Mindfulness and Yoga in Schools A Guide for Teachers and Practitioners

CHAPTER 4: THE MINDFUL LEARNER • 71

Present moment awareness is a necessary component of mindfulness (Felver et al., 2013;
Lutz et al., 2015). Generally speaking, mindfulness concerns clarity of awareness of one’s
inner and outer worlds in the right now and right here of experience (Cook-Cottone, 2015;
Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007). Present moment awareness of the inner and outer worlds
includes one’s thoughts, emotions, and actions, as well as one’s surroundings (Felver et al.,
2013). Present moment awareness in mindfulness is a unique quality of consciousness, a
receptive awareness of ongoing internal states, behavior, and external realities (Brown et al.,
2007). Even more specifically, present moment awareness involves the conscious registra-
tion of stimuli associated with the five senses, kinesthetic senses, and the functions of the
mind (Brown et al., 2007). Note that, in mindfulness tradition, the mind is viewed much
like the other sense organs (e.g., ears, eyes, skin; Olendzki, 2012). Each of the senses, includ-
ing the mind, has an object. For example, the nose is smelling scents, and the eyes are see-
ing things. In this way, the mind is thinking, which is considered knowing with the mind
(Olendzki, 2012). The objects of the mind include anything that can be cognized, such as
thoughts, images, and memories (Olendzki, 2012).
Mindfulness involves bare attention or an open and distortion-free perception of what is
(Brown & Kasser, 2005; Brown et al., 2007; Lutz et al., 2015). In order to develop bare atten-
tion, we must acknowledge that we are of the tendency to quickly conceptualize what is
happening. We construct, interpret, evaluate, assess, and connect what is happening with
what we know (Brown et al., 2007). In mindfulness practice, there is an effort to decouple the
nearly automatic tendency to intertwine attention and cognition (Brown et al., 2007). When
the mind is in the mindful mode of processing, it does not compare, judge, categorize, evalu-
ate, contemplate, reflect, introspect, or ruminate on experiences based on what is known
(Brown et al., 2007; Cook-Cottone, 2015). Rather, with bare attention, the mind is open and
present to input manifested by a simple noticing of what is happening (Brown et al., 2007;
Cook-Cottone, 2015).

Focus of

Attention

Bare

Attention

Release of

Judgment

Mindfulness

Present

Moment

Awareness

FIGURE 4.1 Components of mindfulness as a

cognitive process.

Source: Lutz et al. (2015).