Being mindful about mindfulness

The results of more than three decades of research have shown the many positive effects that mindfulness can have on health, improving quality of life both in the general population and in clinical populations.1 A mindful outlook helps people to avoid automatic behaviours that rely on pre-existing or underlying assumptions and evaluations that might not be applicable to the current situation. Despite a resurgence of interest in mindfulness as shown in academic publications, and in the published work directed at the general public, this method continues to be much misunderstood. Our view is that a broad array of clinical applications exists for an increased understanding of the different approaches to mindfulness, and we focus here on the details of two well known and different conceptual frameworks.