Mindfulness means perceiving the present moment consciously and without judgment. It is an attitude centered on directing your full attention to the here and now, instead of slipping into thoughts about the past or the future. This can be practiced by consciously feeling your own thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, helping to reduce stress and find a better inner balance.

If you want to adopt a mindful attitude right at this moment, you can try it like this:

• Consciously perceive your breath: Direct your full attention to your breathing. Feel the air flowing in and out without trying to change or evaluate it.
• Mindfully observe nature: Look out the window or at a plant. Take in the colors, shapes, movements, and sounds as if you were seeing them for the very first time.
• Scan your bodily sensations: Feel into your body. Where is there tension? Where do you feel relaxed? Simply acknowledge these sensations.
• Observe your thoughts: Notice your thoughts like clouds passing across the sky. Do not judge them; just register them as mental events.

In this way, you perceive what is currently happening in your body, thoughts, and emotions—without automatically evaluating them or reacting impulsively. Your mindfulness creates a comforting distance. You realize, "There is a thought," instead of believing, "I am this thought." This creates greater freedom in your actions.

Meditation serves as training for mindfulness. During meditation, you consciously focus on something specific, such as your breath, and observe thoughts and feelings without judging them.

Note: Detailed step-by-step guides can be found in our article Calm Down Instantly With These Five Mindfulness Exercises – Plus Tips for Beginners.

The history of the concept of mindfulness is fascinating and can be divided into three phases.

Mindfulness has its roots in traditional Buddhist teachings, where it has been known for millennia as a spiritual practice to find inner clarity. It was practiced primarily in monasteries and daily life in countries like India, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), and Laos, where it was and remains a central component of the Noble Eightfold Path to enlightenment:

• Strive for wisdom and always conduct yourself correctly.
• Be serene and peaceful.
• Never lie.
• Do no harm to any living being and do not steal.
• Harm no one and do not destroy nature.
• Exert effort and fulfill your duties.
• Be mindful, always think and act with deliberation.
• Concentrate, reflect, and meditate.

This original practice of mindfulness was cultivated over a long period, but it had no connection to Western medicine or psychology.

The decisive step into the modern world occurred much later: at the end of the 1970s, the US professor Jon Kabat-Zinn began to secularize the concept. This means he essentially stripped away the religious elements to make the practice accessible to everyone, regardless of their worldview. His goal was to help people dealing with chronic stress, pain, and other burdens. This led to the creation of the first scientifically grounded program, known as "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction" (MBSR)—an eight-week group program for stress management that combines mindfulness meditation, body awareness exercises, and elements of yoga.

The third phase brought about the further development and official recognition of the method: building upon MBSR, the therapeutic program "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy" (MBCT) was developed in the early 1990s. This program combines mindfulness with elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This form of psychotherapy focuses on identifying and changing distressing thought patterns and behaviors, replacing them with helpful alternatives. CBT is utilized for a wide variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety disorders, and addictions.

In the early 2000s, extensive scientific studies began to prove that mindfulness programs are effective, particularly for depression and stress.

The terms mindfulness and meditation often cause confusion, yet the connection between them is very simple:

• Mindfulness is the attitude you want to bring into your life—being attentive and kind in the here and now.
• Meditation is a method used to train this attitude—essentially like strength training for your mind.

Although both are closely connected, you can act mindfully—such as by breathing consciously—without necessarily sitting on a meditation cushion. Regular meditation deepens and stabilizes your capacity for mindfulness.

Within mindfulness meditation, a distinction is made between two main forms:

• Focused Attention: You concentrate on a stable anchor, such as your breath or bodily sensations, and gently bring your wandering mind back to it time and again.
• Open Monitoring: In contrast, you expand your attention to the entire field of experience—such as sounds, thoughts, or feelings—allowing everything to simply exist without evaluating it.

Mindfulness works on multiple levels: it is a true workout for your mind that helps you consciously direct your attention and break free from stressful thought loops. Through this, you gain an inner distance that makes it easier to handle emotions, develop self-compassion—and ultimately, this practice also changes how your body and your stress system respond to burdens.

Mindfulness unfolds its power through two central mechanisms: the improved management of your attention and the ability to step back. Both help you stop reacting automatically to every internal stimulus, allowing you to choose more consciously where your energy flows.

During practice, you train yourself to kindly return to the breath or the body when distracted. This promotes your mental flexibility. The key mechanism is taking a step back, also known as decentering: you see thoughts as events in the mind, not as facts. This inner distance reduces the tendency to react impulsively to negative thoughts. This is one reason why MBCT is effective in relapse prevention.

By helping you perceive feelings without evaluating them immediately, mindfulness improves your emotional regulation. This is the ability to consciously influence the type, intensity, and duration of emotions in order to remain psychologically stable. Effective emotional regulation protects against overload and promotes resilience as well as general well-being.

The kindness toward yourself cultivated in mindfulness, also referred to as self-compassion, is another important active factor. It enables you to react more benevolently and with less self-criticism during difficult moments.

Stress is a completely natural, biological reaction of our body. This is exactly where mindfulness comes in, as it can alter your perception of stress and help you handle pressure significantly better. If you practice regularly, you can reduce physical stress. Numerous scientific studies have shown that mindfulness programs have positive effects on depressive symptoms, general stress levels, and quality of life.

If you want to learn mindfulness, various paths are open to you, ranging from very simple to therapeutically structured. Mindfulness often begins with short exercises in daily life, with self-directed learning serving as the initial entry point. For more structure, apps and self-paced learning methods offer guided exercises. If a specific diagnosis needs to be supported, you can make use of a medically prescribed Digital Health Application. The classic, comprehensive courses are the previously mentioned MBSR and MBCT programs.

Self-Directed Learning

• Goal & Focus: Low-threshold start through simple exercises in daily life.
• Advantages: Extremely flexible, possible at any time, and free of charge.
• Disadvantages: Lack of structure and no guidance.
• Suitable for: Absolute beginners and people without pre-existing mental health conditions.

DiGA

• Goal & Focus: Supplement to treatment for specific diagnoses, e.g., deprexis for depression.
• Advantages: Proven benefit for certain diagnoses; cost coverage by health insurance is possible.
• Disadvantages: Requires a medical prescription.
• Suitable for: Individuals with specific mental health conditions, such as deprexis for depression.

Apps

• Goal & Focus: Flexible entry into mindfulness practice and guided meditations.
• Advantages: Easy start and often free or low-cost.
• Disadvantages: Less commitment, lack of individual support in case of difficulties, and unclear qualifications of providers.
• Suitable for: Everyone.

MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction)

• Goal & Focus: Helpful approach to dealing with stress, pain, and life challenges.
• Advantages: Standardized structure, group setting, qualified guidance, and exchange with others.
• Disadvantages: Higher time commitment (8 weeks), fixed appointments, and costs.
• Suitable for: People with chronic stress and pain who are looking for a well-founded and comprehensive program.

MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy)

• Goal & Focus: Prevention of relapses in recurrent depression. Combines mindfulness with CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) elements.
• Advantages: Standardized structure, proven benefit, and qualified guidance.
• Disadvantages: Higher time commitment (8 weeks), fixed appointments, and costs.
• Suitable for: People with recurrent depression.

deprexis is a prescribable Digital Health Application (DiGA) for people with depression. Doctors can prescribe deprexis via a prescription. The costs are usually covered by health insurance providers. The application is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).