Evolution, Expansion, and Transformation of the Constructs of Mindfulness
The concept of mindfulness stems from the ancient Buddhism, Hinduism, and other eastern tradition has existed for 2,500 years as a way of fostering peace and spiritual awakening (Ivers, Johnson, Clarke, & Berry, 2016; Van Gordon, Shonin, Griffiths, & Singh, 2015). Jon Kabat-Zinn first coined this definition for mindfulness to give a secular translation of the Pali word sati. Pali is the sacred language used in the Theravāda Buddhist canon (Neufeldt, 1998). Sati, in English, means awareness, attention, and remembering (Germer, 2005). In modern spiritual terms, one may understand mindfulness as a form of meditation that utilizes present-moment awareness to reach a state of focus and tranquility. Mindfulness has been characterized by researchers as a combination of attention regulation, present-moment orientation, awareness of experience, and an attitude of acceptance and non-judgment toward one’s experience (Feldman, Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, & Laurenceau, 2007; Schomaker & Ricard,
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State of consciousness is the non-judgmental observation of various aspects of mindfulness including perceptions, sensations, thoughts, and emotions that arise in the moment (Bishop et al., 2004). Meanwhile, state mindfulness is a temporary and changeable in nature. Trait mindfulness is an attribute that individuals inherently possess to some degree that can be increased through mindfulness practice (Bodner & Langer, 2001), and it is independent (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Every individual has the capacity to acquire mindful state of consciousness (Kabat-Zinn, 2005), but trait mindfulness varies, there are few individuals who possess mindful dispositions and can maintain a mindful state of consciousness more frequently with less effort than others (Baer, et. al.,