the Sun goes behind a cloud we may be thinking to ourselves Well, perhaps if I move over here or how long is that cloud gonna be there? If there's a nice smell and it goes away again We might wonder why. And again, when this happens, it's taken us out of the present into Whats and whys and hows of life, which are ordinarily where the mind resides. The third thing that we learn Is that this syndrome of thoughts and impulses that comes up in the mind, this syndrome is something that is entirely out of our control because we've sat down here and said, okay, I'm gonna focus on the present moment and Almost immediately these thoughts arise, these impulses arise. Almost immediately, we're brought off into thoughts about the future or thoughts about the past, remembering the last time that something happened similarly Almost immediately, the mind is pulled somewhere else, and that this is not under our control What we begin to learn I think, when we sit down and do this practice, is that this is how we live Virtually all of our lives in an ordinary way. Virtually all of our lives, we're at the mercy of these kinds of Automatic impulses that pull us this way and that. That we're not really in control of anything because the mind simply brings these things up, brings up these ideas and impulses into Into the present moment into our thought stream without us Wanting them necessarily, without us even thinking that they are necessary. It's just things that arise And we begin to see them as just things that arise in the mind stream, that pull us away from the present moment into thoughts, reminiscences; into planning, into thinking about what's happening tomorrow, or regretting let's say what happened yesterday, or musing about how nice it was what happened yesterday, and how I can get it to happen again. And Normally, we live our lives this way, under the control of these kinds of thoughts and impulses. However, it may be that as you do this practice You really get to a place where you want to reduce the control that these thoughts and impulses have over you that you want to reduce the kind of the way that they pull you this way and that, All the time during your life. And for that you need to practice. And that is the practice of mindfulness. So what is, then, the practice of mindfulness? Well, the practice of mindfulness begins with calming. So, It doesn't really matter what position we take, what physical position we put our body in. We can do mindfulness lying down, We can do it seated on a chair. We can do it seated on the floor on a cushion We can do it standing up. We can even do it while we're walking although while we're walking, we'll see, is a little bit different, but similar so we can do it in any position and Ordinarily, what you do is you begin by closing your eyes. Now if you're walking that's not going to be possible but at least closing them a little ways, and that's To try to diminish the amount of sensory input that you have Diminishing the sensory input is going to try to calm you down. So the point here is to try to calm yourself down Because the more agitated we are, the less calm that we are, the more that these kinds of thoughts that arise in the mind can control us. The more that they arise generally. However, The calmer that we are, the less frequently they tend to arise, and when they do arise, they tend to arise with less force So we begin by closing the eyes Getting into a position that we can hold for awhile without having to move, that is to say, a comfortable position and we can focus on something. Focus on something is usually something that's that's regular, that's cyclical. A Great place to start, indeed one way that people can do their entire lives, in fact, is focusing on the breath Because the breath is always with us. It's a regular kind of Phenomenon in the body. It's something that is again cyclical. It's something that will calm us down as we focus on it and we'll find by focusing on the breath for a while and Closing the eyes that we introduce a level of calm and so a level of clarity, more clarity in the mind. So we're able to see a little bit clearer how the mind works and what's going on and how things are happening If we want, we can count the breaths from one to ten and then going back to one again. Again in a sort of a cyclical way. Or we can name the breaths; we can say “in-breathing”, “out-breathing”, or “inhaling”, “exhaling” “In”, “out”, it doesn't matter what words we use, but if that helps us to keep Focusing the mind on the breath, we can use words like these, naming like this. Second, we try to get to a place where we're allowing negative and positive feelings to arise in the mind without Without them taking control of us So if we have a slight pain in our leg, or if there's an annoying sound in the room, We practice simply sitting with it We practice simply sitting with it and perhaps even naming it, saying, “an annoying sound”, or “a slight pain in my leg” And that way we can sit with it and see what happens if we do nothing at least for a period of time where we're simply Observing it as part of the present moment. And similarly if something good happens, if something nice happens, we simply sit with it without necessarily trying to grasp at if it goes away or if it changes. We simply name it, “a nice sound”, “a pleasant breeze” If we want we can use these kinds of words silently in our minds. And this kind of a practice gives us more mental space around which simply to embrace these as part of the present moment. To allow them to simply exist as phenomena that arise and pass, as they inevitably will; they'll arise and pass, they'll change over time. And so by doing this practice We then get ourselves to a place that is more fully present, That's more fully in the present moment, that is less liable to be pulled this way and that by the vicissitudes of life in a long-term practice It's not the sort of thing that you're going to expect is going to have– is going to create miracles in a day or a week But over months, over years of a regular practice of mindfulness like this, it will help us get to a place That's more equanimous in a more equanimous state with our own lives by being able to Be in the present moment, by not having our minds be so easily pulled into the past or into the future or into other places. The ordinary tendency of the mind is to go off into Ruminations, to go off into into streams of thought that aren't particularly useful or healthy to us We've already thought about these things enough times so we don't need to think about them the hundredth time or the thousandth time So this kind of practice allows us to relax around that. And this is especially important I think in today's what's known as the attention economy where our attention is is being pulled this way and that by the Enormous amount of information that's being thrown at us all the time through the internet, through cell phones, email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest. And I did a recent video about the role of mindfulness in this information economy And why this kind of practice is indeed so important nowadays. Now, what I've given here is only an introduction. There's a lot more to be said. And if you want to see more, I have a playlist about What are called the four foundations of mindfulness which is the the practice From which mindfulness originates. And I should say that all of the practices, there are many, many practices that are related here, that we can do, in trying to expand our repertoire of Abilities with the mind and understand various parts of the mind So I'll put a link to that in the show notes down below as well And I'll try to put one up here, if I can do it I will, and there also are many books that are useful. I'll put links to three really good ones down the show notes that are great sources for further reading There's a lot of information out there on mindfulness and I think it's worth taking the time to read about in more detail So if you find this talk useful do check out my Patreon page, it's linked right here. If you liked the video Give it a thumbs up consider subscribing consider becoming a part of our Patreon community and I hope we'll catch you on the next one of these videos and Meanwhile, all of you be well

