Mindful emotion regulation: An integrative review
Section snippets
Mindfulness
The last decade has seen research into mindfulness and mindfulness-based psychological interventions increase exponentially (Allen et al., 2006, Baer, 2003). Several studies have demonstrated efficacy of mindfulness-based psychological interventions in preventing relapse of major depression (Ma and Teasdale, 2004, Segal et al., 2002, Teasdale et al., 2000), and treating residual depressive symptoms (Kingston, Dooley, Bates, Lawlor, & Malone, 2007), anxiety (Evans et al., 2008, Kabat-Zinn, 1990
Emotions and emotion regulation
As with mindfulness, emotion regulation (ER) is a relatively new field of psychological investigation. Consequently there is still little consensus regarding the precise operationalization of the construct. ER generally refers to the process of modulating one or more aspects of an emotional experience or response (Campos and Sternberg, 1981, Gross, 1998a, Gross, 1998b). Adaptive ER is assumed to be intrinsic to mental health and adaptive functioning generally (Gross & Munoz, 1995). The
Mindful emotion regulation
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to facilitate attentional self-regulation and ER (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Erisman, Salters-Pednault, and Roemer (in preparation) found a significant relationship between self-reported levels of mindfulness and scores on the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004), a self-report measure of adaptive ER strategies, even after controlling for symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. Likewise, Feldman Hayes, Kumar, Greeson, and
Summary and conclusions
Mindful emotion regulation represents the capacity to remain mindfully aware at all times, irrespective of the apparent valence or magnitude of any emotion that is experienced. It does not entail suppression of the emotional experience, nor any specific attempts to reappraise or alter it in any way. Instead, MM involves a systematic retraining of awareness and nonreactivity, leading to defusion from whatever is experienced, and allowing the individual to more consciously choose those thoughts,
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