Andy Puddicombe, founder of the Headspace app, explains some of the roles of mindfulness, his personal experiences and the evidence for its use in this wonderful video:

Jon Kabat-Zinn (whose wonderful research in the US was responsible for bringing mindfulness to the attention of western healthcare systems) defines mindfulness as

… the awareness that arises from paying attention to the current moment, in a particular way, without judgement

Mindfulness is also frequently described as simple ‘awareness’. This can be awareness of thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, sounds, smells, to name just a few.

This may feel abstract at the moment and that’s normal!

However, like most things in life, the more we experience it (rather than talk about it), the clearer this will become.