Meditators' Non-academic Definition of Mindfulness

Objectives Mindfulness has been defined differently in academic scientific contexts and in Buddhist academic contexts. An under-studied area is that of lay (non-academic) theories of mindfulness. The goal of this article is to identify, organize, analyze in detail, and provide themes from the meditators' definitions of mindfulness. Possible differences and similarities of the collected definitions of mindfulness with the scientific-academic definitions and with the academic-Buddhist definitions are also checked. Methods A qualitative and inductive thematic analysis on the definitions of mindfulness offered by the participants was carried out. Results The sample consisted of 326 meditators who offered a definition of mindfulness through an open question. Seven themes were identified: (1) mindfulness defined as attention/awareness; (2) mindfulness defined as a non-evaluative attitude; (3) mindfulness defined as strategy; (4) mindfulness defined from a theoretical analysis; (5) mindfulness defined as a psycho-affective-spiritual state; (6) mindfulness defined as personal development; and (7) lack of understanding of mindfulness. From these themes, it can be deduced that the definitions collected share more patterns of meaning with the scientific-academic definition of mindfulness than with the academic-Buddhist one. Conclusions The findings of this study provide new insights into the complexity and heterogeneity of the definition of mindfulness. What has been discovered may indicate the complexity of the mindfulness construct itself.

Automated summary

This study aims to explore lay theories of mindfulness and compare them with scientific-academic and academic-Buddhist definitions. Through qualitative analysis, it was found that meditators' definitions of mindfulness share more similarities with the scientific-academic definition than the academic-Buddhist one.