What is Mindfulness?

The last decade, it seems that mindfulness meditation has become all the rage, especially with Silicon Valley tycoons, like Google, professing that mindfulness meditation enhances the productivity and employee satisfaction of their staff. Is this hype justified with mindfulness meditation that is being touted as revolutionary in fields as wide as business, sports to medicine and mental health?

It is helpful to become familiar with the meaning of mindfulness, as well as how it relates to and differs from other kinds meditation. According to Jon Kabat-Zin, the founder of mindfulness-based stress-reduction therapy, mindfulness refers to the “…awareness arising from paying attention in the present moment in service of the cultivation of wisdom, kindness and compassion.” Mindfulness therefore refers to the quality of being present and fully engaged with whatever we’re doing at the moment — as a source of information without identification or judgment.

Mindfulness meditation, therefore, is the formal practice in which we cultivate a greater capacity to observe and be increasingly aware of our thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them. This attitude of gentle and curious observation enables us to approach and observe difficult experiences with more compassion and without having to push them away or reject them. The benefits result from this increased awareness that aids us in being less reactive towards ourselves or others.

Ultimately, the intention behind mindfulness meditation is not to stop or change our thoughts or the way we feel in any way. Instead, it changes our attitudes towards our thoughts, feelings and sensations and the way we meet ourselves. In befriending our inner experience, we develop greater equanimity over time, not just during the formal meditation practice, but in relation to life in general.

Transcendental meditation, which focuses on repeating certain phrases or chants (most famously Ohm or So Hum) or visualisations like guided meditations in which you create imagery (like the safe place or cave) as well as meditations focused on Eastern energy systems like the chakras and reiki all function to either project our awareness away from the present moment or to change and alter some aspect of our present moment experience in some way or form.

Mindfulness meditation, in contrast, is acceptance-based. Rather than changing the present moment, we cultivate the ability to observe ourselves (thoughts, feelings or sensations) non-judgementally and, thereby, alter how we relate to and meet ourselves and reality as it is. Central to the practice of mindfulness meditation is therefore cultivating various attitudes, including non-judgmentality, curiosity (beginner’s mind), openness, letting go and compassion, to name but a few.
The “what” skills of mindfulness (meditation techniques) and the “how” skills (mindfulness attitudes) combined served to cultivates greater equanimity. This increased equanimity is
at the root of the many benefits reported in the wealth of research being published worldwide on mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is perhaps the most researched form of meditation of all with a vast array of peer-reviewed studies indicating it as a breakthrough adjunct treatment for an array of physical and mental disorders and improved quality of life overall. Perhaps it makes sense then to spend more time being present and mindful? Not just in your formal practice, but throughout the day.

What is mindfulness-based Stress Reduction?
Being based in mindfulness meditation, MBSR is also a powerful tool for mental mastery and concentration training. Embedded within the context of Mind-Body and Participatory Medicine, the MBSR curriculum focuses on the experiential cultivation of both “formal” and “informal” mindfulness practice as a means of familiarizing oneself with awareness itself (mindfulness). The recognition of an innate, ever-present awareness is the foundation for the development of positive health behaviours, psychological and emotional resilience, and an overarching sense of wellbeing that can be effectively cultivated and relied upon across the adult life span. MBSR is therefore an effective clinical approach that can be utilized by participants far beyond completion of the program.

MBSR has also been widely researched as an effective intervention for mental illnesses, including stress (Cullen), depression and anxietyand can lead to an improved subjective quality of life (Kaviani, Hatami, & Javaheri, 2012; Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2013). A host of mindfulness-based interventions has also been customised from MBSR for treatment of specific disorders, including Mindfulness-Based Childbirth and Parenting, Mindfulness-Based Eating, Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention, Mindfulness-Based Elder Care, Mindfulness-based Mental Fitness Training, Mindfulness-based Art Therapy for Cancer Patients, Mindful Leadership, Mindfulness in schools, Mindful Schools, Mindfulness without Borders, Trauma Sensitive MBSR, and even mindfulness for military use (Cullen).

The application of MBSR in the context of sports and elite athletes is a newer, promising field of application. Muhammed, Pappous and Sharma (2018) reported that injured athletes that completed the MBSR programme reported increased pain tolerance, more mindful awareness, improved mood and a notable decrease in stress and anxiety levels. In support of these outcomes, in the June issue of The Sports Journal, Furrer, Moen, and Firing, (2020) found that following a 12- week MBSR programme, junior elite athletes demonstrated enhanced performance and lower levels of burnout, which is indirectly related to decreased
perceived levels of stress. These perceived lower levels of stress were, in turn, related to less rumination (overthinking), better sleep and improved recovery. These junior elite athletes also reported improved awareness (e.g. attention awareness, focus awareness, awareness on what is beneficial and not beneficial, present-oriented awareness), which positively impacted on their perceived performance led, which then lead to higher levels of subjective satisfaction, improved motivation and lower levels of burn-out. Finally, Carraçal, Serpa, Palmi, and Magalhães (2018) found that following an MBSR programme with soccer players enhanced elite soccer performance, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, mindfulness and flow states significantly amongst participants when compared with a control group. While the use of mindfulness programmes in sports, like MBSR, is still in its infancy, the research suggests that mental focus training is an area of great potential and can greatly aid in and support the physical training that makes elite athletes great. Furthermore, considering the mental skills of elite sports, MBSR appears to be one of the few structured, evidence-based interventions with research outcomes in alignment with the requisite mental skills addressing each athlete as a holistic whole.