Brief mindfulness meditation training reduces mind wandering: The critical role of acceptance.
Emotion November 7, 2016 Hayley Rahl, Emily K. Lindsay, Laura E. Pacilio et al. 171 citations
Training in acceptance is a critical driver of mindfulness-training reductions in mind wandering. Healthy young adults (N = 147) were randomized to a 3-day brief mindfulness training incorporating both attention monitoring and acceptance, attention monitoring only, relaxation training, or an active reading-control condition. The attention-monitoring plus acceptance condition had the lowest mind wandering on a sustained attention task, significantly lower than attention-monitoring only. This suggests acceptance skills may facilitate emotion regulation on boring and frustrating tasks that foster mind wandering.