Anyone can be mindful and can become more mindful. Being mindful is simply the growth of a basic human quality, and a conscious way to encounter life. Mindfulness doesn't require anyone to change his or her own view of the world or to question his or her own faith. In fact, becoming more mindful does not require a person to change at all. Trying to influence who you are or how you think you should be is often disappointing. Instead, in this practice you learn to recognize and nourish the best of what you already are as a human being.

Originally, the practice of mindfulness was rooted in Buddhist wisdom, but in recent decades practitioners and teachers have developed a secular practice of mindfulness oriented towards Western people. Worth mentioning here is the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School starting in 1979.

Since then, various studies have documented the benefits of mindfulness practice in general and MBSR in particular, and many institutions in the English-speaking world, such as schools and hospitals, have introduced their own adapted programs based on the MBSR model.