#550 Mindfulness - State or Trait?

     "Passing states like joy, fear, excitement, or depression come and go like the weather. But enduring traits, like reliability or empathy or natural mindfulness, are more stable, and thus more dependable from moment to moment. Certain qualities can take the form of a state or a trait. Consider happiness, for example. Positive experiences might make you happy for an hour or a day, but as soon as the state passes, the feeling fades as well. By contrast, the trait of happiness, the enduring sense of subjective well-being, doesn’t come and go but abides as the backdrop and flavor of all your experiences. 
     Meditation that just induces a pleasant emotional or mental state for as long as you’re practicing, a state that then fades when you stand up and go about your day, has only limited value in the stress and strain of ordinary life. The purpose of mindfulness meditation is to cultivate & strengthen the TRAIT of mindfulness — enhanced present moment awareness — so you can extend it to every situation you encounter, no matter how challenging, and reap the ongoing benefits.
     ... The results of (this) study suggest that mindfulness intervenes in several ways in the usual stress cycle: by helping with the regulation of negative emotions that tend to intensify stress and by enhancing restful sleep, which in turn tends to moderate stress. ... Of course, for those of us who don’t score high on natural mindfulness, there’s always the practice of mindfulness meditation!"                     Stephan Bodian

http://www.mentalworkout.com/blog/2013/12/05/mindfulness-state-or-trait/

Garage, Rome, Italy