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The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in ...

The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-BeingKirk Warren Brown and Richard M. RyanUniversity of RochesterMindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well- Being . This research providesa theoretical and empirical examination of the role of Mindfulness in psychological well- Being . Thedevelopment and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale(MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that theMAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well- Being constructs,that differentiates Mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state Mindfulness predictself-regulated behavior and positive emotional states.

(Deikman, 1982; Martin, 1997), which may be reflected in a more Kirk Warren Brown and Richard M. Ryan, Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester. This research was supported in part by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, by grants

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1 The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-BeingKirk Warren Brown and Richard M. RyanUniversity of RochesterMindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well- Being . This research providesa theoretical and empirical examination of the role of Mindfulness in psychological well- Being . Thedevelopment and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale(MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that theMAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well- Being constructs,that differentiates Mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state Mindfulness predictself-regulated behavior and positive emotional states.

2 Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancerpatients demonstrates that increases in Mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance philosophical, spiritual, and psychological traditions em-phasize the importance of the quality of consciousness for themaintenance and enhancement of well- Being (Wilber, 2000). De-spite this, it is easy to overlook the importance of consciousness inhuman well- Being because almost everyone exercises its primarycapacities, that is, attention and awareness. Indeed, the relationbetween qualities of consciousness and well- Being has receivedlittle empirical attention. One attribute of consciousness that hasbeen much-discussed in relation to well- Being ismindfulness. Theconcept of Mindfulness has roots in Buddhist and other contem-plative traditions where conscious attention and awareness areactively cultivated.

3 It is most commonly defined as the state ofbeing attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the example, Nyanaponika Thera (1972) called Mindfulness theclear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to usand in us at the successive moments of perception (p. 5). Hanh(1976) similarly defined Mindfulness as keeping one s conscious-ness alive to the present reality (p. 11).Recent research has shown that the enhancement of mindfulnessthrough training facilitates a variety of well- Being outcomes ( ,Kabat-Zinn, 1990). To date, however, there has been little workexamining this attribute as a naturally occurring that most everyone has the capacity to attend and tobe aware, we nonetheless assume (a) that individuals differ in theirpropensity or willingness to be aware and to sustain attention towhat is occurring in the present and (b) that this mindful capacityvaries within persons, because it can be sharpened or dulled by avariety of factors.

4 The intent of the present research is to reliablyidentify these inter- and intrapersonal variations in Mindfulness ,establish their relations to other relevant psychological constructs,and demonstrate their importance to a variety of forms of psycho-logical NATURE OF MINDFULNESSAND MINDLESSNESSS everal authors ( , Averill, 1992; Mayer, Chabot, & Carl-smith, 1997) have distinguished consciousness from other modesof mental processing namely, cognition, motives, and emo-tions that allow humans to operate effectively. Thus, one can beconscious of thoughts, motives, and emotions as well as sensoryand perceptual both aware-ness and the background radar of con-sciousness, continually monitoring the inner and outer environ-ment. One may be aware of stimuli without them Being at thecenter of a process of focusing consciousawareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range ofexperience (Westen, 1999).

5 In actuality, awareness and attentionare intertwined, such that attention continually pulls figures outof the ground of awareness, holding them focally for varyinglengths of attention and awareness are relatively constant fea-tures of normal functioning, Mindfulness can be considered anenhanced attention to and awareness of current experience orpresent reality. Specifically, a core characteristic of mindfulnesshas been described asopenorreceptiveawareness and attention(Deikman, 1982; Martin, 1997), which may be reflected in a moreKirk Warren Brown and Richard M. Ryan, Department of Clinical andSocial Sciences in Psychology, University of research was supported in part by a postdoctoral fellowship fromthe Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, by grantsfrom the Russell Sage Foundation and the Society of the PsychologicalStudy of Social Issues to Kirk Warren Brown, and by National Institute ofMental Health Grant 59594 to Richard M.

