Mechanisms of mindfulness training: Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT)

Abstract

Despite evidence linking trait mindfulness and mindfulness training with a broad range of effects, still little is known about its underlying active mechanisms. Mindfulness is commonly defined as (1) the ongoing monitoring of present-moment experience (2) with an orientation of acceptance. Building on conceptual, clinical, and empirical work, we describe a testable theoretical account to help explain mindfulness effects on cognition, affect, stress, and health outcomes. Specifically, Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT) posits that (1), by enhancing awareness of one’s experiences, the skill of attention monitoring explains how mindfulness improves cognitive functioning outcomes, yet this same skill can increase affective reactivity. Second (2), by modifying one’s relation to monitored experience, acceptance is necessary for reducing affective reactivity, such that attention monitoring and acceptance skills together explain how mindfulness improves negative affectivity, stress, and stress-related health outcomes. We discuss how MAT contributes to mindfulness science, suggest plausible alternatives to the account, and offer specific predictions for future research.

Acceptance lowers stress reactivity: Dismantling mindfulness training in a randomized controlled trial

“…While this study supports the Monitor and Acceptance Theory (MAT; Lindsay & Creswell, 2017) prediction that explicit training in both monitoring and acceptance are necessary for reducing biological stress reactivity, it raises additional questions. Contrary to MAT, which presents evidence that the self-reported tendency to monitor one's experiences may intensify reactivity (e.g., Desrosiers et al, 2014;Pearson et al, 2015), there was no evidence that Monitor Only training exacerbated subjective or biological stress responses compared to control training (which was expected to slightly reduce reactivity).…”

“…Acceptance training has been theorized as an essential component of mindfulness interventions for improving affective reactivity, stress, and health outcomes (Lindsay & Creswell, 2017), but no mechanistic dismantling studies have tested this hypothesis. This study provides the first experimental evidence that acceptance is a critical component of mindfulness training for reducing biological stress reactivity; without acceptance training (i.e., in the Monitor Only training condition), mindfulness stress buffering effects are diminished or eliminated.…”

“…In this Monitor+Accept intervention and in standardized mindfulness interventions, acceptance is trained in relation to monitored experience; thoughts, sensations, and emotions monitored in the present moment are acknowledged with acceptance and equanimity. Moreover, recent theorizing posits synergistic roles for monitoring and acceptance in reducing stress: monitoring draws attention to emotional stimuli, and orienting toward negative states with acceptance transforms one's relationship to these experiences in ways that attenuate negative reactivity (Lindsay & Creswell, 2017).…”

“…Mindfulness training commonly involves using attention to monitor presentmoment experience while fostering acceptance of one's current state (Bishop et al, 2004). One possibility is that acceptance -defined as an orientation of noninterference and openness toward momentary sensory experience (i.e., thoughts, emotions, body sensations, sights, and sounds) -is a critical emotion regulation mechanism (Hölzel et al, 2011) underlying mindfulness training stress reduction effects (Lindsay & Creswell, 2017). In contrast to avoiding, altering, or focusing narrowly on salient negative stimuli, acceptance is an attitude of receptivity and equanimity toward all momentary experiences that allows even stressful stimuli to arise and pass without reactivity.…”

Experiences of Healing Yoga among Breast Cancer Women with Adjuvant Chemotherapy

“…The techniques of breathing control and meditation in healing yoga are based on the mindfulness theory [16,17]. The techniques stimulate the arousal systems in the brain, including the brain-stem reticular activating system, which is a core sleep-energy center and part of the subcortical-cortical arousal axis controlling energy distribution in the brain and body [8][9][10].…”