Hi! I hope you've been enjoying the challenge of trying to define
mindfulness at least as much as you know about it so far.
You may find that you never quite can pin down a definition of mindfulness and
that's because the idea is a little elusive and very internal as a process.
But that's okay as long as you're not trying to research it which is when
defining mindfulness becomes much more important to kind of coming up with a
consensus definition that you can observe and measure. As long as you're
more on the practitioner side of things or kind of doing things that are
generally accepted as mindfulness practices
it's okay if you are definition remains just a little bit fuzzy.
So one of the things that comes up or I've noticed comes up when i read about
mindfulness and what it is or how people define it is this idea or question of
whether mindfulness is a state or a trait.
So I wanted to pause and just give you a thumbnail sketch of the understanding of
the distinction between those two ideas state vs trait. In the world of
psychology
this gets discussed a lot with certain emotions but i don't know whether in the
world of Education it gets talked about a whole lot.
So in a nutshell a state is more of a temporary sort of a limited time span
in which were feeling something where is a trait is sort of an identity or an
identifying characteristic of yourself. And I think it helps to define these by
giving a couple of brief examples.
So, if i am getting up to perform this is personal by the way to sing in front of
people
I'm likely to experience some very very acute anxiety much akin to a panic
attack
if that happens that the state. But if I'm a chronically anxious person always
worried always stressed out than that becomes more of a trait.
Another example is if someone almost causes a wreck while I'm driving I'm
going to be very angry but that's temporary and that's caused by something
external.
However if I tend to be someone who's easy to set off all the time and that's
more of a trait like anger. On the flip side of that sort of more positively
valence
I might have an experience that causes me
a moment of real bliss
it could be seeing my children perform it could be getting a neck rub these
things give me a temporary sense of happiness but if I'm an upbeat person
most of the time and that's more of a trait.
So the same question that comes up when people are trying to define mindfulness
and we're going to explore this a little bit more but some people say it's a
state and its provoked by mindfulness practices.
So while you're doing those practices or for short time after doing those
practices
you're in more of a state of mindfulness. Whereas other people say well some
people are just generally mindful and or long time practitioners of mindfulness
practices are kind of permanently mindful it becomes the trait.
So let's explore that just a little bit more and see what some people think with
some selections from some readings that I dug up and we'll talk about it
together a little bit and see what we think.