Reflections on 48 Years of Mindfulness Practice

Abstract

Although both theoretical articles and empirical studies on mindfulness have increased significantly over the past 20 years, there are still very few first-person accounts of a long-term (almost five decades) daily practice of meditation written by a clinical psychologist. In the humanistic tradition, where the most personal and subjective experience is often identified as an expression of the most universal, this essay follows the author’s practice of meditation from the earliest strivings of a troubled novice to the insights of a clinical psychologist familiar with the principles of change in more than one therapeutic approach. Specifically, this essay reviews the two stages of mindfulness practice, concentration and bare attention, and likens the latter (in its capacity to promote self-acceptance) to the principles of change in behavioral, humanistic, and psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy.