Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future.

Abstract

Baer's review (2003; this issue) suggests that mindf ulness‐based interventions are clinically efficacious, but that better designed studies are now needed to substantiate the field and place it on a firm foundation for future growth. Her review, coupled with other lines of evidence, suggests that interest in incorporating mindfulness into clinical interventions in medicine and psychology is growing. It is thus important that professionals coming to this field understand some of the unique factors associated with the delivery of mindfulness‐based interventions and the potential conceptual and practical pitfalls of not recognizing the features of this broadly unfamiliar landscape. This commentary highlights and contextualizes (1) what exactly mindfulness is, (2) where it came from, (3) how it came to be introduced into medicine and health care, (4) issues of cross‐cultural sensitivity and understanding in the study of meditative practices stemming from other cultures and in applications of them in novel settings, (5) why it is important for people who are teaching mind‐fulness to practice themselves, (6) results from 3 recent studies from the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society not reviewed by Baer but which raise a number of key questions about clinical applicability, study design, and mechanism of action, and (7) current opportunities for professional training and development in mindfulness and its clinical applications.

Internet-based instructor-led mindfulness for work-related rumination, fatigue, and sleep: Assessing facets of mindfulness as mechanisms of change. A randomized waitlist control trial.

“…This finding is in line with previous research showing that individual facets of mindfulness appear to operate independently of one another; specifically, acting with awareness was the only mindfulness facet explaining the effect of a mindfulness intervention on post-treatment PTSD 30 severity in a study by Boden et al (2012). Acting with awareness involves consciously attending to one's moment-to-moment experience with meditation practice operating as "scaffolding" to enable its development (Brown & Ryan, 2003;Kabat-Zinn, 2003). This increased attendance to, and awareness of, thoughts and emotions is purported to enable the individual to observe their thoughts and feelings as they arise in the mind without engaging with them; thereby allowing greater control over thinking (Williams & Penman, 2011).…”

‘I can’t accept that feeling’: Relationships between interoceptive awareness, mindfulness and eating disorder symptoms in females with, and at-risk of an eating disorder

“…Both versions comprise five subscales of which three are closely aligned with the widely used definition of mindfulness as "Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). In the current study we used only three of these subscales: 1) Non-reactivity to inner experience (FFMQ-NR), e.g., "I watch my feelings without getting lost in them"; 2) Acting with awareness (FFMQ-A), e.g., "It seems I am running on automatic without much awareness of what I'm doing"; and 3) Non-judging of inner experience (FFMQ-NJ, refraining from value judgements or self-criticism) "I tend to evaluate whether my perceptions are right or wrong".…”

“…The nature of MBT is grounded in the development and wider application of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programmes (Kabat-Zinn, 2003), for example, its incorporation into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (S. C. Hayes, 2011). In this context, mindfulness is frequently defined as "the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment" (Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 145).…”

Dispositional mindfulness mediates the relationships of parental attachment to posttraumatic stress disorder and academic burnout in adolescents following the Yancheng tornado

“…Ryan, Brown, and Creswell (2007) argued that attachment security may provide an individual with a greater capacity to maintain mindful attention and awareness, as they would be less consumed by factors related to insecure attachment such as rumination or avoidance. Moreover, studies in secure attachment and mindfulness have a remarkable convergence in outcome measures (Kabat-Zinn, 2003; Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins, 2005) and both are associated with functions of the middle aspects of the prefrontal cortex (Siegel, 2007). While extensive research investigating the direct relationship between attachments and dispositional mindfulness among adolescents is not yet available, a preliminary study by DiNoble (2009) has found that adults with secure attachments have increased scores on mindfulness traits.…”