Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects (Brown, Ryan, Creswell, 2007)

Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects (Brown, Ryan, Creswell, 2007)

Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan, J. David Creswell

Psychological Inquiry 2007, Vol. 18. No. 4, p.211-237

"In this article, we discuss in detail the nature of mindfulness and its relation to other, established theories of attention and awareness in day-to-day life. We then examine theory and evidence for the role of mindfulness in curtailing negative functioning and enhancing positive outcomes in several important life domains..."

JLJ - why don't you take some time to transfer to your mind from my mind, these notes from the minds of Brown, Ryan, and Creswell, about mindfulness.

This paper starts off well, then starts to take on the effect of a late night infomercial selling schlock. Mindfulness will solve all your problems. See them melt away into nothing. You will feel better, act better, just buy my book where I tell you all the secrets of mindfulness, etc. Well, maybe. I think the key point here is not the supposed benefits of mindfulness, but trying to be mindful *right where* we need to be mindful, for longer periods of total time. We need to be able to press a "mindfulness" button, when it is needed, and as long as we continue to need it. But can mindfulness make us creative when we need to be, or energetic when we need to be, or churn out lines of code or test reports when they are critically needed? The authors are selling what amounts to "general purpose attention" as a universal cure-all, a medicine for all ills, "Dr. Brown's elixir". I don't know about that. If you are absent-minded, perhaps yes. Otherwise, you develop concerns, which lead to projects, which when executed, lead to practices which help us to move through life. We can be mindful, but mistakenly of the wrong things, or at the wrong times, and aim ourselves, as a result in the wrong directions. Exactly how does mindfulness construct our projects for us, or tell us what our concerns are, or tell NASA management to halt all Space Shuttle flights until those pesky O-rings are fixed? It doesn't. What we need is a mind that is mindful, in addition to other kinds of wisdom.

p.211-212 This article has five aims. First, we seek to define and characterize mindfulness... The second aim... is to place the concept of mindfulness in the context of other, established theoretical treatments of attention and awareness in daily life. We then provide an overview of the salutary effects of mindfulness and the interventions designed to enhance it... Our fourth aim is to outline key processes that may explain these positive effects of mindfulness... Finally, we will point out several key areas of obscurity concerning mindfulness and its effects and will propose avenues for future research

p.212 mindfulness is rooted in the fundamental activities of consciousness: attention and awareness. Awareness is the conscious registration of stimuli... Awareness is our direct, most immediate contact with reality. When a stimulus is sufficiently strong, attention is engaged, which is manifest as an initial "taking notice" of, or "turning toward" the object (Nyaniponika, 1973).

p.212 Commonly, sensory objects are held in focal attention only briefly, if at all, before some cognitive and emotional reaction is made. These rapid perceptual reactions... are often of a discriminatory nature, in which a primary appraisal of the object is made as, most basically, 'good,' 'bad,' or 'neutral,' ...they are usually conditioned by past experience of the sensory object

p.212 Mindfulness... involves the capacity to be aware of internal and external events and occurrences as phenomena, "rather than as the objects of a conceptually constructed world" (Olendzki, 2005, p.253)... mindfulness permits an immediacy of direct contact with events as they occur

p.212 We have formally defined mindfulness as a receptive attention to and awareness of present events and experience (Brown & Ryan, 2003).

p.213 mindfulness concerns a clear awareness of one's inner and outer worlds... the mind simply reflects what passes before it, unbiased by conceptual thought about what is taking place... phenomena that would otherwise remain hidden from view are 'seen' or known with increasing clarity... mindfulness concerns... a simple noticing of what is taking place.

p.217 integrated awareness... an assimilatory, non-discriminatory interest in what is occuring both internally and externally that serves the function of promoting synthesis, organization or integration in functioning (Ryan, 1995)... integrative awareness involves an openly explorative attention and awareness for gathering information, developing insight, and thereby facilitating well-being and adaptation.

p.217-218 As Hodgins and Knee (2002) characterize it, "Individuals who are functioning autonomously... are responsive to reality rather than directed by ego-invested preconceived notions" (p.89). Within this SDT [Self-determination theory] view, awareness, defined as a relaxed and interested attention to what is occuring, is critical to the integrative functioning of self, as it reflects a sensitive and full processing of what is occurring (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Hodgins & Knee, 2002). Deci and Ryan (2000) thus argue that "when awareness is blocked or inhibited the person is typically less able to engage in effective self-regulation" (p.254). Mindfulness, as presently defined, has accordingly been described within SDT as a foundation for healthy self-regulation (Ryan & Deci, 2004).

p.219-220 mindfulness... may also operate indirectly, through the enhancement of self-regulated functioning that comes with ongoing attentional sensitivity to psychological, somatic, and environmental cues

p.223 Specifically, we argue that the receptively observant processing of internal and external information that characterizes mindfulness facilitates the healthy regulation of action through the provision of choice that is informed by abiding needs, values, and feelings and their fit with situational options and demands. That is, the fuller awareness afforded by mindfulness facilitates more flexible, adaptive responses to events, and helps to minimize automatic, habitual, or impulsive reactions

p.224 mindful attention to one's day-to-day actions may facilitate goal attainment (Leary, Adams, & Tate, 2006), perhaps by enhancing self-regulation and integrated goal commitment (Hodgins & Knee, 2002).

p.227 It is also possible that mindfulness permits more adaptive responses to stressors that can cause wear and tear on bodily systems (McEwen, 1998)... when individuals are more mindful they are more capable of acting in ways that are more choiceful and more openly attentive to and aware of themselves and the situations in which they find themselves, "all things considered."

p.227 the provisional conclusion that mindfulness and its cultivation support healthy, adaptive human functioning.

p.228 mindfulness may be linked to the three primary attention networks: alerting attention, orienting attention, and executive attention (Raz & Buhle, 2006).