The paper explores the concepts of mindfulness, noticing, attention, metacognitive awareness and self-efficacy in an attempt to establish a theoretical connection between them. Each concept is analysed individually, in relation to each other and to mindfulness. A discussion follows of what the aforementioned processes and mindfulness practices can contribute to learning and acquiring English as a foreign language. The paper also presents the metacognitive strategies needed by learners to develop awareness and noticing of how they learn and how they experience what they learn by either focusing on form or meaning in order for language to become intake. Consciousness and awareness are both needed for processing language, which in turn is crucial for its permanent storage in long-term memory. The paper concludes that mindfulness results in explicit input, a precondition for better learning intake; in other words, mindfulness intervention in foreign language learning and acquisition is an integral component of success.