Running Head: Mindfulness Fact or Fiction

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MINDFULNESS FACT OR FICTION?

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Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where they are and

what they are doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around them.

Several practices and disciplines can grow or cultivate mindfulness, such as yoga, tai chi and

qigong but most literature focus on mindfulness that is developed through mindfulness

meditation. “CE Corner”, a quarterly continuing education article offered by the APA Office of

CE in Psychology reviews the pro side of mindfulness as being a real area of Psychology.

Previous researches conducted have revealed that mindfulness meditation promotes

metacognitive awareness, decreases rumination through disengagement from perseverative

cognitive activities and enhances attention capacities through gains in working memory which

contribute to effective emotion regulation strategies.

Mindfulness has shown benefits such as reduced rumination, stress reduction, boosts to

working memory, focus, less emotional reactivity, more cognitive flexibility, and relationship

satisfaction. In stress reduction, studies conducted show that practicing mindfulness always

reduced stress. Mindfulness-based therapy is useful in altering affective and cognitive processes

that underlie multiple clinical issues. Another benefit of mindfulness is the improvements to

working memory. A 2010 study by Jha et Al., documented the benefits of mindfulness

meditation whereby it was found that the meditating military group working memory capacity

increased with meditation practice as compared to the non-meditating military group which had a

decreased memory capacity. Another study examined how mindfulness meditation affected

participants’ to focus attention and suppress distracting information. It was found out that the

meditation group had significantly better performance on all measures of attention and had

higher self-reported mindfulness compared to that group with no meditation experience. Other

benefits of mindfulness has been shown to enhance self-insight, morality, intuition and fear
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modulation, that is, all functions associated with the brain’s middle prefrontal lobe. Previous

studies conducted also suggest that mindfulness meditation has numerous health benefits

including increased immune functioning, improvement to well-being, and reduction in

psychological distress.

While those who promote mindfulness claim the practice offers massive amounts of

health and psychological benefits, very little scientific evidence backs up the claim. In an article

‘Perspectives on Psychological Science’, a number of psychologists and cognitive scientists warn

that despite the hype, scientific data on mindfulness is limited. Public consumers may be

haermed, misled, and disappointed due to misinformation and poor methodology associated with

past studies of mindfulness. Most studies on mindfulness uses numerous methodological and

conceptual problems which include small sample sizes, lack of control groups, and insufficient

use of valid measures. The idea of mindfulness being secular because it is scientifically tested is

only a common strategy used by advocates of mindfulness to disassociate the practice from its

religious foundation and to promote it in clinical and educational settings as evidently seen ina

documented JKZ’s own word.

In summary, I conquer that mindfulness is real. This is so beacause if someone’s mind is

not in the present, it is like stuck somewhere in the in the past, the future, or in constant

evaluation on how things should be. A person can really miss out meaningful moments that are

currently happening. Moreover being mindless can result into many interpersonal conflict, more

misunderstandings among family members, friend and colleagues, and experiencing difficulties

in problem solving and making challenging situations worsening. “OUR LIFE IS SHAPED BY

OUR MIND FOR WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK!”

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References