The Pros And Cons Of Mindfulness

The article Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects, Psychological Inquiry by Kirk Warren Brown, Richard M. Ryan & J. David Creswell seeks to address different aspects of mindfulness and propose future research. Five main topics are discussed, the characterization of mindfulness, mindfulness compared to other theoretical treatments, different interventions that are designed to improve mindfulness, key processes that may provide reasoning for mindfulness success, and shrouded areas concerning mindfulness. The purpose of the article was to show that there are different perspectives on mindfulness and that more research is needed to develop a better understanding. Even though the mindfulness practice has been utilized for centuries, there have been countless studies in recent years concerning mindfulness. The article pinpointed the concept of mindfulness as being rooted in Buddhist psychology but also shares conceptual kinship through ideas from Western European and American culture contributions.

The authors argue that mindfulness is characterized by two fundamental

activities, attention and awareness. They furthermore explain that there are different schools of thought; therefore there are different characterizations. The authors go further in depth by thoroughly defining and interpreting various types of awareness and attention in contrast to mindfulness. After analyzing the different types of awareness, the theories of reflective self-consciousness, and integrative awareness they are compared to the mindfulness theory. The humanistic, psychodynamic, and self-determination theory were all used to thoroughly explain the correlation between the characteristics of mindfulness and the theory of mindfulness. Several differences are acknowledged in the article, but the theme of self-awareness was common.
The authors describe the psychometric, induction, and other psychological intervention methodologies that are thought to benefit mindfulness. Each intervention’s purpose was briefly explained and then correlated to the benefit of mindfulness. Followed by the benefit of mindfulness is the importance of mental health and psychological well-being. The article emphasizes the importance of mental health, targeting the concept of a good mental health being associated with a higher well being. It also addresses other ways that mindfulness is impacted such as through emotions, somatic and the effects of lifestyle choices. People are impacted in a variety of ways, understating how they are impacted is imperative to understanding the mindfulness process.
There are four subtopic areas to mindfulness in the article which are the exposure to mindfulness, being non-attached with oneself, being enhanced in mind-body functioning, and integrated functioning.

Each subtopic area features different reasons to use mindfulness and the impacts of mindfulness on the subtopic area. The future research that is proposed in the article is the mindfulness field itself. The article recognizes although mindfulness has been utilized for decades the study of the practice is still fairly new. Several issues arose in the article. Two issues that stood out were the measurement of mindfulness and the lack of agreement of the mindfulness construct. The article uses several findings from different methodologies to show that mindfulness can be beneficial and that there is still much to learn about the topic such as the agreement of the

topic.
Readers’ Review
The well thought out and organized article was easy to follow along and provides a surplus of information that allows even readers who are not knowledgeable about the subject to fully understand the reading. The authors do an exceptional job at a providing the background of mindfulness and transitioning to the characteristics of mindfulness. Starting from the root of mindfulness allows readers make sense out of the theoretical foundation in the article. The article’s title led me to expect that I was going to read a concrete definition of mindfulness. However, the article allows readers to know that there is still some uncertainty about the definition and practice.
The proposed methodology was thoroughly explained as well as the intended results. Readers can expect to understand the positive effects of mindfulness and the obscurity concerning mindfulness by the end of the reading. This article is a great article to read for researchers conducting research on mindfulness regardless of the skill level. Although the article provided extensive information about mindfulness the reader will still have many unanswered questions in regards to the practice of mindfulness after reading the article.
Issues
In the commentary article, “Mindfulness from the Bottom Up: Providing an Inductive Framework for Understanding Mindfulness Processes and their Application to Human Suffering, Psychological Inquiry,” by Steven C. Hayes & Jennifer C. Plumb two issues raised in the article were that mindfulness would be best understood using the bottom-up perspective and that the field of psychology cannot agree of why exposure works. Brown, Ryan, & Creswell believes that there is a lack of agreement of what mindfulness is, Hayes and Plumb proposed that to better understand mindfulness the bottom up perspective should be used. Hayes and Plum issue act as a counterpoint because it provides a possible solution to the issue raised by Brown, Ryan, & Creswell. After proposing an approach Hayes and Plumb further explain their reasoning of proposing the bottom up approach.
Another issue raised by Hayes and Plum was that the field of psychology cannot agree why exposure works. This acts as a counterpoint to Brown, Ryan, & Creswell because they’re article pinpoints countless flaws in the method to understand mindfulness such as the measurement tool being fairly new. A fairly new measurement tool may provide inaccurate results and skew the collected data making the research non creditable. Flaws in the methodology of analyzing mindfulness provide a possible solution to the lack of agreement of why exposure works. Agreeing on a methodology may help researchers agree on the reasoning behind the success of exposure, because exposure is a subtopic within mindfulness.
Future Research
The purpose of research is to conduct a thorough investigation with creditable resources to better understand a specific topic. There are several different types of research; two popular types of research are quantitative and qualitative research. Research is always needed in the field psychology; research allows new information to the field of psychology, which creates growth. Based on my experiences and understanding of the differences between the two issues some suggestions for future research are to further examine the impact of emotions, somatic, cognitive functioning and lifestyle choices on the person in regards to mindfulness practice. This research is needed to fully understand the impact of mindfulness practice. Understanding the process and concept can lead to better understand the topic and know when and how to use it correctly. It is also a necessity to create theoretical frameworks that can be used daily. Another suggestion for future research is the measurement to mindfulness. New measurement techniques should be thoroughly investigated to look for possible inaccuracy and any additional information that can help other researchers while using the measurement. There are still many unanswered questions about mindfulness and hopefully there will be concrete answers to the ambiguous thought and ideas about mindfulness in the future.