Mindfulness History and Research

Where Do Mindfulness Practices Come From?

Contemporary mindfulness approaches have roots in Buddhist traditions and philosophy. However, as noted earlier, these practices are not religious in nature and are best understood as a practical science of the mind. The specific mindfulness practices that have gained popularity in the West—and have been most studied—primarily originate from the Vipassana (“insight”) tradition, with additional influences from Zen and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. 

 Mindfulness practices began to take root in the West during the 1970s. Westerners who had studied mindfulness in India, Thailand, and other parts of Asia began offering meditation retreats and teaching in the United States. As a result, a “mindfulness movement” began to grow. Influential teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Joseph Goldstein, and Pema Chödrön helped “translate” many of these Buddhist concepts into practices that could be readily applied in modern life. 

 Jon Kabat-Zinn, who studied and practiced with many of these pioneers, developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and began conducting extensive research in medical settings, demonstrating MBSR’s benefits for patients with a wide range of physical and mental health concerns. His book Full Catastrophe Living (1990) made these approaches more accessible to the general public. Since then, interest in mindfulness—and the body of related research—has grown exponentially. 

Impressive Research Support

You’ve likely heard mindfulness praised in the popular press. Research in this area has expanded dramatically over the past 20 years, and the findings are indeed impressive. However, it’s important not to let the recent “hype” cause us to think that mindfulness is some kind of panacea, or that the research is farther along than it really is. Knowing the many ways these practices can contribute to wellbeing may increase a person’s interest and willingness to dive in and learn more, but there would still be important reasons to learn these practices even if the supporting research was less convincing. Regardless of the research, many people find these practices meaningful and helpful. Below is a summary of some key findings across several domains: 

 Symptom Improvement. Mindfulness practices have been shown to promote improvement in a variety of psychological and medical symptoms, including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, stress, and insomnia. Meta-analyses indicate that mindfulness-based interventions produce robust and lasting improvements in anxiety and depressive symptoms, comparable to those from other well-researched approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (Goyal et al., 2014; Hofmann et al., 2010). Mindfulness approaches have also been studied in populations dealing with chronic and life-threatening illnesses (Carlson, 2012). For instance, in cancer patients, improvements in mood, stress, fatigue, sleep, and quality of life have been observed (Lerman et al., 2012; Speca et al., 2000). Coping benefits have been observed for individuals with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, HIV/AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, and other health issues (Carlson, 2012; DiRenzo et al., 2018). 

Enhanced Wellbeing. Mindfulness practices promote greater subjective wellbeing and equanimity (Goyal et al., 2014). Across a variety of measures, outcomes of mindfulness practices include improved mood, more positive emotions, and lower stress (Basso et al., 2019; Chiesa & Serretti, 2009; Davidson et al., 2003; Kaplan et al., 2018). 

Cognitive Benefits. Because mindfulness practices directly engage attention and awareness, it’s not surprising that benefits have been observed in cognitive skills such as sustained attention (MacLean et al., 2010) and cognitive flexibility (Greenberg et al., 2012). Mindfulness has also been shown to help reduce unhelpful cognitive rumination (Brewer et al., 2011) and counter negativity bias—our tendency to give more weight to negative experiences (Ho et al., 2015; Kiken & Shook, 2011). 

Improvements in Physical Health and Biological Markers. Many studies have demonstrated how mindfulness contributes to improvements in a variety of markers of physical health (de Frias & Whyne, 2015). For example, mindfulness practices help reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol (Matousek et al., 2009; Spiegel et al., 1998) and contribute to improved immune system function (Creswell et al., 2012; Davidson et al., 2003). One especially fascinating area of research has demonstrated potential benefits of mindfulness in increasing the longevity of cells in the human body (Epel et al., 2009; Jacobs et al., 2011).  This research suggests that compared to matched controls, regular meditators had increased levels of telomerase, the enzyme that promotes cellular longevity.  

Benefits for Relationships and Interpersonal Functioning. Mindfulness has been found to enhance empathy, compassion, and the willingness to take action to relieve others’ distress and suffering (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009; Weng et al., 2013; Weng et al., 2018). Laurent and colleagues (2016) demonstrated benefits of mindfulness practices in improving the quality of couples’ relationships. Specifically, mindfulness skills promoted a quicker cooling down after conflicts and better emotional regulation of conflicts. Mindfulness skills helped a partner take things less personally, and facilitated increased empathy toward the other partner. In parenting, mindfulness has been associated with more adaptive behavior in children from early childhood through adolescence (Parent et al., 2016).            

This brief video summarizes some of the most important research on the benefits of meditation—the most common method for cultivating mindfulness: 

There’s still important work to be done in mindfulness research, including improving study design, replicating existing findings, refining how mindfulness is defined and measured, and examining possible adverse effects of mindfulness. A summary article in the Mindfulness Resources section provides more detail on the current state of mindfulness research. 

Ultimately, the existing research serves as an invitation to explore mindfulness for yourself. In the traditional Pali language—used to record many of the Buddha’s teachings—there is a word that captures this spirit: ehipassiko, which means to “come and see” or put these practices to the test in your personal life. The sections ahead will introduce you to additional core concepts of mindfulness and a few simple practices to help you experience the potential benefits of mindful awareness in your own life.