
Moment by moment, to be aware of what you are experiencing, including your thoughts, emotions, physiological experiences and related needs.
Mindfulness can be defined as becoming aware of and engaging your current experience to be alive right now. Experiences with mindfulness can be used to help you create now what you may have needed from your childhood.
Mindfulness mimics emotionally responsive parenting.
It is the child's parent who labels and thus helps the young child to recognize her or her emotions and emotional needs. For example, "You look sad, do you need a hug?" Also to tend to the child's physiological state and physical needs, "It looks like you stomach hurts. Let me get you something to feel better."
This is a natural developmental path which is the basis for a secure attachment.
Many of our parents were not aware of their own emotional needs yet to comfort us as children. However, one can recreate and develop a secure attachment.
Mindfulness practice can help one create parts of yourself that were missing
Mindfulness changes the brain, similar to changes in which a secure attachment brings. For example, research found an increases in brain mass in areas of the brain believed useful in building emotional stability, learning, and memory after only eight weeks of a focused meditation program.
Your relationship with yourself is the foundation of your relationship with you as an adult. In building the quality of this relationship yourself first, you can then greatly increase your ability to building satisfying, stable, loving relationships with others.