State of Mindfulness

A State of Mindfulness is a wakeful human state that involves being aware moment-to-moment of one’s subjective conscious experience from a first-person perspective.

• Context:
  • It can (often) involve Focused Attention, e.g. on breath or body posture.
  • It can (often) involve Open Monitoring, e.g. to detect when the mind has wandered.
  • It can (often) be associated to:
    • Sustained Attention, such as focusing on a specific task or object over an extended period.
    • Sustained Awareness, such as of one’s emotional tendencies, thought patterns, impact on others and blind spots.
    • Enhanced Retention, such as improving memory and recall of experiences or learned information.
    • Non-Judgmental Discernment, such as observing thoughts and emotions without attaching labels or judgments.
  • It can be achieved by a Mindfulness Practice.
  • It can involve a state of Calm Observation and Focused Observation.
  • ...
• Example(s):
  • a State of Mindfulness Meditation, such as when sitting quietly and focusing on one's breath while gently bringing attention back when the mind wanders.
  • during a Moment of Emotional Regulation such as when someone steps out of their anger.
  • a State of Mindful Observation such as experiencing calm and interested attention to a structure (its funder's intentions and its structure workers) while surrounded by a chaotic crowd.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • a State of Flow.
  • a State of Journaling.
  • a State of Sleeping.
  • a State of Mindlessness, such as a state of agitation or in a stream of consciousness.
• See: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Human Attention, Rumination (Psychology), Non-Judgemental.

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References

2023

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness Retrieved:2023-8-2.
  • Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training. Mindfulness derives from sati, a significant element of Hindu and Buddhist traditions, and is based on Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan meditation techniques. Though definitions and techniques of mindfulness are wide-ranging, Buddhist traditions explain what constitutes mindfulness such as how past, present and future moments arise and cease as momentary sense impressions and mental phenomena. Individuals who have contributed to the popularity of mindfulness in the modern Western context include Thích Nhất Hạnh, Herbert Benson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Richard J. Davidson, and Sam Harris. Clinical psychology and psychiatry since the 1970s have developed a number of therapeutic applications based on mindfulness for helping people experiencing a variety of psychological conditions. Mindfulness practice has been employed to reduce depression, stress,anxiety, and in the treatment of drug addiction. Programs based on mindfulness models have been adopted within schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans' centers, and other environments, and mindfulness programs have been applied for additional outcomes such as for healthy aging, weight management, athletic performance, helping children with special needs, and as an intervention during the perinatal period. Clinical studies have documented both physical- and mental-health benefits of mindfulness in different patient categories as well as in healthy adults and children. Studies have shown a positive relationship between trait mindfulness (which can be cultivated through the practice of mindfulness-based interventions) and psychological health. The practice of mindfulness appears to provide therapeutic benefits to people with psychiatric disorders, including moderate benefits to those with psychosis. Studies also indicate that rumination and worry contribute to a variety of mental disorders, and that mindfulness-based interventions can enhance trait mindfulness and reduce both rumination and worry. Further, the practice of mindfulness may be a preventive strategy to halt the development of mental-health problems. Evidence suggests that engaging in mindfulness meditation may influence physical health. For example, the psychological habit of repeatedly dwelling on stressful thoughts appears to intensify the physiological effects of the stressor (as a result of the continual activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) with the potential to lead to physical health related clinical manifestations. Studies indicate that mindfulness meditation, which brings about reductions in rumination, may alter these biological clinical pathways. Further, research indicates that mindfulness may favorably influence the immune system as well as inflammation, which can consequently impact physical health, especially considering that inflammation has been linked to the development of several chronic health conditions. Other studies support these findings. Additionally, mindfulness appears to bring about lowered activity of the default mode network of the brain, and thereby contribute towards a lowered risk of developing conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease. However, critics have questioned both the commercialization and the over-marketing of mindfulness for health benefits—as well as emphasizing the need for more randomized controlled studies, for more methodological details in reported studies and for the use of larger sample-sizes. While mindfulness-based interventions may be effective for youth, research still needs to determine the most appropriate methods in which mindfulness could be introduced and delivered in schools.

2017

• https://washingtonpost.com/outlook/mindfulness-would-be-good-for-you-if-it-werent-all-just-hype/2017/08/24/b97d0220-76e2-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html
  • QUOTE: In moderation, self-examination can lead to a reasonable and unobsessed awareness of one’s emotional tendencies, thought patterns, impact on others and blind spots. But to encourage an inward gaze among incredibly self-interested creatures is to court excess.

2015

• (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mindfulness Retrieved:2015-11-29.
  • The practice of Mindfulness involves being aware moment-to-moment, of one’s subjective conscious experience from a first-person perspective. ...

2015

• (Davidson & Kaszniak, 2015) ⇒ Richard J. Davidson, and Alfred W. Kaszniak. (2015). “Conceptual and Methodological Issues in Research on Mindfulness and Meditation.” In: American Psychologist, 70(7). https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039512
  • QUOTE: ... The term mindfulness is an English translation of the Pali word sati, having meanings that have been variously translated as including attention, awareness, retention, and discernment. There has been no single meaning of mindfulness on which all scholars have agreed (see Bodhi, 2011; Dreyfus, 2011; Dunne, 2011; Gethin, 2011). Mindfulness meditation practice, as examined in recent research, typically derives from several different Buddhist traditions and involves aspects of both focused attention and open monitoring, as defined by Lutz et al. (2008). In typical mindfulness practice, focused attention initially rests upon an object such as the breath, while a monitoring function detects, and brings awareness to when the mind has wandered, and repeatedly, without judgment, brings it back to the object. As skill in this monitoring aspect develops, the practitioner learns to observe the functioning of his or her own mind in a calm and unattached manner. Such observation is held to allow insight into the causes and conditions of behavior and suffering (Gunaratana, 1993). In open monitoring, the specific object of mindfulness is dropped and the meditator is instructed to be aware of whatever might arise in the present moment. Shapiro & Carlson (2009) note that mindfulness meditation involves intention, attention, and attitude: Intention refers to the personal vision for why meditation is practiced, which may be dynamic and evolving as practice continues. Attention in mindfulness meditation “…is discerning and nonreactive, sustained and concentrated, so that we can see clearly what is arising in the present moment…” (Shapiro & Carlson, 2009, p. 10). Attitude refers to qualities of openness, acceptance, curiosity, and affection in the attention that is brought to present experience. ...

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