#Mindfulness #Beginners

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36 Comments
  1. If you'd like to learn more about early Buddhism from a contemporary perspective, check out these courses for a deeper dive into the dharma: https://onlinedharma.org !

  2. One can also try Neurogenie capsules by Planet Ayurveda. These are very beneficial in calming and improving the ability to concentrate and perform meditation by increasing brain power.

  3. I love how I mindlessly scroll through the comments as I watch a video about mindfulness 😅

  4. A very good morning. I do have so much interest & love for Buddhism. I'll deem it a great favour if you could please intimate me with General Buddhist Philosophy. I'm Sam Egbe, Cameroonian citizen based in Abuja, Nigeria. May I wish you all the best in endeavours wherever you are as I expect to hear from you. Esteem regards.

  5. i did 7 other things while trying to watch / listen to this video

  6. If it were taught in every school, the world would be a better place.

  7. How long sit with the thoughts before redirecting the attention on the breath again? Or just when you notice yourself thinking directing the focus on the breath

  8. I was just listening while in mindfulness. The video became more than 20 minutes in my brain

  9. Doug, do you want me to watch your channel and subscribe?

  10. Interesting talk and engaging too … Thanks …. However, I have a question that I have been puzzling over for some time and unable to find an answer. Question, What is the difference between meditation Vs mindful meditation Vs mindfulness?

    With much thanks,
    Steve, Bristol, U.K. 🙏🤗👍🏼

  11. Achieving mindfulness is equivalent to achieving enlightenment.
    Once you have achieved mindfulness then you will understand it.

  12. Great video, short enough but still with a good in depht into mindfulness

  13. There are no contemporary Buddhist communities near me . Can I call myself Buddhist and practice outside a community?

  14. This is a good video for mindfulness for beginners. There are some great tips here.

  15. In previous you mention that one of our greatest cravings is that of identity/identification. Do you think this craving is encouraged by the "attention economy"? In recent months, I noticed commercials for many things being geared towards that subtle message: "By yourself…


    … by buying at our store."

  16. I was living in the past but I need to move on and letting go of haunting memories

  17. I also now use a mindfulness meditation, and it actually helps me sleep better

  18. Thank you so much for including us and showing us all these amazing tips and tricks about mindfulness. I really need it.

  19. 1st time I saw ur vdo & when I saw ur vdo i was really surprised bcz of ur precious explanations,It really helps me a lot ! Thn I subscribed ur channel and add me a new member in ur youtube family.Watching ur vdo from Bangladesh.Pray for me! May Allah bless u.Thanks !

  20. I think it funny having a mom that a psychiatrist she doesn't even have mindfulness and defend 2 children out of 4

  21. Ironically this video makes me think of the hardest year I've just had and how I can approach it differently

  22. Thank you so much for this video, Doug. I love to write and my ear was snagged by your use of the word 'story' in this video…. thinking of meditation as a kind of ceasing of mental 'storying' of the past moments or imagined future moments was a real lightbulb moment for me! For one, it's made me realise why my mind is so tired – I feel like I am constantly 'storying' my past or my future. What a great insight that is. Now I feel like I have a way in to mindfulness for the first time. Much appreciated.

