Psychiatry of the 21st century is also characterized by ramication into various specialized branches.
Revolutions in the areas of psychopharmacology, psychotherapies and social therapies have become a
routine in the eld of psychiatry. Mindfulness is one concept spanning across the bio-psycho-social realms which continues to
be a topic of current interest both for the professionals as well as the lay public since more than 5 decades. Two of the most
common among them are Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, a stress management model by Jon Kabat Zinn and
Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy , a mindfulness based model devised to prevent the relapse of depression6, by John
Teasdale, Mark Williams and Zindel Segal. Several countries in the world have their own MBIs like Mindfulness Integrated
Cognitive Behaviour therapy by Bruno Cayoun8. India also has its own share of MBIs in the form of Mindful Life Management 9
and Mindfulness Unied Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 10 developed by the author, though research evidences are only getting
accumulated.
MBIs aim to enhance greater attention to and awareness of present moment experience12. MBIs have been found to be of use in
realms of health, cognitive, affective and interpersonal relationships. Various other factors related to MBIs like psychological
and neurobiological mechanisms and potential risks also have been studied by several authors. Neurobiological effects of
MBIs have been reported as functional and structural alterations in grey and white matter, especially in areas related to
attention and memory, interoception and sensory processing, or self- and auto-regulation of stress and emotions.
Amidst all these researches happening in different parts of the world, India didn't have any structured MBIs of its own till the end
of the rst decade of 21st century, until the development of Mindful Life Management and Mindfulness Unied Cognitive
Behavior Therapy by the author. This article covers the work being done by mindfulness researchers during the rst two
decades of the 21st century
