What do people mean when they talk about mindfulness?

Dimensions of wisdom perception across twelve countries on five continents

Wisdom is the hallmark of social judgment, but how people across cultures recognize wisdom remains unclear-distinct philosophical traditions suggest different views of wisdom's cardinal features. We explore perception of wise minds across 16 socio-economically and culturally diverse convenience samples from 12 countries. Participants assessed wisdom exemplars, non-exemplars, and themselves on 19 socio-cognitive characteristics, subsequently rating targets' wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Analyses reveal two positively related dimensions-Reflective Orientation and Socio-Emotional Awareness. These dimensions are consistent across the studied cultural regions and interact when informing wisdom ratings: wisest targets-as perceived by participants-score high on both dimensions, whereas the least wise are not reflective but moderately socio-emotional. Additionally, individuals view themselves as less reflective but more socio-emotionally aware than most wisdom exemplars. Our findings expand folk psychology and social judgment research beyond the Global North, showing how individuals perceive desirable cognitive and socio-emotional qualities, and contribute to an understanding of mind perception.

The impact of mindfulness apps on psychological processes of change: a systematic review

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy for various psychological conditions, and smartphone apps that facilitate mindfulness practice can enhance the reach and impact of MBIs. The goal of this review was to summarize the published evidence on the impact of mindfulness apps on the psychological processes known to mediate transdiagnostic symptom reduction after mindfulness practice. A literature search from January 1, 1993, to August 7, 2023 was conducted on three databases, and 28 randomized controlled trials involving 5963 adults were included. Across these 28 studies, 67 outcome comparisons were made between a mindfulness app group and a control group. Between-group effects tended to favor the mindfulness app group over the control group in three psychological process domains: repetitive negative thinking, attention regulation, and decentering/defusion. Findings were mixed in other domains (i.e., awareness, nonreactivity, non-judgment, positive affect, and acceptance). The range of populations examined, methodological concerns across studies, and problems with sustained app engagement likely contributed to mixed findings. However, effect sizes tended to be moderate to large when effects were found, and gains tended to persist at follow-up assessments two to six months later. More research is needed to better understand the impact of these apps on psychological processes of change. Clinicians interested in integrating apps into care should consider app-related factors beyond evidence of a clinical foundation and use app databases to identify suitable apps for their patients, as highlighted at the end of this review.

Randomized crossover clinical trial of a Mindfulness-based intervention for nurse leaders: A pilot study

OBJECTIVE

to analyze the effects of a Mindfulness-based intervention on nurse leaders' emotional intelligence and resilience.

METHOD

a pilot study of a randomized crossover clinical trial. The sample (n=32) was randomized into Group A (n=18) and Group B (n=14) and evaluated at the pre-test, post-test and follow-up moments. The outcomes were assessed using the Emotional Intelligence Measure, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Questionnaire and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, and analyzed using Generalized Linear Mixed Models.

RESULTS

a total of 32 nurses with a mean age of 42.6 years old were evaluated. The analyses showed significant interactions between the effects of the group x moment factors on the Self-motivation (p=0.005), Sociability (p<0.001), Self-control (p=0.013), and Total (p=0.002) emotional intelligence skill scores; as well as on the Observe (p=0.042), Describe (p=0.008), Non-judgment (p<0.001), Act with awareness (p=0.004) and Total (p<0.001) mindfulness facets. Post-test: there was a statistically significant increase in the Sociability (p=0.009) and Self-control (p=0.015) emotional intelligence skills; as well as in the Non-judgment (p=0.022) and Total (p=0.002) mindfulness facets. Follow-up: a significant increase was observed in the Non-judgment (p=0.024) and Total (p=0.026) mindfulness facets. The "resilience" variable did not present statistical significance in the "group x moment" factor, both in the post-test and during follow-up.

CONCLUSION

the Mindfulness-based intervention used proved to be effective in increasing nurse leaders' emotional intelligence and dispositional mindfulness skills. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (RBR-3c62gy), registered on March 4 th , 2020, updated on September 16 th , 2022.

