It is the typical mode of meditation that first springs to mind when one thinks about meditation. The literature notes two basic types of mindfulness meditation: focused attention and open monitoring. Hanley et al. (2016) explain that “focused attention practices use a specific attentional object (often the breath) to develop mental stability,” and further note that “theoretically, focused attention practices are more cognitively oriented” through this active directing of attention. An example of a focused attention practice is the body scan, which is similar to the process of progressive muscle relaxation techniques in that it is a “guided exercise that systematically directs attention throughout various areas of the body” (Polusny et al., …show more content…
“Adopting a stance of acceptance toward painful or unpleasant thoughts and feelings would be expected to change the psychological context in which those objects are now experienced” (Bishop et al., 2004). Events that would typically cause undue psychological extent, can be assessed from an open and accepting stance, which provides the opportunity to notice aspects of these events that might otherwise have been missed. “In essence, emotional distress would be experienced as less unpleasant and threatening since the context of acceptance changes their subjective meaning” (Bishop et al., 2004). Indeed, typically stressful stimuli are often appraised as being less stressful, as will be discussed further later