The practice of mindfulness meditation on a repetitive basis leads to enduring increases in baseline activity and connectivity that extend to an individual's non-meditating state and attention networks, particularly in formerly meditation-naïve people. Working to increase one's meta-awareness is an essential aspect of decentering that may underlie an increased capacity for meta-awareness not only during the practice of meditation, but also in daily life.

Meta-awareness and Decentering

Meta-awareness refers to the explicit recognition that one is experiencing an emotion, a thought, or a sensory perception as it occurs in real time. The occurrence and duration of awareness can therefore be increased by self-regulating attention through mindfulness practices that work to train meta-awareness. 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Awareness is a dimension of well-being and an aspect of mindfulness that refers to heightened and flexible attentiveness to perceptual impressions within one's environment, including internal cues such as thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. In therapeutic mindfulness, awareness is imperative in observing what causes the individual to engage in certain behaviors. 



Awareness - Dimension of Wellbeing

Dahl, C. J., Wilson-Mendenhall, C. D., &amp; Davidson, R. J. (2020). The plasticity of well-being: A training-based framework for the cultivation of human flourishing. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(51), 32197–32206. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014859117 

The plasticity of well-being: A training-based
framework for the cultivation of human flourishing

There are two types of awareness a patient can work to cultivate in therapy. They include:

- Metacognitive awareness
- Participatory awareness

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