Linguistic choices in mindfulness training: A corpus-cognitive stylistic analysis of guided meditation on the Headspace app

Abstract

The concept of ‘mindfulness’ is widely discussed in relation to wellbeing and mental health. While extensive research in psychology has explored the benefits of mindfulness in treating various psychological conditions, little research has examined the language used to teach it. This article analyses linguistic choices in an introductory course on mindfulness meditation on the Headspace app. Twenty recorded sessions of guided mindfulness meditation are analysed using corpus methods in Wmatrix5. Keyword analysis reveals distinctive features of the tutors’ language on this course, including lexical choices identified as ‘Mindfulness Language’ in previous studies. Applying Cognitive Grammar as a framework for qualitative analysis, I identify a distinctive ‘construal’ and ‘grounding’ of experience through recurrent grammatical choices, including profiling of mental and physical processes using the ‘ing’ verb form, modification of processes using the adverb ‘just’, reference to parts of the listener using ‘the’, and the instantiation of specific conceptual metaphors. I argue that principles of mindfulness are ‘embodied’ by tutors through these linguistic choices, which may cumulatively train listeners to attend to their experiences in similar ways.