Embodied and embedded mindfulness: a mindful path to well-being

Abstract

While there is a growing interest in mindfulness as an intrapersonal trait, only a limited number of studies have investigated interpersonal mindfulness, and no study has examined the interaction between both concepts. This paper aims to evaluate a path model that depicts the role of both intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness in facilitating emotion regulation and improving well-being by mitigating the effects of psychological symptoms and enhancing social connectedness and safeness. Additionally, this study aims to compare the results obtained using different measures of intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness. Moreover, the study evaluates an alternative path model. A sample of 353 participants completed various measures of intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness, emotion dysregulation, psychological symptoms (stress, anxiety, and depression), social connectedness, social safeness, satisfaction with life, and happiness. The findings supported the proposed path model, indicating that emotion regulation mediated the relationship between intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness on one side and psychological symptoms and social connectedness and social safeness on the other side. Furthermore, the findings suggested that psychological symptoms and social related measures mediated the associations between emotion regulation and well-being. The same path model was supported when using different sets of mindfulness measures. The alternative path was not supported. This study enhances our understanding of how intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness interact together to promote emotion regulation, improve well-being, mitigate psychological symptoms, and foster social relatedness and safeness. The findings highlight the importance of training both intrapersonal and interpersonal mindfulness skills to enhance well-being. Implications and limitations are thoroughly discussed.