Mindfulness Meditation

Description of the Strategy

Clinical interventions based on mindfulness meditation are appearing with increasing frequency in the empirical literature. Such interventions have been developed to reduce distress and improve quality of life in individuals suffering from a wide range of physical and mental disorders, including chronic pain, cancer, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and substance abuse. The literature contains terminology referring to a number of related concepts and techniques, including “mindfulness training,” “mindful practice,” “mindfulness-based” interventions, “mindfulness meditation,” and, most simply, “mindfulness.” To complicate matters, there is a similar, but distinct, social psychological construct of “mindfulness” with a different origin and separate theoretical and research literature, which will not be addressed in this entry.

Mindfulness meditation is distinct from concentration meditation. Together, they represent the two major forms of meditation practice. A brief account of the origins and function of mindfulness meditation in Buddhist thought and practice provides a useful context for understanding its varying uses in cognitive and behavioral practice.

“Mindfulness” is the common English translation of the Pali term sati (Pali is the ancient Indic language of the oldest Buddhist literature). It is one aspect (right mindfulness) of the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Buddha outlined as the means of liberation from suffering or mental anguish. In this context, “mindfulness” is the capacity to attend fully to the content of experience as it occurs in the immediate present and to remain in contact with the experience for its duration, without attempting either to terminate or to prolong it and without judgment or other verbal commentary. Mindfulness meditation refers to the specific practices intended to develop our capacity for mindfulness. With diligent practice under the guidance of a teacher, mindfulness meditation is said to facilitate the discovery and rectification of the causes of mental anguish that arise from the practitioner's own mental processes.

Concentration meditation refers to practices involving sustained, focused attention to a single object, such as a mental image, a mantra, or an external physical object. Instruction in mindfulness typically involves exercises to develop concentration, which is a necessary but not sufficient condition for mindfulness. However, mindfulness itself attends to any experiences that enter the field of awareness, with equal attention given to bodily sensations, thoughts, and emotional experience.

Mindfulness is the core stance of the various meditative practices in all the principal forms of Buddhism. However, because its Buddhist origins potentially are a barrier to its acceptance in Western health and behavioral health contexts, interventions based on mindfulness meditation typically are presented to clients without reference to their origins, except in cases in which these origins might enhance credibility and acceptability for cultural reasons.

Training in mindfulness utilizes both formal and informal practices. Traditional formal practices include meditation in the familiar sitting position but also include standing, recumbent, and walking meditation. Contemporary applications of mindfulness in therapeutic contexts often include mindful participation in movement exercises, such as hatha yoga, as a formal practice. The four traditional objects, or “foundations,” of mindfulness meditation are bodily sensations, feelings (not emotions, but rather the positive, negative, or neutral valence of one's immediate response [Page 373]to current experience), state of mind (mood or general condition of consciousness at a given moment), and mental contents (the specific contents of consciousness at a given moment, including images, thoughts, and emotions).

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