What Is the Mind?
What is the mind?
Before you run away or close this tab, give me a moment to explain. This is not going to be too heavy, it’s not going to be academic, think of it more as a user guide to the noisy voice – and what we can do about it.
The Buddhist description of the mind is “the fundamental ability to know” rather than it being of the physical object, the brain. In the mind thoughts, feelings, sensations arise and pass away. If you think back to the last time you were hungry, a thought appeared, or a sensation and then it went, either because you ate, or another thought replaced it. That is repeated almost constantly, and sometimes (most of the time) we’re not even aware that it’s happening.
Another thing that the Buddhists noticed very well is that suffering comes from clinging to thoughts and mistaking them for reality. You’re worried about a test result from the drs or dreading a meeting at work. These things have not happened yet, you don’t have the result and you’re not in the meeting, but your body is reacting as if you are and the mind does not distinguish well between imagined and immediate threat.
It’s not like you’ve just chopped half of your index finger off with an axe (22nd December 2025 for me) where there was most definitely physical pain. That’s not to say that stress and fear are not real, they most definitely are, but we can separate this out.
Most of the time our minds are like rivers and we are right in the middle of the raging torrent, no life jacket and we’re being carried along by it. The place we want to be is on the banks of the river, watching the water go by, it won’t matter how strong the current is. We won’t be in it. Mindfulness is simply this ability, to be aware of the thoughts and observe them, rather than letting them consume us.
Life is a dream
For most of us, and I firmly include myself here, every day is lost in a dream of unconscious thought: “what am I going to have for dinner? where did I put my car keys?, I see a little sillhouetto of a man, scaramouche, scaramouche, ah! bins out tonight” The mind is constantly replaying the past, rehearsing the future, narrating the movie of your life. The amount of time spent actually living in the present, being aware of what you are doing and ‘living in the moment’ is vanishingly rare, and getting rarer. How many times have you looked up from your phone and wondered where the past hour went? This is normal, well, normal in the sense that it is near universal – everyone does it.
The Soundtrack to Your Mind
There is always a moment in a film when the hero is about to wander into trouble. Nothing bad has happened yet, but the music changes. Low, ominous strings start to creep in and, before anything appears on screen, you already know that danger is close.
Your mind works in much the same way. Your thoughts are those background strings. They set the emotional tone long before anything actually happens. The problem is that you often do not notice the music at all. It starts quietly, almost unnoticed, and before you realise it is playing, your body is already responding. Muscles tighten. Breathing changes. Stress and fear rise, even though the danger exists only as a thought.
The first step is simply noticing that the music is playing. Not trying to turn it off, not analysing it, just realising that it is there. When you notice the soundtrack, you create a small but important gap between the thought and the reaction to it. The strings may still be ominous, but you are no longer convinced that danger is imminent. You begin to see thoughts as signals, not facts, and that changes everything.
Modern Life
This is probably not surprising, but this whole pattern is getting worse. Technology is everywhere, much of it designed to compete for our attention through ever cleverer algorithms, constant notifications, and alerts. There is also simply so much content available now that switching off feels difficult. I am completely guilty of this myself. I have so many podcasts and audiobooks queued up that leaving the house without headphones barely crosses my mind.
If this is challenging for adults, it is even harder for children. Their nervous systems are still developing, and they have far less ability to filter stimulation or step back from what is happening in their minds. The result is not just distraction, but fragmentation. Attention is pulled in many directions at once, and it becomes harder to rest in any one moment.
There are plenty of studies that explore this, but you do not really need them to recognise what is happening. You can see it in how restless we feel, how quickly we reach for something to fill the quiet, and how uncomfortable stillness has become.
The Antidote
Mindfulness at its most basic is simply paying attention to what is happening right now, not thinking about the past, the future or Queen songs. It’s noticing what comes into your mind and observing it. By observing I mean just noticing that you had the thought, not the contents of the thought. I realise this might sound a little abstract at the moment, but there are simple techniques that can help you get started. It might feel a bit frustrating at the start, a lot of time you will just drift off into thought without even realising it, but when you do, just smile and try again. This is a trainable skill, it doesn’t require faith or belief, it just requires that you do it.
Simple steps for you.
This is what you can do, right now. It’s important we as adults get to know these techniques, not only for our own peace and sanity, but so we can help children learn.
The way I first learnt was to concentrate on the sensation of your breath, where you feel it most, for me it’s in the the tip of my nose, but for you it may be on your lips or the rise and fall of your stomach, but wherever it is, concentrate on that and that alone. After two or three I expect, you will start thinking about dinner or what you might do at the weekend, and that’s fine, it’s to be expected, but as soon as you realise, just notice the thought and return to your breath. Don’t be cross with yourself, don’t judge, just return to noticing your breathing. Just start with short sessions, a minute or two is plenty to start with.
There are plenty of apps (I know, it feels like a contradiction, but they are very helpful) with guided meditations.
I personally use Waking Up, but there is also Headspace I have heard good things about.
Next time we will take a look at the practice for children, but for the moment, enjoy and good luck!