These exercises can focus on a portion of each - such as thoughts and feelings - or they can separate them out so that you are only focusing on one at a time. You might simple direct your attention to how you’re feeling in the moment.

Or you might instead pay attention to the sounds of the birds you hear or to the movement of the wind in the trees. The idea is that you’ll be paying attention to what’s going on where you are right now rather than focusing your attention on whatever it is that caused you to experience stress.

To deal with stress, something else that mindfulness does is help you let go of the need to judge whatever it is that’s going on. You won’t get on the hamster wheel of running the heavy situation over and over again in your mind.

Mindfulness is used so that you don’t carry the negative emotions stress can bring with you into the present moment. It also prevents you from continually thinking about the stress.

You learn to let go and to simply be, to accept what your present moment in time is offering. When you can utilize the ability to practice mindfulness, you can eliminate stress.

You can do this because the negative feelings and thoughts from the past won’t be what you focus on. By using mindfulness to remain in the present, you also don’t reach for the future.

So much stress enters into our lives because of past issues. We worry about the past, but we do the same about the future. We spend hours, days, months and even years fretting and stressing over things that haven’t happened and may never happen.

Dwelling on the past and worrying about the future increases stress. Mindfulness controls stress. It teaches users how to let go of anxiety and tension and live fully in the present.

When you practice mindfulness, you don’t allow your mind to wander and dwell on things that can cause stress or keep the stress alive. Pick something specific to focus on and allow it to give you clarity about what really matters.