In the search for explanatory aspects of the effects and alternating mechanisms of mindfulness based therapy the text takes off by looking at traditional Buddhist teachings wherefrom the construct and practice form of mindfulness originally stems. This contextualises the following analysis of so called third wave behavioural therapies represented by two different treatment approaches – MBSR and DBT respectively. Empirical studies proposes an array of active ingredients in the effectiveness of mindfulness and it is discussed how mindfulness encompasses more than attentional skills due to a fundamental shift in perspective where also intentional and attitudinal components are included. This corresponds to an enactivistic hypothesis about the nature of cognition as embodied representing a more optimal cognitive stance compared to the abstract reflective mode of consciousness that humans seem to be habitually caught in. It is furthermore argued that Buddhist meditative practices can be of importance in cognitive science by re-introducing phenomenology in the study of mind through its systematic and methodologically strict approach to experience.