Being present (mindfulness) intensifies daily emotional experience

IntroductionMindfulness can be described as being fully present in events as theyhappen. The vast majority of research examining the impact ofmindfulness on well-being has focused on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions, whereas within-person relationships betweenmindfulness and well-being have been rarely examined. Previousresearch indicated that mind wandering was negatively related tofeelings of happiness (e.g., Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010) and thatdaily mindfulness was negatively related to daily stress (Weinstein etal., 2009).

AimThe aim of this study is to determine if daily mindfulness,operationalized simply in terms of being aware of daily events, wasrelated to daily well-being and to the positivity, stressfulness, andimportance of daily events in clinical and nonclinical population.Furthermore, if this relationship is moderated by group (clinical vshealthy control) and dispositional mindfulness.

To measure daily mindfulness, participants answered the followingquestion each day:How much present were you during daily activities?Our general expectations were that within-person (day level)relationships between mindfulness and well-being would be positive.

Method

Participants N = 316 (F = 205)Clinical group N=130 , Age=29,63 SD=7.05Individuals suffering from anxiety and personality disorders admittedto intensive grooup psychotherapy at daily clinic in Warsaw.Healthy control group N=186, Age= 35,5 SD=13,21Screened with (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview(M.I.N.I.) for the presence of psychological disorders.

Participants, described their well-being and how present they wereduring their daily events, each day for two weeks.

DIARY: 14 days; 2 parts:The daily events were described in terms of one of 10 categories(interpersonal, family, partnership and marriage, health and physicalsymptoms, hobby, work and duties, moral and values, everyday life,contacts with administration, financial).Each event they rated in terms of stressfulness, positivity,importance, and mindfulness using a 7-point response scaleanchored with 1 = not at all and 7 = very much.

Daily affect was measured with a circumplex-based model (positive-negative crossed with active-deactive emotions).Depression (Beck triad), anxiety, rumination, worry, self-esteem, self-clarity, control, mood.At the pre-diary session participants completed a set ofquestionnaires, e.g., MAAS, Center for Epidemiologic StudiesDepression Scale (CES-D), Difficult Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS).

Dispositional mindfulness was meassured with MAAS (MindfulAttention Awareness Scale, Brown & Ryan, 2003).

ResultsData were analyzed with a series of multilevel models usingthe HLM (Nezlek, 2012). Two-level MLM analyses (daysnested within persons) were performed. Mean level of dailymeasures was predicted basing on being present duringdaily activities (daily mindfulness).Day Level:

PAij = β0j + β1j*(daily mindfulnessij) + rij

Person Level:

β0j = γ00 + γ01*(group) + γ02*(maas) + u0jβ1j = γ10 + γ11*(group) + γ12*(maas) + u1j

The clinical group reported lower daily mindfulness thancontrol participants.As expected, we found that daily mindfulness waspositively related to daily well-being (positive affect, PA,self-esteem) regardless of the group.Dispositional mindfulness moderated the relationshipbetween daily happiness and daily mindfulness. Dailymindfulness was decreased by depression level (CES-D) andpoor difficult emotion regulation (DERS).The relationship between daily mindfulness and positivitywas weaker for those with higher dispositional mindfulnessand for clinical group (trend level) (see Table 1).

DiscussionPrevious research found that mind wondering is an unhappy mind (e.g., Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010). Our findings partially support this claim by evidencing relationship between being present and positive affect across clinical and healthy groups. However, we also find that daily mindfulness was related to negative emotional experience. Taking together, those findings suggest that being presentintensifies emotional experience of daily events.

C o n t a c t : p a w e l . h o l a s @ g m a i l . c o m

Holas P 1. Krejtz I. 2 Rusanowska M. 3 Nezlek J. 4

1: Psychology Department, Warsaw University, Poland2: University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland 3: Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland4: College of William and Mary Williamsburg, USA

We want to express our gratitude to the funder of the research: Foundation for Polish Science. Grant Bridge 2011-2014.

Mean slope Group moderation MAAS moderation

Outcome Coeff. t-ratio Coeff. t-ratio Coeff. t-ratio

Mood PA 0.01 6.00*** -0.004 -1.74 a -0,006 -2.76**

Mood PD 0.002 n.s.

Mood NA 0.02 4.73**

Mood ND -0.003 n.s.

Self-esteem -0.008 3.42***

Beck Triad 0.0041 2.37**

Worry 0.006 3.6**

Note: Coefficients accompanied by ** were significant at p < .01, and *** at p < .001. Coefficients accompanied by a were significant at p < .10.

Table 1. Relationships (slopes) between daily mindfulness and well-being moderated by group condition and the level of mindfulness disposition (MAAS)

Interestingly, daily mindfulness was also positively relatedto daily negative emotions (negative affect, Beck triad andworry), regardless of the group and mindfulness trait(MAAS) scores (see Table 1).

References Brown, K.W., & Ryan, R.M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848.Killingsworth, M.A., & Gilbert, D.T. (2010).A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science 330, 932–932.Nezlek, J. B. (2012). Diary methods for social and personality psychology. In J. B. Nezlek (Ed.), The SAGE library in social and personality psychology methods. London: Sage Publications.Weinstein, N., Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). A multi-method examination of the effects of mindfulness on stress attribution, coping, and emotional well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 374– 385.