BACKGROUND

(1) Unpublished study of a Mindfulness-based intervention with nurse leaders.

BACKGROUND

(2) Positive effect on the participants' emotional intelligence and mindfulness.

BACKGROUND

(3) Advances in knowledge about emotional intelligence and leadership resilience.

BACKGROUND

(4) It encourages the implementation of sensitive and innovative health strategies.

Evidence-based approach to mitigate cumulative stress in pediatric nurses through the development of respite rooms

BACKGROUND

The cumulative stress toll on nurses increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. An evidence-based practice (EBP) project was conducted to understand what is known about the impacts of cumulative stress within nursing and if there are ways to mitigate stress during a nurse's shift.

AIM/IMPLEMENTATION

A project team from three clinical units completed an extensive literature review and identified the need to promote detachment while supporting parasympathetic recovery. Based on this review, leaders from three pediatric clinical units (neonatal intensive care unit, cardiovascular intensive care unit, and acute pulmonary floor) implemented respite rooms.

OUTCOMES

Follow-up outcomes showed a statistically significant stress reduction. For all shifts combined, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test revealed that perceived stress scores from an 11-point Likert scale (0 = no stress and 10 = maximum perceived stress) were significantly lower in the post-respite room (Md = 3, n = 68) compared to in the pre-respite room (Md = 6, n = 68), Z = -7.059, p < .001, with a large effect size, r = .605. Nurses and other staff frequently utilized respite rooms during shifts.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Clinical inquiry and evidence-based practice processes can mitigate cumulative stress and support staff wellbeing. Respite rooms within the hospital can promote a healthy work environment among nurses and promote a self-care culture change. Evidence-based strategies to mitigate cumulative stress using respite rooms are a best practice to promote nurse wellbeing and mitigate cumulative stress.

Acceptability and usability of a WeChat-based intervention for depression in China: A mixed-methods study

Background

As research on the use of mobile technology to deliver mental health support grows, the research from China is still very limited. How to design an acceptable and usable mobile mental health service model suitable for China's social and cultural environment remains to be studied.

Objective

To understand the acceptability and usability of a WeChat-based intervention among Chinese patients with depression, and to provide insights to promote future development of user-centered mobile mental health services design.

Methods

The research team developed a multi-theoretical intervention that includes seven modules: recovery lessons, recovery journal, coaching sessions, mindfulness, personalized support, regular assessments and feedback collection. Forty-two patients diagnosed with depressive disorder were recruited, with a mixed sample of patients who were using an antidepressant medication (n = 29) and patients who were not using an antidepressant medication (n = 13). A single-arm mixed-methods study was conducted to understand engagement, satisfaction, usability and potential clinical effectiveness of the intervention.

Results

There was a retention rate of 83.33% - 22 participants who used an antidepressant medication and 13 participants who did not use an antidepressant medication completed the final assessments. The median (upper quartile-lower quartile) of the completed 60 recovery journals and 7 coaching sessions was 56 (59-46) and 6 (7-4) times, respectively. Participants' satisfaction regarding their recovery progress, and on perceived helpfulness on different modules were high. The overall score of the user version of the Mobile Application Rating Scale was 4.23 (SD 0.44, range 1-5), indicating high acceptability and usability. Qualitative feedback identified three key themes: an efficient access to professional help, a personalized source of social support, and a facilitator of cognitive and behavioral change.

Conclusions

This study demonstrated that a WeChat-based intervention for depression was acceptable, and has the potential to promote personal recovery. More studies are needed to understand the efficacy and implementation of this model in real world.

