Nowadays, mindfulness is being applied in many different contexts to help people who are dealing with a variety of physical, psychological, and emotional difficulties.

But there’s a Catch-22. When we link the practice of mindfulness to chasing after a goal or trying to make something happen, we miss the heart of what it’s about. Our tendency to think the grass is greener on the other side, or to try to make ourselves better or more spiritual is a trap because it puts the focus on there and then, taking us away from here and now, which is what we actually have to work with. The Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi instructed his students not to practice with a “gaining idea”, and Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche warned against the tendency to strengthen egocentricity through spiritual techniques, which he referred to as “spiritual materialism”. So when we begin to make the transition from being an observer of mindfulness to a practitioner, it is best to check our ideals, goals, and ambitions at the door, and just practice according to the instructions, suspending all ideas about personal benefit and results.

That said, it is helpful to be aware of research that’s been done on how mindfulness is being applied in a variety of contexts in relation to mental health.

Links to selected research follow.