Mindfulness does not require meditation.

Lessons from the “Mother of mindfulness”: “You don’t need meditation to be “aware” by Ellen Langer.

Harvard University Professor Ellen Langer has been hailed as the “Mother of Mindfulness” for her work in scientifically demonstrating the benefits of mindfulness in numerous studies. In this article, she explains how the essence of mindfulness, “the process of becoming aware,” is simple. It requires no meditation, just the act of “finding something new” in the subject.

• Lessons from the “Mother of Mindfulness”: “You don’t need meditation to be ‘aware’” | Strategy | DIAMOND Harvard Business Review
• Mindfulness Isn’t Much Harder than Mindlessness

When we look at our own and others’ behavior with a mindful eye, we realize that every negative trait combines opposite aspects that are influential to the same degree. His behavior can be described as stubborn, but it can also be described as coherent.

• Finding a new side to things.
  • new aspect.

In a mindless state, we just assume that some event “must happen and would be terrible if it did”… Being mindful means looking for new reasons to show that the event “may not even happen in the first place, and even if it did, it might actually be beneficial”.

Many people also confuse mindfulness with meditation. Meditation can be used as a means to achieve mindfulness, but it requires training, which some people find difficult. In my research and that of my colleagues, mindfulness does not necessarily require meditation. It is a very simple process of “noticing new things. It allows us to focus on “the present moment” and to be sensitive to context and situation. Mindfulness is the essence of engagement.

The process of “awareness” occurs naturally when you come into contact with things that seem unknown to you. It generates energy rather than draining it… When you come into contact with things that you assume you already know… You become mindless, assuming that you don’t need to pay attention to the subject.

Mindful multitasking: The relationship between mindful flexibility and media multitasking

---

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/マインドフルネスは瞑想を必要としない using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I’m very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.