You’ve probably seen the word mindfulness everywhere these days, from the news , to magazines , to social media . Mindfulness is sometimes packaged as a mental health cure-all , and studies do suggest that mindfulness-based therapies support mental health . Your friends or family may even have told you that mindfulness has changed their lives.
But if you have tried mindfulness and feel like it isn’t working for you, our developmental psychology research might explain why. In our recent study , we have found that being highly mindful may not be beneficial for all. Instead, some aspects of mindfulness may be more important than others at certain ages, affecting mental health and well-being differently.
Mindfulness can be described as an awareness of the present moment with a nonjudgemental, accepting attitude . When you think of mindfulness, you may consider it as a general ability. But some researchers think that mindfulness consists of five aspects : Psychology research has shown that some of these mindfulness aspects might support mental health and well-being more than others.
But which combinations of mindfulness aspects are beneficial, and does your age play a role? In our research , we studied mindfulness aspects and mental health among 1,600 people, aged 14 to 90 years. We found that older adults were more likely to act with awareness (rather than on autopilot) and be nonjudgemental towards themselves. We also found that having these aspects of mindfulness coincided .