  23. I find that there is tension when trying to return to the breath, my mind and body protest as though it wants my attention to be on the distracting object (pure bodily sensation, emotion ect) and NOT return to the breath. It's only once the sensation has ebbed away may i return to the breath and even still it's not an effort on my part, it's rather than the sensation clears like fog, and beneath it is the breath. Is this correct ?

    Another issue is the distinction between focusing on the breath vs returning to the breath. The former is akin to focusing on a point, rooting it there attempting to stop it removal which is what i think of when i hear 'focus on breath' the latter is an almost careless attitude, wherein it's almost as though i'm viewing a field of contents in my mind and alongside them is the breath which sometime grabs my attention, but otherwise there isn't any 'focusing' as the word 'focus' is traditionally understood. It feels like mind wandering where occasionally my breath, rather than objects of thought is the main focus.

    Put differently, the only form of meditation that feels intuitively right isn't what i would refer to as focusing per say but instead having both my breath and everything else in mind almost simultaneously, like i'm in a dome, with my breath in the center and all the other contents kind of drifting across it where i'm partially aware of both and rarely fully focused on either, it's kind of like my breath rises to the fore rather than me seeking it out to focus on it. There seems to be an apparent contradiction between 'sitting with the thought/sensation' and 'return to the breath once you've noticed a thought or sensation', because it raises the question of whether i remove my attention from the distracting thought/sensation and replace it on the breath or i let it pass after which is almost naturally finds itself on the breath.

  24. This is the only way I can get back to sleep after waking around 2-3am. I just have to take a mental note to deal with my “to do” list the next day and simply focus on breathing and the comfort of my bed. It’s not easy.

  25. This is the best explanation of mindfulness. Thank you, Doug!

  26. Living in the present seems to be a simple process but as you explained so much information available on the internet and just getting caught up on regrets from the past and not knowing where to actually go in planning for the future has me ignoring the present. Thank you for starting me on this journey of being consistent in living in the present

  27. disconnect from stress to begin with

  28. On Mindfulness, motivation, and pleasure: a different procedure and perspective from affective neuroscience

    Procedure: Consistent and periodic alternation between a resting protocol (e.g. mindfulness) and the exclusive pursuit of meaningful behavior will increase motivation and positive affect (arousal and pleasure), and by making meaningful ideation more emotionally salient, will increase productive motivation and crowd out thoughts leading to anxiety and depression.

    Explanation: Resting elicits opioid activity, or feels pleasurable, and meaningful behavior, as defined as behavior that has branching novel and positive outcomes (writing that great novel or just making the bed) elicits dopamine activity which causes attentive arousal. The awareness of subsequent meaningful behavior while engaging in relaxation protocols such as mindfulness elicits a ‘priming’ response, namely dopamine release that enhances ongoing opioid activity, and vice versa, making meaningful behavior seem self-reinforcing or ‘autotelic’, with cognition less likely to transition to perseverative thought (worry, regret, distraction). In other words, arousal and pleasure (i.e., dopamine and opioid) systems when simultaneously activated by disparate stimuli are synergistic, and co-activate each other to be more than the affective sum of their parts

    Although meditative practice reduces discursive thought or mind wandering that can lead to negative ideation or perseverative thought (worry, regret, distraction); it does not inhibit concurrent non-conscious awareness or anticipation of behavior or events subsequent to meditation that can in turn shape or ‘prime’ affective responses during a meditative session. A priming response, like the salivary response that precedes food or the sexual arousal that precedes intimacy, is a preparatory response that often occurs non-consciously, and changes the affective value or ‘feeling’ in the moment. Similarly, relaxing due to ‘being in the moment’ is pleasurable, but if we were told to expect ‘bad’ news or ‘good’ news in the near future, just the awareness of future events is enough to depress or elevate our feelings, but not altering in the slightest our ‘mindful’ or relaxed state. It follows that if mindfulness is paired with the awareness of subsequent positive or meaningful behavior, then rest in mindfulness will have a greater affective tone or ‘feel better’ than if such a prospect or expectancy was absent. This is perhaps why ‘savoring’, ‘loving kindness’ meditation, and ‘flow’ experiences represent highly pleasurable and arousing experiences, as they make future positive ideation contingent to obvious or subtle pleasures (due to relaxation, eating, drinking) and contrast with a lower level of pleasure during typical states of rest that generally precede a return to meaningless discursive thinking.

    From ‘the book of rest, the odd psychology of doing nothing’ from the open source publishing web site scribd

  29. I do not know why people in videos talk too much before giving just little useful informations. 99% definitions and obvious facts, VS 1% useful practical tips. But audience time is precious, isn't it?

  30. How important is having a solid foundation of knowledge of Buddhist philosophy for a beginner like me? I've buried myself under Wikipedia tabs and a backlog of books, and I'm afraid that if I don't consult as many sources as I can, my effort will be in vain.

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