The roles of readiness and dosage in predicting outcomes of a mindful sport performance enhancement intervention with U.S. college student-athletes

Research suggests that Mindfulness- and Acceptance-Based Interventions (MABIs) can impact sport performance and performance-relevant factors, though questions remain regarding when and for whom MABIs are effective. Specifically, inquiries into intervention engagement (i.e., dosage), potentially impacted by participant readiness, are needed. The present study utilized a non-randomized control group design with U.S. collegiate athletes to investigate MABI effects. Four teams from two universities in the Appalachian region (N = 57) engaged in Mindful Sport Performance Enhancement (MSPE) interventions during their offseason or pre-season training period. Participants were assessed on flow, psychological distress, mindfulness, emotion regulation difficulties, life satisfaction, readiness to practice mindfulness, attitudes toward sport psychology, and sport performance and enjoyment. Mindfulness dosage was measured weekly via self-report. Compared to controls, initial MSPE participants reported reductions in depressive symptoms and emotion regulation difficulties, and improvements in self-rated sport performance; at 6-week follow-up, initial MSPE participants reported significant increases in mindfulness and sport enjoyment, in addition to sustained reductions in emotion regulation difficulties. Pre-intervention readiness was not associated with changes across the intervention, though higher post-intervention readiness was associated with improvements in mindfulness, life satisfaction, and sport enjoyment. Higher post-intervention readiness was also associated with significantly more engagement (i.e., dosage), though no evidence indicated that dosage moderated the relationship between readiness and outcomes. These data suggest that post-intervention readiness may impact long-term engagement in mindfulness practice, and that pre-intervention readiness may not be an accurate indicator of engagement in or outcomes of an MABI with athletes.

Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa

Within the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic and new challenges to a resource-constrained public healthcare system, many healthcare workers in South Africa have faced numerous stressors that have compromised their mental health. While the current literature on COVID-19 in South Africa highlights the widespread psychosocial stress experienced by healthcare workers during the pandemic, little is known about the coping strategies utilized to continue service delivery and maintain one's mental health and well-being during this ongoing public health emergency. In this study, we sought to explore the coping strategies used by healthcare workers employed in the public psychiatric care system in southern Gauteng, South Africa during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Psychiatric healthcare workers (n = 55) employed in three tertiary public hospitals and two specialized psychiatric facilities participated in in-depth interviews between July 2020 and March 2021. We found that coping strategies spanned multi-level and multi-systemic efforts. Intrapersonal, interpersonal, material, and structural coping were mapped across individual, family, and hospital systems. The most commonly utilized coping strategies included positive mindsets and reappraisal, social support systems, and COVID-19 specific protections. Findings also highlighted the contextual and interconnected nature of coping. Healthcare workers applied multiple coping strategies to combat the negative mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Better understanding these strategies, contexts in which they are employed, and how they interact can be used to develop evidence-based interventions to support healthcare workers experiencing healthcare-related stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ecological Momentary Assessment Of State Fluctuations In Mindfulness And Symptoms In Psychotic Disorders

Mindfulness skills are a component of many modern cognitive-behavioral therapies that are used to treat a wide range of disorders, including psychotic disorders. While habitual (i.e., trait) mindfulness is associated with clinical outcomes, the effects of momentary (i.e., state) mindfulness are unclear. This is due in part to previous studies using cross-sectional designs relying on trait self-report questionnaires. Although such approaches are invaluable, they lack temporal specificity to evaluate momentary changes and effects of mindfulness. To address these limitations, the current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to evaluate state levels of two mindfulness skills, acceptance and monitoring, and their association with state fluctuations in symptoms. Participants included individuals with affective and non-affective psychotic disorders (PD; n = 49) and healthy controls (CN; n = 53) who completed six days of EMA. Results indicated that the PD group endorsed lower state acceptance than CN; however, the groups did not significantly differ in monitoring. Further, greater state mindfulness skills in both acceptance and monitoring were associated with greater positive affect, reduced negative affect, and reduced negative symptoms. However, participants with a predominantly affective psychosis presentation showed differential effects compared to those with non-affective presentations. These findings suggest that mindfulness training for people with psychotic disorders may benefit from focusing on improving acceptance in order to improve emotional experience and build on existing monitoring skills. Further, mindfulness based psychosocial interventions may offer a novel means of treating negative symptoms in people with PD, which are currently stalled and largely unresponsive to other treatments.

