Mindfulness or is it mindlessness?

I was flipping through one of those free local magazines that these days drop through the letter box like 1960s Radio 1 DJs falling from grace, when I came across a page full of horrendous banalities of the kind that seem to be the twenty first century equivalent of the cry of the snake oil salesman. "You can become mindful at any time you like just by paying attention to your immediate experience and situation", or so the article said. "Research", although, as you might expect, the precise nature of which is not specified, "indicates that living in the moment can make people happier, because most negative thoughts concern the past or the future". The entire saccharine-fest is topped off with the following little aphorism:

I do apologise if anyone has had to read that having just consumed their breakfast, the words are enough to make anyone feel a little nauseous. I have obviously been living my life all wrong for the past sixty-odd years (and some of those years were very odd), believing that we should learn from the past and plan for the future. But no, the past and the future are steeped in negativity - let us all live for today and to hell with the consequences. I'm not impressed.