What is Mindfulness…and How Can You Put It Into Practice?

September 26, 2026
By Dr. Davidicus Wong

Healthwise is a monthly column by Burnaby family doctor Dr. Davidicus Wong, presented by the Burnaby Primary Care Network in partnership with the Burnaby Division of Family Practice. In this article, Dr. Wong explores mindfulness and shares ways to bring greater awareness, peace, and compassion into everyday life.

Although mindfulness is initially learned as a form of meditation, it is much more. It is a liberating perspective that utilizes the unique capacity of your prefrontal cortex for metacognition (the capacity to be aware of your thoughts and feelings and your ability to transform them). This is a learned skill that improves with practice.  

Most people are unaware that we have this ability to step outside of our immediate thoughts, feelings, and experiences, reflect upon them, and choose how we respond.  

In our goal-directed culture, the left cerebral hemisphere’s predominantly dualistic point of view creates a separation between ourselves and others and fosters a win-lose relationship with others and our lives. It creates a narrowed sense of a separate self and separates us from our connection with our truer, deeper identity—the best of who we really are. 

Mindfulness fosters the qualities of the right cerebral hemisphere’s mode of thinking, which is not nurtured by our society. It is holistic, seeing our connection, interdependence and identification with the greater whole—the whole Earth and universe and all living beings. It connects us with deep peace or equanimity. Recognizing our intimate connection with all living beings, we naturally foster greater compassion and unconditional love for other living beings—including the coworker who steals your lunch.  

The four divine abodes or the four immeasurables, from Vipassana or mindfulness practice are equanimity (or peace), metta (unconditional love), compassion, and joy. They naturally arise from the diligent practice of mindfulness over many years, and they can be strengthened with specific meditations on each of these qualities. 

How to Practice Mindfulness 

Practice 1 – Daily Meditation Practice 

You can begin meditation by spending 10 or 20 minutes each day just sitting in a comfortable position and in a quiet place where you are not likely to be disturbed. Turn your attention to the natural flow of the sensations of each breath without trying to control it in any way. You may feel each in-breath through your nose or throat, chest or abdomen, and notice the sensations of each natural out-breath. This becomes a safe and calming anchor that we can return to at any time. 

During practice, it is natural for our attention to be distracted by random thoughts, feelings, or sensations. Gently return your attention to the anchor of your breath. 

After a few minutes attending to the sensations of natural breaths in and out, you can redirect your attention to sounds as they arise in your immediate environment, just attending to the arising and disappearance of different sounds as they come and go from your awareness. You don’t have to name, identify, or describe each sound. Simply remain aware of them as they arise, change, and fade away on their own. 

You can centre your awareness on different physical sensations in the body, perhaps the pressure at points of contact, warmth, coolness, vibrations, pulsations, tingling, and even pain. We can shift awareness to different areas of the body, and if a sensation such as pain in one part of the body is difficult to manage, we can shift our attention elsewhere, to a part of the body that is most comfortable, or we can focus again on the anchor of the breath. 

With practice, you will learn to maintain awareness and attention to every sensation without reacting to it, without aversion, clinging, judgment, or identification. With time, you will recognize that everything within your awareness is ever changing; nothing is constant—no sensation (not even pain), no mood, no emotion, and no thought. 

You will learn to attend to each thought as it arises without getting carried away in a train of thoughts or a story in the remembered past or imagined future. You can note thoughts as they arise, without judgment or identification, and you can let them go. You can do the same with the transient feelings and emotions that arise without getting caught up and carried away with them. You experience moods, feelings, and emotions but you are not your moods, feelings, or emotions. You can see each as a transient, temporary condition like a mist, a fog, or a shower. They pass through you or you pass through them.  

The mountain and weather metaphor can help you visualize yourself and your awareness as a calm and solid mountain. Thoughts, feelings, and sensations are like clouds, winds, snow, or rain—transient phenomena that come and go on their own. From the perspective of the mighty mountain, you do not need to react to these temporary changes. You can just watch them pass through from a place of stability and peace. 

You can be mindful when walking, attending to the sensations of each step, the sounds and pressure on the soles of the feet, and the movement of the legs. This becomes a mindful anchor from which what you hear, see, feel, and think arises in your open and accepting awareness.  

Mindfulness can be practiced while eating, attending to the taste and texture of each bite of food; swimming, attending to the sensations of buoyancy, flowing water on the surface of the skin, and rich sounds of moving water and air; and even driving. Mindfulness only begins with meditation. When you apply the healthy attitudes of nonreactive acceptance, gratitude, and compassion to everything in your life throughout each day, you will discover a deeper level of peace, happiness, and meaning.  

Mindfulness, when diligently practiced, can bring serenity to your mind and body throughout each day—an open, accepting, and nonreactive approach to your life. It can foster in you greater compassion for others and yourself. 

In my next column, I’ll share other practices I teach my patients and use myself throughout each day to maintain this mindful perspective. 

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