Mindfulness is a state of conscious awareness following from living in the moment (Brown & Ryan, 2003: Kabat-Zinn, 1994), drawing more attention in recent years from researchers as well as practitioners. Reasons behind can be attributed to the beneficial effects mindfulness has on emotion regulation as well as interpersonal and cognitive abilities.
Typically, mindfulness associates with improved stress regulation, empathy, positive affect, self-esteem, well-being and reduced fear of being judged by others. Mindfulness has also been linked to improve cognitive functioning, including enhanced task concentration, working memory capacity and intelligence as well as the ability to switch perspectives, the inhibition of distracting and irrelevant thoughts and feelings.