Washing Dishes to Wash the Dishes: Brief Instruction in an Informal Mindfulness Practice

Mindfulness as a Moderator in the Relation Between Income and Psychological Well-Being

“…In an experiment by Levy et al (2001), participants instructed to find new aspects of objects they did not like (inducing a state similar to that of mindfulness) had increased preference for those objects afterward. Even the act of washing dishes can bring positive affect with mindful attitudes (Hanley et al, 2015). In their study, an instruction to wash mindfully lead to increased curiosity.…”

Are we Missing Opportunities? How Occupational Therapists Would Benefit from Connecting Mindfulness to Occupational Participation

“…Articles that connected mindfulness to everyday occupations beyond leisure were found only in one psychology and one nursing publication, and occupational therapy was not mentioned. In the psychology publication the authors noted that "mindfulness of everyday life activities may enhance situational awareness of sensory details, enhance affective experience during task performance, and possibly even influence the perception of how much time has passed during the activity" (Hanley et al, 2015(Hanley et al, , p. 1096. The authors further noted that the usefulness of applying mindfulness in daily living tasks has been understudied and warrants further attention.…”

“…Seven articles were initially identified that closely matched the review question and search criteria. Two were published in the psychology literature and described Level 1 studies in which the benefit of stress reduction through embedding mindfulness into either a coloring activity with adolescents (Carsley & Heath, 2018) or washing dishes with undergraduate students (Hanley et al, 2015) was found to be of benefit in measured outcomes. The authors in both studies suggested that applying informal mindfulness in the context of a meaningful activity was worth pursuing for preventive stress management.…”

Mind the Gaps: Are Conclusions About Mindfulness Entirely Conclusive?

“…Practices as varied as yoga (in diverse forms), centering prayer, Zen Buddhism, tai chi, qigong, and the generically termed mindfulness meditation (MM) have all been taken to constitute mindfulness practices. Even informal mindfulness practices, such as dishwashing (Hanley, Warner, Dehili, Canto, & Garland, 2014), are being explored. Moreover, studies incorporating mindfulness practices frequently fail to report the type of mindfulness practice used (e.g., focused attention or open monitoring).…”