Effectiveness of Daily Mindfulness Meditation App Usage to Reduce Anxiety and Improve Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Introduction This study examined the effect of 10-minute daily meditation app usage for 30 days on adult anxiety and mental well-being during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods Participants were randomized into intervention (10 minutes of daily usage of the Insight Timer app) or control groups. Participants completed surveys to assess anxiety and well-being pre- and post-study. Data were analyzed using t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), or nonparametric equivalents. Results Pre-study results were comparable between groups. The pre- vs. post-study General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scores for anxiety decreased in the intervention group (n=18, median 5.5 vs. 3.0 (pre vs. post), p=0.0233, d=0.50), but not in the control group (n=28). The intervention group had a lower median GAD-7 score than the control group post-study (3.0 vs. 8.0, p=0.0223, d=0.35). Pre- vs. post-study mean 5-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) scores were improved in both the control (11.6 vs. 12.9 (pre vs. post), p=0.0408, d=0.36) and intervention groups (12.0 vs. 16.3 (pre vs. post), p=0.0001, d=0.77), although it was higher in the intervention group (16.3 vs. 12.9, p=0.0056, d=0.88). Conclusion Ten minutes of daily meditation app usage for 30 days may reduce anxiety and improve well-being in adults during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Network Investigation of Core Mindfulness Processes

Objective

Mindfulness has been associated with improved psychological well-being and health, although outcomes from mindfulness-based interventions are mixed. One challenge is a limited understanding about which specific processes are core to mindfulness. Network analysis offers a method to characterize the core processes of mindfulness.

Methods

This study used network analysis to identify which processes are central to mindfulness (have the strongest connectivity with other mindfulness processes) as measured by the Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire- Short Form, analyzed at the item-level. Data were obtained from baseline of a randomized clinical trial of smartphone app-based mindfulness training for smoking cessation.

Results

The most central processes in the mindfulness network included, "I think some of my emotions are bad or inappropriate and I shouldn't feel them," an aspect of Nonjudgment/acceptance; as well as "I can easily put my beliefs, opinions, and expectations into words," and "It's hard for me to find the words to describe what I'm thinking," aspects of Describing.

Conclusions

Findings help to clarify which processes are to mindfulness, contributing to a better understanding of the definition of mindfulness, and suggest factors that may be promising to target in mindfulness-based interventions. Future research should examine if mindfulness-based interventions may be improved by targeting these core mindfulness processes.

How an Interest in Mindfulness Influences Linguistic Markers in Online Microblogging Discourse

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the linguistic markers of an interest in mindfulness. Specifically, it examined whether individuals who follow mindfulness experts on Twitter use different language in their tweets compared to a random sample of Twitter users. This is a first step which may complement commonly used self-report measures of mindfulness with quantifiable behavioural metrics.

Method

A linguistic analysis examined the association between an interest in mindfulness and linguistic markers in 1.87 million Twitter entries across 19,732 users from two groups, (1) a mindfulness interest group (n = 10,347) comprising followers of five mindfulness experts and (2) a control group (n = 9385) of a random selection of Twitter users. Text analysis software (Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count) was used to analyse linguistic markers associated with the categories and subcategories of mindfulness, affective processes, social orientation, and “being” mode of mind.

Results

Analyses revealed an association between an interest in mindfulness and lexical choice. Specifically, tweets from the mindfulness interest group contained a significantly higher frequency of markers associated with mindfulness, positive emotion, happiness, and social orientation, and a significantly lower frequency of markers associated with negative emotion, past focus, present focus, future focus, family orientation, and friend orientation.

Conclusions

Results from this study suggest that an interest in mindfulness is associated with more frequent use of certain language markers on Twitter. The analysis opens possible pathways towards developing more naturalistic methods of understanding and assessing mindfulness which may complement self-reporting methods.

