Not only is it important to reestablish a relationship with the outdoor environment, but also to cultivate a greater sense of knowing and compassion for our indoor environment, AKA, ourselves. Similar to the disconnect with nature we describe, there is also a growing disconnect within our own hears and minds with what it really means to pay attention to the moments of our lives, as boundaries between work and home are increasingly blurred, multitasking is positively reinforced and viewed as a necessary attribute in school and work, and innovative communication and gaming technologies perpetuate a sense of never-ending, mindless autopilot, social disengagement and "looking down" vs. "looking within."

Training in mindful awareness practices offers a way to keep our alarm clocks sounding so we can learn to wake up from this, and practice staying awake to ourselves on a moment-to-moment basis in a peaceful, tolerant and deliberate manner. Being mindful allows one to listen, watch, observe and notice our lives through the experience of non-judgment and non-reaction; to simply witness our happenings amidst the normal, unremitting internal and external stressors that sometimes fly below the radar of our awareness and other times fly directly into our face. Through this welcoming “hear and now” renaissance to our senses, it becomes possible to cultivate patience, trust, wisdom, gratitude, acceptance and loving-kindness within ourselves and those around us, and helps one move toward a paradigm shift of being in moments rather than dwelling on what we’ve done, what we’ll do, what has happened, or what will happen.

Over the past 30 years, a great deal of research attention has been given to mindfulness-based approaches spanning community, educational and medical settings. Results have been promising, suggesting that practicing mindfulness-based skills can lead to positive mood states, decreased emotional distress, increased attention and mental clarity, improved sleep, strengthened immune system functioning and overall quality of life.