All of us at times have become aware of a seeming endless stream of thoughts and feelings. some are positive, some negative and some neutral. We love the positive ones, are largely indifferent to the neutral ones, and at times confused and annoyed with what to do with the negative ones. Its the times of depression, anxiety, anger, or guilt that can be the most bothersome. In mindfulness practice we learn how to step out of this mental stream, step back in our awareness, and  develop the ability to be the observer of our thoughts and feelings, and drop any tendency to judge the contents of the mind. We then learn to replace judgements with feelings of kindness toward ourselves and all our natural imperfections.In addition, we also in the process learn to become aware of old destructive behavior patterns and act out of choice rather than old habit.