Mindfulness Training in Childhood

Abstract

Mindfulness is a way of attending – an attentional practice – that is derived from Asian contemplative traditions but has been secularized (and Westernized) in the context of clinical psychology [e.g., Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002] and the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience [e.g., Lutz, Donne, & Davidson, 2007]. A major impetus for contemporary research on mindfulness was the creation of mindfulness-based stress reduction, a therapeutic intervention developed by KabatZinn [1982] that, together with variants such as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy [Segal et al., 2002], is now widely used to improve functioning in patients with a variety of disorders, from depression and anxiety disorders to chronic pain [for a review, see Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004]. As Kabat-Zinn [1994, p. 4] described it, ‘Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.’ As such, mindfulness training typically entails focusing one’s attention on a particular aspect of one’s current experience, including practicing refocusing one’s attention after one’s mind has wandered. For example, during mindfulness training, participants might focus their attention on their breathing. When they notice that their attention has instead been diverted by salient anticipations, recollections, or perceptions, they may observe (nonjudgmentally) the ease with which the mind wanders and then bring their attention back to their breathing. Participants generally find that with practice, it becomes easier to sustain their full attention for longer periods of time. Mindfulness practice may occur in the context of sitting meditation, but may also occur in the context of other activities, such as walking or eating. Indeed, a useful way to think about acting (or thinking) mindfully is as ‘super-intending’ one’s behavior, as suggested by a classic text from the Buddhist canon, the Saundaranandakavya (Nanda the Fair), in which the author, Aśvaghos. a (approx. 1st century), writes: ‘... You should super-intend your walking by thinking, ‘‘I am walking,’’ your standing by thinking, ‘‘I am standing,’’ and so on; that is how you are asked to apply mindfulness to all such activities’ [c. 50 CE/1959, p. 107]; see also the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale by Brown and Ryan [2003]. Understood in this way, mindfulness entails reflecting deeply on what one is experiencing; attending more fully to more aspects of one’s experience, as opposed to processing them in a shallow fashion and quickly moving on to thinking about