Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of the savvy psychologist.

I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a

sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

As the mindfulness joke goes, what do we want?

Mindfulness. When do we want it? Now! Because the being in the

now of mindfulness is all the rage. And with a promise to improve concentration, mood,

and energy, reduce stress, improve immune

immune function and even fight obesity, it should be.

But to newbies, sometimes mindfulness can be intimidating.

With the newly mindful left wondering,

am I doing this right?

So this week, here's what mindfulness is,

what it isn't, and three ways to sample it.

So first, there is frequent confusion about what exactly mindfulness is.

So let's start with four things that mindfulness often gets mistaken for.

Mindfulness imposter, number one, is an empty mind.

Your mind is designed to think, notice, concentrate, anything but be empty.

So don't ask of your mind, but it isn't designed to do. Mindfulness isn't emptiness.

Imposter number two is flow. Oftentimes mindfulness gets thought of as a state of deep concentration or absorption, and

while it's possible to lose oneself in mindfulness, this state of energized full immersion

is more accurately described as psychologist,ihai Cheek-Sent Meihai's concept of flow.

Mindfulness imposter number three is happiness. While you can certainly feel happy while being mindful and it's

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