How much do you know about mindfulness meditation?

Meditation Practice Summary

Mindfulness is the practice of bringing one's attention to the present-moment experience without evaluation.
Mindfulness derives from Hindu and Buddhist traditions and is based on Zen, Vipassanā, and Tibetan meditation techniques.
Mindfulness has been employed to reduce depression, stress, anxiety, and in the treatment of drug addiction.
It has been applied in schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans' centers, and other environments.
Mindfulness practice provides therapeutic benefits to people with psychiatric disorders, including moderate benefits to those with psychosis.
Mindfulness-based interventions can enhance trait mindfulness and reduce both rumination and worry.
The practice of mindfulness may be a preventive strategy to halt the development of mental-health problems.
Engaging in mindfulness meditation may influence physical health, reducing inflammation and favorably influencing the immune system.
Mindfulness appears to bring about lowered activity of the default mode network of the brain, lowering the risk of developing conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Mindfulness practice involves the process of developing the skill of bringing one's attention to whatever is happening in the present moment.
Meditators are recommended to start with short periods of 10 minutes or so of meditation practice per day.
In a Buddhist context, the keeping of moral precepts is an essential preparatory stage for mindfulness or meditation.Overview of Mindfulness and its Practices
Mindfulness is one of the seven factors of enlightenment and is considered an antidote to delusion and a power that contributes to attaining Nibbana.
Mindfulness provided the way to liberation in Early Buddhism, which involved constantly watching sensory experiences to prevent the arising of cravings.
The doctrine of mindfulness is one of the most important after the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, according to Thomas William Rhys Davids.
Zazen is the practice of suspending all judgmental thinking and letting words, ideas, images, and thoughts pass by without getting involved in them.
In modern vipassana-meditation, sati aids insight into the true nature of reality, and with this insight, the practitioner becomes a "stream-enterer," the first stage on the path to liberation.
Anapanasati is mindfulness of breathing, while Satipaṭṭhāna is the establishment of mindfulness in one's day-to-day life, maintaining a calm awareness of one's body, feelings, mind, and dhammas.
Mindfulness in contemporary Theravada practice also includes clear comprehension and vigilance.
The aim of mindfulness is to stop the arising of disturbing thoughts and emotions that arise from sense contact.
Mindfulness is gaining popularity in Western society as a practice in daily life, characterized by "acceptance" and moment-by-moment awareness of one's thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and environment.
Mindfulness practices have been widely adopted in schools, prisons, hospitals, veterans centers, and other environments, and have been applied in programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, mindfulness-based pain management, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction is a mindfulness-based program that uses a combination of mindfulness meditation, body awareness, and yoga to help people become more mindful.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is a psychological therapy designed to aid in preventing the relapse of depression, specifically in individuals with Major depressive disorder (MDD).
Mindfulness-based pain management is a mindfulness-based intervention providing specific applications for people living with chronic pain and illness, which includes a distinctive emphasis on the practice of "loving-kindness."
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a form of clinical behavior analysis used in psychotherapy that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed with commitment and behavior-change strategies to increase psychological flexibility.
Dialectical behavior therapy is a psychosocial treatment developed for treating people with borderline personality disorder that uses mindfulness as a core exercise.
Mode deactivation therapy is a treatment methodology derived from the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy and incorporates elements of acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and mindfulness techniques.Overview of Mindfulness Practice and its Applications
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that involves paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgmental way.
Mindfulness is used in therapy, particularly family therapy, and has been developed into various practices such as Morita therapy, Adaptation Practice, Hakomi therapy, and the Internal Family Systems Model.
Mindfulness relaxation uses breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.
Mindfulness practices are being introduced in schools to calm and relax students, build compassion and empathy, and reduce anxiety and stress.
Mindfulness has been found to result in better employee well-being, lower levels of frustration, lower absenteeism and burnout as well as an improved overall work environment in the business world.
Mindfulness has been taught in prisons, reducing hostility and mood disturbance among inmates, and improving their self-esteem.
Mindfulness has gained increasing empirical attention since 1970 and has been studied often as an intervention for stress reduction.
Meta analyses indicate its beneficial effects for healthy adults, for adolescents and children, as well as for different health-related outcomes including weight management, psychiatric conditions, heart disease, sleep disorders, cancer care, adult autism treatment, multiple sclerosis, and other health-related conditions.
Mindfulness meditation is a popular subject for research, and many present potential benefits for a wide array of conditions and outcomes, including improving athletic performance, as a beneficial intervention for children with special needs and their caregivers, as a viable treatment option for people with insomnia, an effective intervention for healthy aging, as a strategy for managing dermatological conditions and as a useful intervention during pregnancy and the perinatal period.
Research studies have focused on the effects of mindfulness on the brain using neuroimaging techniques, physiological measures and behavioral tests.
Neuroimaging techniques suggest that mindfulness practices such as mindfulness meditation are associated with "changes in the anterior cingulate cortex, insula, temporo-parietal junction, fronto-limbic network and default mode network structures."
Mindfulness-induced emotional and behavioral changes have been found to be related to functional and structural changes in the brain.Mindfulness: Benefits, Mechanisms, and Criticisms

Benefits of mindfulness

Mindfulness meditation can help reduce stress and anxiety.
Mindfulness meditation can help improve cognitive function.
The amount of gyrification in the brain is greater in people who meditate than in those who do not.
Mindfulness is associated with higher levels of life satisfaction, agreeableness, conscientiousness, vitality, self-esteem, empathy, sense of autonomy, competence, optimism, and pleasant affect.
Mindfulness has been linked to prosocial behavior.
Mindfulness has been negatively correlated with depression, neuroticism, absentmindedness, dissociation, rumination, cognitive reactivity, social anxiety, difficulties in emotion regulation, experiential avoidance, alexithymia, intensity of delusional experience in the context of psychosis, and general psychological symptoms.

Mechanisms of mindfulness

Meta-analyses have shown that mindfulness practice does increase mindfulness.
Mindfulness is dose-dependent and increases with more experience.
Mindfulness is associated with having an activated intention to be mindful, feeling good, and not being hurried or very busy.
Feeling good increases mindfulness, and mindfulness increases feeling good.
Reperceiving is the beneficial effect that comes after the process of being mindful after all the intention, attention, and attitude has been experienced.

Criticisms of mindfulness

More high-quality research in this field is necessary, using larger sample sizes and more randomized controlled studies.
Mindfulness as a state or temporary practice can influence felt emotions such as disgust and promote abstract decision-making.
Mindfulness interventions may have little difference between mindfulness interventions and control groups.
The popularization of mindfulness as a "commodity" has been criticized, being termed "McMindfulness" by some critics.
Modern mindfulness meditation has been "corrupted" for commercial gain by self-help celebrities, and it encourages unhealthy narcissistic and self-obsessed mindsets.
Mindfulness is not being used as a means to awaken to insight in the "unwholesome roots of greed, ill will and delusion," but reshaped into a "banal, therapeutic, self-help technique" that has the opposite effect of reinforcing those passions.
The privatization of mindfulness neglects the societal and organizational causes of stress and discomfort, instead propagating adaptation to these circumstances.
The conflict is often presented with concern to the teacher's credentials and qualifications, rather than the student's actual practice.
Negative effects of meditation are rare for mindfulness meditation, and appear to happen due to a poor understanding of what actually constitutes mindfulness/meditation practices.