Mindfulness In Psychology

As mindfulness is adopted by Western psychotherapy and migrates away from its ancient roots, its meaning is expanding. Most notably, mental qualities beyond sati (awareness, attention, and remembering) are being included in “mindfulness” as we adapt it to alleviate clinical conditions. These qualities include non-judgment, acceptance, and compassion. Mindfulness has been popularized in the West by Jon Kabat-Zinn with his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Mindfulness is also an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. Clinical psychology and psychiatry since the 1970s have developed a number of therapeutic applications based on mindfulness for helping people who are experiencing a variety of psychological
In 2004, Bishop et al offered a consensus paper on the definition of mindfulness: Mindfulness is “self-regulation of attention so that it is maintained on immediate experience, thereby allowing for increased recognition of mental events in the present moment and adopting a particular orientation toward one’s experience that is characterized by curiosity, openness, and acceptance” . The second part of this definition captures an essential emotional or intentional attitude of mindfulness in clinical settings. A stripped-down definition of “therapeutic mindfulness” that Meditation and Psychotherapy find useful is awareness, of present experience, with acceptance . These three elements can be found in most modern psychological literature on mindfulness. Although the “acceptance” component is implied in the classical Buddhist texts, it helps to make it explicit for clinical application. Other related shorthand expressions we might use for therapeutic mindfulness include “affectionate awareness,” “mindful acceptance,” “openhearted presence,” and “mindful