Historical Psychology

A growing body of evidence suggests that many aspects of psychology have evolved culturally over historical time. A combination of approaches, including experimental data collected over the past 75 years, cross-cultural comparisons, and studies of immigrants, points to systematic changes in psychological domains as diverse as conformity, attention, emotion, morality, and olfaction. However, these approaches can go back in time only for a few decades and typically fail to provide continuous measures of cultural change, posing a challenge for testing deeper historical psychological processes. To tackle this challenge most directly, computational methods emerging from natural language processing can be adapted to extract psychological information from large-scale historical corpora. Here, we first review the benefits of psychology as a historical science and then present three useful classes of text-analytic techniques for historical psychological inquiry: dictionary-based methods, distributed-representational methods, and human-annotation-based methods. These represent an excellent suite of methodologies that can be used to examine the record of “dead minds.” Finally, we discuss the importance of going beyond English-centric text analysis in historical psychology to foster a more generalizable and inclusive science of human behavior. We propose that historical psychology should incorporate and further develop a variety of text-analytic approaches to reliably quantify the historical processes that gave rise to contemporary social, political, and psychological phenomena.

Does Mindfulness Mediate the Relation between Impulsiveness and Job Stressfulness Perception of Professional Drivers?

(1) Background: Professional driving is a stressful occupation that requires high levels of attention and decision-making, often leading to job stress. Impulsiveness, a personality trait characterized by a tendency to act without forethought, has been associated with negative outcomes such as anxiety, stress, and risky behaviors. Mindfulness has been proposed as a potential strategy for reducing job stress in various occupational settings. However, little is known about the relationship between these variables. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of mindfulness in the relationship between impulsiveness and job stressfulness perception among professional drivers. (2) Methods: A total of 258 professional drivers from Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia, have completed self-report questionnaires: Impulsiveness-Venturesomeness-Empathy; Subjective Assessment of Work; Five Facet Mindfulness. (3) Results: Results indicated a positive correlation between impulsiveness and job stressfulness perception, and a negative correlation with mindfulness. Mindfulness partially mediated the relationship between impulsiveness and job stressfulness perception. Additionally, variations were identified in the perceived work environment factors and mindfulness among drivers based on their country of origin. (4) Conclusions: The findings suggest that mindfulness could be a useful approach for reducing job stressfulness perception among professional drivers with high levels of impulsiveness. Given the implications of job stressfulness for professional drivers' health and safety, developing mindfulness interventions tailored to their specific needs could be a promising direction for future research and intervention development.

Self-judgment dissected: A computational modeling analysis of self-referential processing and its relationship to trait mindfulness facets and depression symptoms

Cognitive theories of depression, and mindfulness theories of well-being, converge on the notion that self-judgment plays a critical role in mental health. However, these theories have rarely been tested via tasks and computational modeling analyses that can disentangle the information processes operative in self-judgments. We applied a drift-diffusion computational model to the self-referential encoding task (SRET) collected before and after an 8-week mindfulness intervention (n = 96). A drift-rate regression parameter representing positive-relative to negative-self-referential judgment strength positively related to mindful awareness and inversely related to depression, both at baseline and over time; however, this parameter did not significantly relate to the interaction between mindful awareness and nonjudgmentalness. At the level of individual depression symptoms, at baseline, a spectrum of symptoms (inversely) correlated with the drift-rate regression parameter, suggesting that many distinct depression symptoms relate to valenced self-judgment between subjects. By contrast, over the intervention, changes in only a smaller subset of anhedonia-related depression symptoms showed substantial relationships with this parameter. Both behavioral and model-derived measures showed modest split-half and test-retest correlations. Results support cognitive theories that implicate self-judgment in depression and mindfulness theories, which imply that mindful awareness should lead to more positive self-views.

Extending the Transformative Potential of Mindfulness Through Team Mindfulness Training, Integrating Individual With Collective Mindfulness, in a High-Stress Military Setting