6 Ryan. We are grateful to LindaCarlson, Ed Deci, Jennifer LaGuardia, Martin Lynch, and Todd Thrash fortheir helpful comments on previous versions of this article. We also Moskowitz, Joseph Schwartz, Joshua Smyth, and Harry Reis forstatistical programming help; Chris Stevens and Bodhin Kjolhede forparticipant recruitment assistance; and Linda Carlson for collecting thedata presented in Study concerning this article should be addressed to KirkWarren Brown, Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology,University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, Rochester, New York : of Personality and Social PsychologyCopyright 2003 by the American Psychological Association, , Vol. 84, No. 4, 822 8480022-3514/03/$ DOI: or sustained consciousness of ongoing events and experi-ences. For example, in speaking with a friend, one can be highlyattentive to the communication and sensitively aware of the per-haps subtle emotional tone underlying it.

7 Similarly, when eating ameal, one can be attuned to the moment-to-moment taste experi-ence while also peripherally aware of the increasing feeling offullness in one s stomach. This is to be contrasted with conscious-ness that is blunted or restricted in various ways. For example,rumination, absorption in the past, or fantasies and anxieties aboutthe future can pull one away from what is taking place in thepresent. Awareness or attention can also be divided, such as whenpeople are occupied with multiple tasks or preoccupied with con-cerns that detract from the quality of engagement with what isfocally present. Mindfulness is also compromised when individu-als behave compulsively or automatically, without awareness of orattention to one s behavior (Deci & Ryan, 1980). Finally,mind-lessness, which we denote as the relative absence of Mindfulness ,can be defensively motivated, as when an individual refuses toacknowledge or attend to a thought, emotion, motive, or object ofperception.

8 These forms of consciousness thus serve as concretecounterpoints to mindful presence and the attention to currentexperience within and without oneself that such presence presently defined, Mindfulness bears some relation to otherconstructs that have received empirical attention. For example,emotional intelligence, as described by Salovey, Mayer, Goldman,Turvey, and Palfai (1995), includes perceptual clarity about one semotional states. Insofar as Mindfulness involves receptive atten-tion to psychological states, we expect it to be associated with suchclarity. In less mindful states, emotions may occur outside ofawareness or drive behavior before one clearly acknowledgesthem. Mindfulness also appears to relate to aspects of the Open-ness to Experience dimension of personality (Costa & McCrae,1992), which involves receptivity to and interest in new experi-ences.

9 Receptive attention would appear to support the contactwith and assimilation of feelings and new ideas, for example. Onthe other hand, the imagination, fantasy, and aesthetic interestfacets of Openness measured in Big Five research do not theoret-ically relate to Mindfulness mindlessness as presently defined,given the role of cognition in , the concept of Mindfulness as we describe it bears somerelation to earlier groundbreaking work by Langer (1989) andcolleagues ( , Bodner & Langer, 2001; Langer & Moldoveanu,2000). Langer s formulation includes an open, assimilative wake-fulness to cognitive tasks and in this has some overlap with thecurrent formulation. However, Langer s formulation emphasizesactive cognitive operations on perceptual inputs from the externalenvironment, such as the creation of new categories and theseeking of multiple perspectives.

10 The present definition empha-sizes an open, undivided observation of what is occurring bothinternally and externally rather than a particular cognitive ap-proach to external can also be distinguished from various forms ofself-awareness that have received considerable attention over thepast 30 years. Most prominently, Duval and Wicklund s (1972)theory of objective self-awareness, Buss s (1980) self-conscious-ness theory, and Carver and Scheier s (1981) control theory alldefine self-awareness in terms of knowledge about the self. Forexample,private self-consciousnessrepresents a disposition to behighly aware of internal states ( , Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss,1975). However, this form of awareness is defined by its focusrather than by its quality. Thus, high private self-consciousnessmay reflect preoccupation with internal states or an open recep-tivity to them.


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