Mindfulness
Positive
psychology describes an area in psychology that promotes the application of
scientific understanding of mental conditions to promote effective intervention
towards achieving an acceptable life instead of simply curing mental illness. Positive
psychology thus perpetuates scientific investigation on how human development
can weaken by bringing attention to the fact merely focusing on mental disorder
can only enhance partial conversance with an individual’s condition. This paper
compares scientific inquiry in two articles to establish how they significantly
contribute to the field of positive psychology.
Article review
“Mindfulness
and Sustainable Behavior: Pondering Attention and awareness and Means for Increasing
Green Behavior” by LU (2013), and “Mindfulness Holds for Treating Depression” by Amel et al (2009) are
two important articles that make significant contributions to the field of
positive psychology by advocating the need to employ the principle of mindfulness
to manage our inner experiences as influenced by external environment so as to
promote a satisfactory life. The first article focuses on how the concept of
mindfulness can be employed to enhance overall human wellbeing by integrating our
inner experiences with the external context, failure to which the two contexts
operate independently, which ultimately affects overall individual wellbeing
(Lu 14). The second article however focuses on how mindfulness can be employed
as a cognitive therapy to prevent relapse of depression, which is usually
perpetuated by traumatic external experiences (Amel 1). Despite this disparity
in the specific field of focus, the two articles advocates to the fact that
mindfulness can be employed to address mental implications that can result from
crises emanating from the external environment. The two articles suggest that
the principle of mindfulness can be effective in addressing mental implications
resulting from the external environment if the person experiencing these
implications is willing to employ this principle as well as whether he/she
believes that he/she has sufficient capacity, personal control and
responsibility to disengage in mentally unsound behaviors while on the other
hand promoting positive and relevant behaviors. The first article for example
states that mental crises that emanate from disintegration of our inner
experiences from the external environment can be avoided when we understand
their causes, know how to make change as well as be committed to make
appropriate change. This would ensure that we are mindful of minute actions
that we engage in on daily basis, which interfere with environmental sustainability
and subsequent human wellbeing (Lu 15). Similarly, the second article suggests
that individuals can effectively employ the mindfulness principle by being careful
about thoughts and emotions that confront them at each moment. Such individuals
can ensure that they carefully take note of where their wandering mind goes and
takes it back to their ongoing moment without letting it to get caught up in
moments where it had wandered to (Amel 1, para 4).
The two articles give distinct implications that can
result from failure to integrate mindfulness with our daily routines to avoid
mental instabilities. According to the first article, failure integrate
mindfulness in our daily interaction with the outside environment leads to automaticity,
which predetermines how actions are carried out (Lu 15, para 4). While such
activities may be less sustainable than they ought to be, they may
automatically perpetuate environmental instability that can in return affect
overall individual wellbeing. The second article however suggests that failure
to integrate mindfulness with our daily routines attributes to most people
increasingly addressing negative thoughts that can eventually translate into
depressive relapse (Amel 1, para 5).
The two articles exhibit distinct data collection methods
to gather data that can respond to a common objective, which included
understanding the various beliefs, behaviors and psychological attributes
individuals employ in integrating the concept of mindfulness in their daily
routines. The first article employed a primary questionnaire methodology to
directly collect data from study respondents (Lu 18) while the second article
employed a secondary meta analysis methodology to analyze secondary sources
complied by different scholars after conducting different controlled trials (Amel
1-3).
Conclusion
An important observation made in the review of these
articles is that mindfulness is an important principle that can promote overall
individual wellbeing by intentionally focusing one’s attention on positive
thoughts, attitudes and behaviors. Mindfulness helps to alleviate mental as
well as physical conditions that prevent individuals from experiencing positive
development. These articles make significant contribution towards positive
psychology by deriving scientific evidence that indicate the positive outcomes
that can result from integration of mindfulness in our daily activities. The
articles do not condemn or ignore the use of traditional approaches in treating
mental implications that result from our external environment. They however advocate
for the integration of these approaches with a scientific approach, which in
this case is mindfulness to manage our mental conditions.
Work
cited
Amel, Elise.
“Mindfulness and Sustainable Behavior: Pondering Attention and Awareness as
Means for Increasing Green Behavior.” Ecopsychology
1.1(2009):14-25.
Lu, Stacy. “Mindfulness
Holds Promise for Traeting Depression New Research Suggests that Practicing
Mindfulness May Help Prevent a Relapse.” Monitor
Staff 46.3(2015):1-4
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