Mindfulness Practice: Science, Nuance, and Insight
The popular “focused attention” mindfulness practice belongs to a family of attention-training exercises that has received considerable attention in scientific studies on mindfulness. This practice is important because it helps develop two fundamental capacities that we all possess:
- the ability to place attention where we choose, and
- the awareness that detects when it has wandered.
A useful way to understand mindfulness is as the real-time balancing of attention and awareness — a kind of mental flexibility we rely on to navigate nearly every waking moment of our lives.
This widely known practice has been discussed in this column before, so you may already be somewhat familiar with it. But in case it’s new to you, I’ll offer a brief introduction to help you get started. I’ll also share an intriguing scientific finding, a subtle nuance, and a key insight that may demystify the practice and renew your interest. Whether you’re just beginning or have years of experience, these reflections may deepen your understanding of the practice, its benefits, and its relevance in daily life.
The Focused Attention Instruction
- Focus attention on an object (such as the breath).
- Maintain attention on the object.
- When you notice that attention has wandered, gently redirect it back to the object.
The Science
Research shows that attention wanders as much as 50% of the time. While the instructions for focused attention practice are straightforward, many people find the experience surprisingly challenging—largely due to the common but mistaken belief that mind-wandering is a problem. It’s easy to assume you’re doing the practice wrong—or that you simply can’t do it—because your mind keeps drifting. But in reality, even seasoned mindfulness practitioners experience mind-wandering during practice.
A wandering attention is not a sign of failure; it is, as elaborated below, a necessary part of the process.
The Nuance
See if you can detect what’s been left out of the following focused attention practice instruction:
“Focus attention on the breath, and when attention wanders, return it to the breath.”
Do you see what’s missing? (If not, you can compare it with the third instruction above, though even then it is common to overlook the difference). This is no trivial matter—the instruction, as stated, is technically impossible. Why? Because when we are lost in thought we are unaware the mind is wandering. The instruction only makes sense after we’ve noticed that it has wandered in the first place.
The act of noticing that attention has drifted is not incidental — it’s central to the practice itself. In fact, perhaps a more accurate name for the practice would be “Noticing Mind-Wandering.” In light of the science, consider how often your attention may drift during key moments — when you’re unaware of your thoughts, emotions, or the influence they may be having on your reasoning or judgment. As attorney Paul Singerman noted in The Florida Bar Journal’s Special Issue on Mindfulness, this is precisely where the return on investment from mindfulness practice can be most significant for lawyers.
So if, during practice, you notice that your attention seems to be all over the place — consider that a win. If you think it’s a problem… well, that’s just a bit of undetected mind-wandering.
The Insight
Even a few minutes of sitting and focusing on the breath can reveal how easily and often our attention wanders. With ongoing practice, we become more aware of these moments of distractedness, allowing us to interrupt unhelpful mental habits like catastrophizing and ruminating. It’s often compared to waking from a dream — one that, at times, can feel like a nightmare.
Practice also deepens our understanding that everything is in constant flux. This awareness helps build resilience in the face of change — especially when we find ourselves fixated on events that are long over or never amounted to much, yet our attention keeps circling back to their imagined implications. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus captured this truth when he said, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” Similarly, cognitive therapy teaches us to “separate the situation from your interpretation.”
One subtle but powerful realization that emerges through mindfulness practice is this: attention never actually gets stuck on a single thought. Instead, it becomes biased toward a stream of related thoughts—like, “I’ll never get this done,” followed by “Why did I even agree to this?” and so on.
Thoughts arise and pass away within milliseconds. What keeps us trapped isn’t the original thought — gone before we know it — but the ongoing mental commentary that follows. In this light, freedom doesn’t come from “letting go” of a thought, but from disrupting that stream and placing attention on something more stabilizing—like the breath. The breath is helpful in this regard, serving both as an anchor for attention and as a reference point for noticing when the mind has wandered. It can also serve as a useful stop along the way to what is more pertinent and true.
Here’s the core insight: the moment you realize your mind has wandered, it is no longer wandering. In that brief window, you have a choice — where to place your attention, how to relate to your experience, and even what to think about next. With practice, this window of choice widens. And even when it lasts only a few seconds, the benefits can be profound.
Thus, the moment we notice mind-wandering, we are no longer caught in it.
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Whether you’re new to mindfulness meditation or a long-time practitioner, we hope this month’s column offers something of value. Importantly, everything discussed above is directly knowable through your own experience—and engaging in practice enhances your ability to apply it. Most importantly, the sense of freedom we’ve touched on isn’t far off. It’s already available to you, moment by moment. All it takes is a little practice.
Scott Rogers
Scott Rogers, M.S., J.D., is a nationally recognized leader in the area of mindfulness in law and founded and directs the University of Miami School of Law’s Mindfulness in Law Program where he teaches mindful ethics, mindful leadership, mindfulness and negotiation, and mindfulness in law. He is the creator of Jurisight, one of the first CLE programs in the country to integrate mindfulness and neuroscience and conducts workshops and presentations on the role of mindfulness in legal education and across the legal profession. He is author of the recently released, The Mindful Law Student: A Mindfulness in Law Practice Guide, written for all audiences.
