5 Myths About Mindfulness

Quick answer: Mindfulness is the practice of noticing your thoughts, feelings, and present experience without judgment—not clearing your mind, forcing positive thinking, or chasing happiness. It's a secular, evidence-based set of cognitive skills, coined as a clinical term by Jon Kabat-Zinn, that anyone can practice regardless of belief.

Mindfulness is no longer some alternative, new-age practice—mindfulness is mainstream. Its influence spans psychology, education, corporate wellness, and even NFL coaching, and it has become a multi-billion dollar industry. That popularity breeds misinterpretation: most people surmise what mindfulness means from headlines and memes without any proper training. Here are five of the most common myths—and what mindfulness actually is.

Is mindfulness about clearing your mind?

No—you can no more force yourself not to think than force yourself not to feel your legs.

Thoughts and sensations just happen, and there's not much you can do to eliminate them. The very instruction "Don't think" is itself a thought—you already blew it. Mindfulness is not about clearing your mind or stopping your thoughts. It's about noticing your thoughts, rather than thinking them.

Is mindfulness the same as positive thinking?

No—mindfulness is about non-judgment, and positive judgments are still judgments.

Thinking positively is certainly a good thing, but it isn't mindfulness. Just because two things are "good" doesn't make them synonymous. You can be mindful of any thought, positive or negative. Mindfulness helps us look at our experience for what it is, without the lens of positive or negative. It's about suspending evaluation.

Will mindfulness make me happy?

Mindfulness is about being present for all of your experiences, whether you like them or not—happiness is a byproduct of living a purposeful life, not a state to be strived for or sustained.

Happy people also experience sadness, frustration, boredom, anxiety, and every other human emotion. Happiness is not the absence of painful emotions. If you are sad, mindfulness is about feeling sad—not trying to change how you feel or obtain something "better." It's about being right where you are. That stance is central to mindfulness-based therapy.

Is mindfulness a self-improvement technique?

Mindfulness is closer to the opposite of self-improvement—it's recognizing everything is exactly as it should be and dropping the struggle to be something else.

Unless you count improvement as being more of what you already are, mindfulness isn't about becoming something you're not. Western culture is deeply imbued with striving and achieving for something greater, something better. Mindfulness invites you to drop that struggle rather than add another item to the self-optimization list.

Do I have to be Buddhist to practice mindfulness?

No—mindfulness is a secular application that people of all faiths, or no faith at all, can practice without changing their existing beliefs.

The term "mindfulness" was coined by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the late sixties as he brought the practice of Buddhist meditation to the West to be studied and applied clinically as a psychological tool. Mindfulness can be viewed scientifically as a set of cognitive processes that can be measured—no belief or cultural tradition is required to use these evidence-based skills. Many people find it enriches their existing spiritual life all the more.

What mindfulness really is

Mindfulness isn't clearing your mind, thinking positively, chasing happiness, self-improvement, or religion. It's the trainable skill of observing your present experience—thoughts, feelings, sensations—without judgment. Practiced consistently, it changes your relationship to your own mind, which is why it's now used clinically for anxiety, depression, and stress.

Getting started. If you're curious how mindfulness works in real treatment—not memes—our mindfulness-based therapy team can show you, in person in Austin or online across Texas.

Frequently asked questions

If mindfulness isn't about stopping thoughts, what do I do when my mind wanders?

Notice that it wandered—that noticing is the practice. Rather than fighting thoughts, you observe them as events in the mind and gently return attention to the present, again and again.

Can mindfulness help with anxiety or depression?

Yes. Mindfulness is applied clinically as an evidence-based psychological tool, and mindfulness-based therapy uses these skills to help people relate differently to anxious and depressive thoughts. Talk with a therapist about whether it fits your situation.

Is mindfulness religious?

No. While meditation practices have Buddhist roots, mindfulness as taught clinically is secular—a measurable set of cognitive processes. People of any faith or none can practice it without changing their beliefs.

Get started with a therapist at Austin Mindfulness Center—in person in Austin or online across Texas.