'Mindfulness'

FactIncept: Flame-Up the Ideas, Incept the Ideas

In day to day discussion we emphasize on 'living in present (moment),' while 'Buddha' era gave importance to 'Mindfulness'. But its resemblance and meaning for humanity never changed with time. Buddha taught the same philosophy which the modern day psychology tells us to adapt. Limiting explanation to a word 'mindfulness' or on phrase 'living in present' or on 'being in the present moment' tells us that 'yes I am already living in present moment'. But if 'mindfulness' or 'living in present' could have been so easy; then it may not have made a significant place in philosophy and psychology without any exception of east or west.
"The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." - Buddha
In the path of spirituality it's just like a station before enlightenment, though 'Buddha' focused on it in an unprecedented way where 'mindfulness' had always been an important part of anyone’s spiritual journey. Reason behind its importance lies in its relationship with mind, which is why it has got an important place in modern psychotherapy.
What is mindfulness?
In a typical psychological definition, 'mindfulness' is, "a kind of non-elaborative, non-judgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in an attentional field is acknowledged and accepted as it is;" Or "keeping one's consciousness alive to the present reality" –as said by Hanh, 1976. Mindfulness has its exciting applications in psychotherapy. One latest study at Harvard University says that, people spend nearly half of their time (46.7%) thinking about something other than what they are actually doing. Also it is proved that daydreaming tends to make people mentally weak, even if they are thinking about something very pleasant. Therefore reminiscing and thinking ahead should be avoided for better mental health.
On the platform of spirituality 'mindfulness' can be defined as, continuous awareness and skillful understanding of our thoughts, emotion, activities and accepting them as they are. ‘Mindfulness’ gradually develops the freedom to break the hold of compulsive habits. Buddha has insisted, "Live in this moment."  He says living in present is meditation; those who are simply with this very moment are in meditation.
Saint Augustine told once that, "How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet?"  He told this very correctly because if we weigh it on philosophy, there is no past and future. They are merely illusion as past is in memory and future is in imagination. That's why past of everyone is not similar and no one's future is familiar. Have you ever seen a person who has lost his memory; one thing which needs to be observed is that he does not have a past. We all live in our projected world not in eternal world. Our mind creates and destroys the structure of our world.
A disciple asked from Japanese Guru Jenug Suzuk Roshi, "Why do Japanese make cups so thin and fragile, which are very hard to handle as it gets break so easily?"
Suzuk Roshi replied, "The fragility is not in cups, but it is inside the person who holds it. The person should know how to hold it, or if he don't, than he should adopt the way. You should be flexible enough to change yourself according to milieu rather changing milieu according to you."
A general understanding of 'mindfulness' or 'Being in present' tells us 'focus on what is happening right now,' or being fully aware of every moment taking place one after another. Neither remembering a past conversation nor imagining a conversation that one might have later. Not to remember last weekend and also not to plan the next. A very strong drive compels us to either think of future or of past, in which past plays an important role as our thoughts of future depends immensely on our past. Most of the times we tends to be nostalgic recalling our happier moments which gives us immense pleasure. We create our future with those 'good old moments' yearning for those in our future life. Future seems to be so charming, but inside we all know that no one on earth can predict any one's future, in-spite of claims of being master of palmistry. But we feel excited and attracted towards those claims and eagerly push ourselves to know what is written in those lines regarding our future.  One more fact associated with this is, if we hear something which pleases us then our mind starts building future and if prediction is unpleasant our mind floats in past memories. Such displacement of mind is painful because pain is nothing but it is the difference between what we have and what we want to have. And to attain 'mindfulness' is to stop worry about future or recalling past; it is simply living in the present.
How beautifully someone has written that,
"Yesterday was the history, tomorrow is the mystery, but today is a gift, that's why it's called present."