#368 Practicing Meditation Changes How We Relate to Experience

     "the best quality study so far has found a significant positive association between the amount of formal meditation practised during the MBSR course and improvements in symptoms & wellbeing. In addition, based on the theory of Segal et al, higher frequency & duration of mindfulness practice (after the course also) should be associated with more positive outcomes since the ability to switch to a being mode is strengthened by practice.

     ... we would argue that mindfulness practice differs from other health behaviours in that it involves cultivating a different mode of functioning. Thus, it entails not only performing a discrete behaviour but also changing the way in which we relate to our experience. *** One can adopt specific behaviours while remaining within a “doing” mode, whereas to become more mindful entails developing an entirely different “being” mode, which one can enter at any time. Thus, arguably, mindfulness practice is less a health behaviour and more an approach to life."

       Langdon S, Jones FW, Hutton J, Holttum S. A grounded-theory study of mindfulness practice following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Mindfulness 2011; 2(4): 270-281.

*** See also "Qualities or Attitudes of Mindfulness": http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2012/04/114-qualities-or-attitudes-of.html

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