Linking A nxiety, Emotion, and Mindfulness 41
2014a). There has been increasing consensus that mindful-
ness is multifaceted and that different components of mind-
fulness serve different functions. One conceptualization
theorizes that there are five factors of mindfulness: observa-
tion, acting with awareness, describing, nonjudgment, and
nonreactivity (Baer et al. 2006). Though distinct, these
factors interact in such a way as to give rise to overall
mindfulness.
Observation refers to the basic attentional processes you
use to focus on your environment. This becomes important
in the overall context of acting with awareness, or using your
attention to focus on the present moment and behaving in
such a way that ref lects your present awareness. Common
mindfulness exercises encourage you to focus on various
aspects of your present environment. The goal of these exer-
cises is for you to not be distracted by thoughts regarding the
past or future, developing a type of concentration that will
eventually enable you to “just be” and experience conscious-
ness of all the internal and external experiences that arise.
Such fine- grained focus allows you to be equally precise in
your description of your experience. By distinguishing various
aspects of your experience with different verbal labels, you
can better focus your present awareness and appreciate the
diverse nature of your overall experience.
Such present- centered awareness is accomplished in a
certain way, namely nonjudgmentally and nonreactively.
W henever you mindfully direct your attention to various
aspects of your environment, you don’t evaluate your
thoughts and experience. Rather, you let the contents of
your subjective mental world pass through your mind
without reacting to them.