The sceptics among you may consider the practice of mindfulness to be a fad, or perhaps even a waste of time. That’s because many people simply view mindfulness as a relaxation technique – a form of meditation used to relax and unwind. To them, mindfulness whispers, ‘Take a deep breath. Relax. Clear the mind.’

Well, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Granted, mindfulness can be practised through meditation, but it’s not about clearing your mind, so much as understanding it. You could say that achieving mindfulness gives us ‘present-moment awareness of things as they are’.

We all have thoughts and feelings, and mindfulness is not a method of sweeping those away. Instead, it helps us to understand our thought processes, and ultimately change them for the better…