A Study on the Impact of Mindfulness on Emotional Balance
Chin-Chin Chu
Mindfulness is one of the Eightfold Path of the Dharma. It means that every thought should be fully aware, and the mind is not distracted in the present moment. Therefore, no matter whether you are sitting or sleeping, when you are distracted or bewildered by outside or other thoughts, you might practice mindfulness in time. When people face external crises or temptation, they could be prone to fear or desire those, and their whole mind could be controlled by these negative emotions, causing people to fall into the stressful state and even lead to physical and mental diseases. Since 1979, psychologists have adopted the concepts and methods of mindfulness in Dharma to actively develop a program of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program is suggested to be helpful to balancing emotions and healing mental illness, and has been widely spread in the Western mainstream society. The purpose of this article is to discuss the impact of mindfulness on emotional balance, and then propose some ways to cultivate the mindfulness.