The word "mindfulness" in the context of a particular faculty or practice derives from attempts to translate the Pali word "sati". Cultivating sati correctly is

The word "mindfulness" in the context of a particular faculty or practice derives from attempts to translate the Pali word "sati". Cultivating sati correctly is part of the Noble Eightfold Path described by the Buddha. Unfortunately, the constituents that comprise "mindfulness" don't really convey the meaning behind "sati," so it's only really useful if you know that this is a token pointing to a foreign concept and you understand that concept. Because mostly Westerners don't, it has certainly been broadly misused to cover all kinds of unrelated things, including many practices/ideas you might call "new-age nonsense." (You may also think of Buddhism as nonsense, but the cultivation of sati being a practice with several thousand years of history should at least exclude it from being "new-age.") Hopefully you can find out a lot more about the concept by googling for it under its real name. I'm happy to point to additional resources, please feel free to pm. [Edit: typo]