Mindfulness has come to be considered an important approach to help individuals cultivate transformative capacity to free themselves from stress and suffering. However, the transformative potential of mindfulness extends beyond individual stress management. This study contributes to a broadening of the scope of contemplative science by integrating the prominent, individually focused mindfulness meditation literature with collective mindfulness scholarship. In so doing, it aims to illuminate an important context in which mindfulness interventions are increasingly prevalent: workplaces. Typically, the intended effect of workplace mindfulness training is to help workers manage stress better. Since mindfulness in organizations impacts individual and collective processes, the study blends the above literatures to create a cross-level “next-generation” Team Mindfulness Training (TMT) pilot. Its potential in helping individuals and teams to manage work stress better is investigated via a two-phase mixed-methods research study in high-stress military work populations, and compared to a conventional (“first-generation”) 8-week mindfulness meditation program based on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Results suggest that compared to the “first-generation” mindfulness program, TMT seems no less effective in raising individual stress management skills, and may hold more promise in generating collective capacity to manage stress and unexpected difficulty, linked to an apparent interdependence between collective and individual mindfulness capacity development. Based on these empirical results, the study contributes to theory in three important ways: first, it outlines how individual and collective mindfulness in workplaces may be interdependent. Second, it explains why “next-generation” workplace training interventions should apply a cross-level approach. And third, it illustrates how its transformative potential for people at work, individually as well as collectively, can be extended by moving beyond an inward-looking meditation focus in mindfulness training. The study contributes to practice by providing a detailed outline of the pilot TMT program, and offers a series of follow-up research opportunities to inspire further scientific innovation in workplace mindfulness training, especially for high-stress work populations. The study’s ultimate aim is to prompt a shift away from adapting clinically oriented, self-focused “first-generation” mindfulness training protocols, and towards mindfulness as team sport: a more prosocially oriented mindfulness science intent on generating wisdom and compassion, for one and all.

Meditators' Non-academic Definition of Mindfulness

Objectives

Mindfulness has been defined differently in academic scientific contexts and in Buddhist academic contexts. An under-studied area is that of lay (non-academic) theories of mindfulness. The goal of this article is to identify, organize, analyze in detail, and provide themes from the meditators' definitions of mindfulness. Possible differences and similarities of the collected definitions of mindfulness with the scientific-academic definitions and with the academic-Buddhist definitions are also checked.

Methods

A qualitative and inductive thematic analysis on the definitions of mindfulness offered by the participants was carried out.

Results

The sample consisted of 326 meditators who offered a definition of mindfulness through an open question. Seven themes were identified: (1) mindfulness defined as attention/awareness; (2) mindfulness defined as a non-evaluative attitude; (3) mindfulness defined as strategy; (4) mindfulness defined from a theoretical analysis; (5) mindfulness defined as a psycho-affective-spiritual state; (6) mindfulness defined as personal development; and (7) lack of understanding of mindfulness. From these themes, it can be deduced that the definitions collected share more patterns of meaning with the scientific-academic definition of mindfulness than with the academic-Buddhist one.

Conclusions

The findings of this study provide new insights into the complexity and heterogeneity of the definition of mindfulness. What has been discovered may indicate the complexity of the mindfulness construct itself.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-022-01899-3.

Benefits of Interoceptive Awareness: A Correlational Study of the Distinct Sport Education Program among Slovak University Students

This study aims to determine the formation of cognitive abilities and self-assessment among students of the special physical training in security forces program. A total of 96 students aged 18 to 24 years completed 12 close-ended questions, i.e., 6 knowledge awareness (KA) and 6 ideomotor awareness questions (IA). The 13th question was aimed at self-assessment of their own answers. Based on the Dunning–Kruger effect, comparing all positive answers to KA and IA questions with the self-assessment answer showed that 51% of first-year students provided positive answers with a 50% self-assessment rate, indicating a balanced self-assessment. The percentage of positive answers for the second-year students totaled 51%, with a 70% self-assessment rate, indicating overassessment. The percentage of positive answers totaled 82% for the third-year students, with a 62% self-assessment rate, indicating underassessment. To help students to become proficient requires balancing theory and experience, classroom and practice, where they incorporate a “student-as-instructor” modality to the entire curriculum, not only to the limited selected courses of the special forces training. Using the active learning technique helps students to gain exposure to a stimulating and interactive environment. We stress a teaching modality that includes learning by doing and having the student act as a teacher. In this role, participants maximize their learning through interoceptive awareness, feeling, and applying course material in a more comprehensively factual setting.