Mindfulness (MBSR) is about noticing a thought or feeling, observing it and then letting it go without judging it or taking anything away from it, so to speak.

It's most often used in distress tolerance for people who suffer from negative thinking/panic/anxiety but I believe it can also used for physical ailments to help cope with pain.

I don't think it's meant to be used in every aspect of one's life, but to tolerate the things we cannot change and enjoy the things we are often too distracted to notice.

For example, if you tend to get deep negative in thought while doing the washing up, focus your mind instead onto the task in hand. Describe everything that it is you are doing. Describe how the plate feels, the warmth of the water, the smell of the soap, the colours in the bubbles.

If you feel a negative thought creeping in, observe it (don't push it away) and then take your mind back to the plate, the water etc.

I don't think it's meant to be used on worries like "I need to pay this bill and that bill and take out the rubbish and I don't know where my keys are and what is that doing there and argh I don't know where to begin"

but is most effective on things like "I have terrible headaches and it's stopping me from going to work and I feel like I'm letting everyone down and I wish I could feel better again"

i.e. things we cannot change in the short term and must accept.

It's about training your mind to follow different pathways. The goal is to be able to achieve a completely blank mind on demand.*

*If I recall correctly

It's a bit like meditation, except I can't do meditation. But I can do mindfulness.

Mindfulness = noticing thought, observing, letting go, focussing attention back to present

Apathy = pushing thought away, trying not to think about it

CBT = having thought, put a different light on thought*

*I think

It's a coping strategy, like CBT. They're just different approaches and I don't see why MSBR would be any less credible than CBT. I think MBSR works better for me because I'm not really very visual. I don't really think in pictures but in words. So if somebody asks me to describe something I could talk and talk but if somebody asks me to visualise something I'm useless. I fail miserably at guided meditation.

Disclaimer: If any of this is nonsense, I apologise in advance.