Mindfulness and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs

Conceptualized as a receptive awareness of and attention to present-moment events and experiences, mindfulness is regarded by self-determination theory as a critical psychological factor that facilitates the fulfillment of basic psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. This chapter reviews research showing that trait, state, and trained mindfulness are related to more autonomous functioning, greater social well-being, and increased felt competence and task performance. Also discussed are proposed mechanisms that might explain those salutary effects, including a shift from automatic processing of experience to conscious attention regulation and observation of experience without egoic identification. Also discussed is the importance of intervention and other experimental research to examine the role of different mindfulness practices (e.g., focused attention vs. open monitoring) in promoting need satisfaction, and to investigate the interaction between mindfulness and need-supportive versus need-frustrating environments.