Mindfulness
Meditation practice / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Mindfulness is the cognitive skill, usually developed through meditation, of sustaining meta-attention of the contents of one's own mind in the present moment.[1][2][note 1][3][web 1][2][4][5] Mindfulness derives from sati, a significant element of Hindu and Buddhist traditions,[6][7] and is based on Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan meditation techniques.[8][9][note 2] Though definitions and techniques of mindfulness are wide-ranging,[15] Buddhist traditions describe what constitutes mindfulness, such as how perceptions of the past, present and future arise and cease as momentary sense-impressions and mental phenomena.[6][16][web 2] Individuals who have contributed to the popularity of mindfulness in the modern Western context include Thích Nhất Hạnh, Joseph Goldstein, Herbert Benson, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Richard J. Davidson.[17][18]
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.[18] Mindfulness practice has been employed to reduce depression,[19][20][21][22][23] stress,[20][24][23] anxiety,[19][20][25][23] and in the treatment of drug addiction.[26][27][28] Programs based on mindfulness models have been adopted within schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans' centers, and other environments,[29][30] and mindfulness programs have been applied for additional outcomes such as for healthy aging, weight management, athletic performance,[31] helping children with special needs, and as an intervention during early pregnancy.
Clinical studies have documented both physical- and mental-health benefits of mindfulness in different patient categories as well as in healthy adults and children.[32][33][34] Studies have shown a positive relationship between trait mindfulness (which can be cultivated through the practice of mindfulness-based interventions) and psychological health.[35][36] The practice of mindfulness appears to provide therapeutic benefits to people with psychiatric disorders,[37][38][39] including moderate benefits to those with psychosis.[40][41][42] Studies also indicate that rumination and worry contribute to a variety of mental disorders,[43][44] and that mindfulness-based interventions can enhance trait mindfulness[45] and reduce both rumination and worry.[44][46][47] Further, the practice of mindfulness may be a preventive strategy to halt the development of mental-health problems.[48][49][50] Mindfulness practices have been said to enable individuals to respond more effectively to stressful situations by helping them strike the balance between over-identification and suppression of their emotional experiences by finding the middle point which is recognition and acceptance.[51]
Evidence suggests that engaging in mindfulness meditation may influence physical health.[52] 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.[53][54][55] Studies indicate that mindfulness meditation, which brings about reductions in rumination, may alter these biological clinical pathways.[53][44][56] Further, research indicates that mindfulness may favorably influence the immune system[57] as well as inflammation,[3][58][59] which can consequently impact physical health, especially considering that inflammation has been linked to the development of several chronic health conditions.[60][61] Other studies support these findings.[56][62][63]
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.[3][need quotation to verify][36][web 3] While mindfulness-based interventions may be effective for youth,[64][65][66] research has not determined methods in which mindfulness could be introduced and delivered in schools.[67]