Every night we close our eyes and let go of everyday conscious awareness when we sleep. And every morning we wake with fully formed thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, sounds, and images that make sense to us. This process, which we experience every day of our lives, is one of those mundane, yet extraordinary things that we hardly ever think about and often take for granted. 

Most experts agree that consciousness has two modes: foreground content and background awareness. Examples of foreground content are the words on a page, an image, a thought, a sound, or something that is being said. Background awareness is the conscious space that these flow through. 

Like swirling particles in a shaken snow globe, our attention gets bound to the content of consciousness and caught up in its energy and momentum. And like fish, who apparently are not aware that they’re in the water, we’re often blind to the broader background of awareness. Although it’s possible to be aware of both, without knowing this distinction, we tend to experience these two modes as the same, as we focus almost exclusively on the content. Given that the evolutionary advantage of humans comes from our amazing ability to understand, represent, process, and communicate things and events in the world, our focus on content is not surprising. For instance, as hunter-gatherers, we would have told others in the group where we found the ripe fruit.

Apart from when we’re asleep, conscious awareness is there all the time in the background, whether we notice it or not. The difference is that the content of consciousness comes and goes. For instance. a thought about something we need to do arises, is noticed, and then dissolves. What’s interesting is that when we are lost in thought, we lose awareness of the here-and-now of background awareness and enter a conceptual world of content. So, we become much less aware of our bodies and senses. 

Mindfulness is fundamentally about improving our attention and awareness; knowing where our attention is at any moment and being consciously aware of the broader background of experience. This allows us to notice when we drift off in thought as well as to become more familiar with the background of our experience through our body and senses.

Improving our awareness of when our mind wanders is difficult, as it’s almost impossible to notice the transition. One moment we’re happily walking along, fully aware of sounds, sensations, and the movement of the body, and within a beat, we’ve drifted off in thought replaying that embarrassing event at the weekend. This is something we’re all familiar with. One explanation of why noticing the transition is so difficult is that the brain automatically switches into automatic mode when our awareness drops, and then it works on whatever is going on for us just below conscious awareness and takes our attention with it. 

Here are five fundamental steps that underpin mindfulness practice that we’ll return to again and again:

1. Noticing that your awareness has dropped and that your attention is now engaged in unintentional and automatic thoughts.
2. Acknowledging where your attention has gone, then gently disengaging from the automatic thoughts.
3. Anchoring yourself back into the present by connecting with your breath, body, and senses.
4. Settling in the open, aware space outside of content and movement.
5. Then responding to whatever arises in the moment with open awareness, flexibility, and kindness.

You can use this process informally during the day to bring yourself back to a mindful and aware state. These steps are also a useful part of formal mindfulness practice. For instance, this could be 10, 15, or 30-minute sitting practice, where you first settle your mind and emotions, bring your attention and awareness to your body and senses and then work with whatever arises in your experience with the five steps. And whenever your attention drifts, start with step one again. Beginning again as many times as it takes.

As humans, we have evolved with a mind that is so powerful that it takes over without asking permission. Mindfulness practice is about exploring and investigating what is going on in our experience, so that, as far as we can, we become masters of our mind and attention, rather than its servant. 

Suggested weekly practice

• Remember to notice when your mind wanders during the week, with kindness and curiosity. When you find your mind wandering, acknowledge where your attention has gone and gently bring it back to your body and senses, which are only ever in the present moment.
• When you acknowledge where your attention and gone, try labelling thoughts. Some suggestions are “useful or not useful”, “future, past or present”, “nurturing or depleting”, or “expanding or limiting”. This is almost like gardening for the mind; weeding out thoughts that no longer serve you.
• Explore and investigate these two modes of consciousness; the content of consciousness and conscious awareness and see what insights emerge. Do you lose contact with your body and senses when you drift off in thought? Is it possible to rest in conscious awareness without having your attention grabbed by thoughts or sounds?

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Guidance
Find somewhere undisturbed and sit in a comfortable, dignified, and upright posture, where you can remain alert and aware.
There are two guided practices for this session. You can close your eyes, or lower your gaze while the meditations play.

• Play the settling practice, then read through the session content, which you can print off if that helps
• Then play the second audio to explore the five-step practice.