About mindfulness
Mindfulness is a therapeutic approach based on focusing attention on the present moment, without judgment, and with full awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. In other words, mindfulness means being fully present in the present moment. This technique has its roots in Buddhist meditation, but has been modernized for use in therapy and everyday life. One of the pioneers of mindfulness in Western psychology is Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in the late 1970s, designed to manage stress and improve quality of life.
Why is mindfulness effective? Have you noticed that most of what bothers us (in a psychological sense) is not happening right now? We may experience unpleasant emotions because of a traumatic event - but that event is actually in the past and not happening now. We may fear an outcome - but that event is in the future and also not happening now. The point of mindfulness can be reduced to a short movie quote: "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift - that's why it's called 'present'." In other words, there is only now, only this moment, and by our focus on the past and future, we waste the potential to make this very moment pleasant, special or even unrepeatable, creating from it an important resource for the future.
Mindfulness has been shown to be effective in reducing stress, anxiety, depression and chronic pain. As part of mindfulness training, the client learns to recognize and accept his thoughts and feelings as they come, without impulsive evaluation and reaction, which can lead to an increase in emotional stability and greater resistance to stress.
Scientific research confirms the benefits of mindfulness for mental health, including reducing symptoms of depression and increasing emotional regulation. The results of previous meta-analyses have confirmed the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapies. Hofmann et al. (2010) examined the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapies for reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression in their meta-analysis. To reach a general conclusion, the authors of this meta-analysis searched the scientific literature on the impact of mindfulness-based therapies published up to April 2009 in one of the peer-reviewed journals included in three large databases of scientific journals. The authors focused on people with a diagnosis of a depressive or anxiety disorder. Of the 727 potentially important published scientific papers reviewed, 39 met all the criteria for the meta-analysis. The summary results indicated the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapies for a wide range of anxiety and depressive symptoms, including distress caused by medical conditions.
Blanck et al. (2018) conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions as sole interventions for reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression. To reach a general conclusion, they searched all scientific literature in English and German on the impact of mindfulness-based interventions published up to August 2017 in journals included in two large databases of scientific journals. However, the authors did not include more complex interventions that included mindfulness in their meta-analysis. Of the 578 potentially important published scientific papers reviewed, 18 met all the criteria for a meta-analysis. The summary results showed that even simple mindfulness interventions can lead to mild reductions in symptoms of anxiety and depression. Such results argue in favor of the effectiveness of more complex mindfulness-based interventions.
However, mindfulness also has its limitations. A meta-analysis by Zhang et al. (2022) was conducted to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in reducing distress and increasing well-being in children and adolescents. To reach a general conclusion, they searched all scientific literature in English and German on the impact of interventions based on mindfulness principles published in English until November 2020 in one of the journals included in seven large databases of scientific journals. Of the 125 potentially important published scientific papers reviewed, 28 met all the conditions for a meta-analysis. According to the summary results, mindfulness-based interventions led to only a modest decrease in distress and symptoms of anxiety and depression (greater in adolescents than in children), while no increase in well-being was recorded.
