There is often a tendency to circumvent the cause and try to reach directly to the effect. This is called shortcutting in the common parlance of our daily life.
We tend to be mesmerized by the shimmer of the object of desire so much that we forget that there is a pathway leading to the desirable and the pathway may not be as glamorous as the final object.
Similar, tragedy has stricken the idea of mindfulness which has become an object of lust with no to nominal commitment to diligence on part of someone desiring the object.
We need to understand that mindfulness is not a low hanging fruit rather it is the epitome of the human pursuit. It is your elevation of latitude from someone who is a mere football at the hands of the body, being struck from pillar to post, to being the governor, the custodian of their bodies including the brain.
You are not anymore driven by the reactivity of the human body but you being the head of the governing council dictate the mandate of the body, consequentially determining, the thoughts, subsequent actions, and overall behavior of your body and your mind.
You are no more a puppet of the evolutionary tendencies of the body rather you are promulgator who decides how they should act and what degree of reaction is needed to accomplish a certain necessity or to respond to a stimuli.
For instance, if a mindless person gets angry they are completely at the mercy of the emotional upheaval and unfortunately allow themselves to be used by their anger to mop the floor. However, a mindful person understands that the tightening of his chest, the surge in his spine and the heat around his face- the common characteristics of anger, are the tendencies of an evolutionary body evolved to ensure survival in a barbaric environment and therefore has the mental bandwidth to manage his anger as per the requirement. So they might choose to dissipate it or use the exact right proportion to let’s say discipline someone.
So, all of the above point to a summit that must require effort and diligence on part of the aspirant. I think that’s where the idea of realizations comes handy. The realization that you have a dormant faculty that needs to be trained developed and evolved to reach a point where you the vision and the bandwidth to be the custodian of the body and that’s where the objective idea of mindfulness begins to unravel. It’s a search of introspection where like a diver you immerse yourself in the depths of the mind to find that pearl of self-awareness leading to subsequent self-realization.
Mindfulness is a gift that one needs to earn.
