Vinay Kumaran

 Mindfulness is a state of mind in which one is focused on the present. There is no worry about the future or review of the past. One can be mindful while performing a relatively mundane task. Washing dishes, having a bath, brushing one's teeth. The key is neither being in a hurry nor being deliberately slow. Paying attention to what one is doing and not thinking about anything else. Experts in meditation have developed methods to get you into a state of mindfulness but most people can find the state of mind at least sometimes. Thoughtfulness is another state of mind, similar to, but not identical to mindfulness. It differs from mindfulness in not necessarily being associated with an action. For instance, one can be thoughtful while sitting in a comfortable chair as well as while driving a vehicle along a familiar route or walking along a familiar path. The thoughts, often abstract, are not associated with strong emotion. For instance, thinking about an article I'm planning to ...

We seem to do too many things at the same time. We're having dinner, watching TV, reading the newspaper and having a conversation with someone on the phone all at much the same time. We do not focus on the food, do not realise when we have had enough and get into the habit of eating far too much. To gain our attention, albeit briefly, the food is strongly flavoured, the TV is trying to make us listen to the ranting maniac shouting at 6 different people, all trying to say what they came to say, none listening to the other and the newspaper creates flaring headlines trying to catch our attention. This excess of 'input' means we do not focus on any one thing for long. The TV, of course, has its own version of ADHD interrupting the programming for advertising so frequently that there is little continuity of narrative in the program. Shifting focus from one thing to the other, never following a train of thought to its logical conclusion, we have become a distracted people, d...