Mindfulness is a very old Buddhist technique which is becoming very fashionable.
Increasingly, books on "living in the now" are appearing on the shelves - ranging from Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn's secular Wherever You Go There You Are to Eckhart Tolle's mystical The Power of Now.
The essence of mindfulness is to remain aware of what is going on for you right now and to pull the attention back every time it wanders off into a daydream.
Kabat-Zinn, and most other practitioners of mindfulness, suggests using awareness of one's breathing as a way of staying in the here and now.
In relation to pain and stress, Dr Kate Healy and K.D. Ryan suggest a four-step mindful approach:
• Recognise and accept what is going on.
• Turn towards your experience rather than trying to deny it or run away from it.
• Inquire into whatever you find: how does it feel in your body; what emotions lie behind it; what thoughts accompany it?
• Use your breath to anchor yourself in the present moment: be aware of what is going on and aware of your breath.
This approach, they emphasise, is not a substitute for medical treatment.
It provides a way of dealing with pain, stress and fatigue at an emotional and psychological level in additional to the medical treatment provided by doctors.