Negative mental factors can lead a person to experience intense distress. For example, aversion can lead to envy and contempt, whereas attachment can lead to dependency.

The Impact of Negative Mental Factors on the Individual

For every negative mental factor, there is a corresponding positive mental factor that can dominate it. When a positive mental factor is present in a person's mind, the opposite negative factor cannot occupy their mind.

Relationship Between Positive and Negative Mental Factors

Rumination happens when a person spends a significant amount of time thinking and worrying about a problem. The thought that is ruminated feeds itself continuously, so the person becomes stuck in a constant cycle of worry that eventually distorts their perception of the reality of the situation.

Rumination

There are three basic negative mental factors:

- Illusion/ignorance
- Attachment/desire
- Aversion/hostility

Examples of Negative Mental Factors

Negative mental factors are those that distort a person's reality in a way that makes them less calm and more imbalanced.

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Cetasika, or mental factors, are factors of the mind that evaluate the quality of an object and color our perception of what is happening in each moment. They are similar to the Western concept of emotions; however, mental factors are based more in cognition and perception. There are two types of mental factors: negative and positive.

Cetasika (Mental Factors)

Fabrizio, D. (ed.). (2009). Clinical handbook of mindfulness. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09593-6

Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness

Positive mental factors are mental factors that are beneficial to the individual.

Positive Mental Factors

Because mental factors influence perception, it is believed that any changes in an individual's experience of an event can be attributed to mental factors, rather than external factors.

The Impact of Mental Factors on Perception

The sum of mental factors in a person's mind contributes to their mental state, or mental condition, in a given moment. An individual's mental state will affect their motivation; for example, if the person's mind is frequently inhabited by greed, they will often be motivated by greediness. 

Mental State

If a particular mental factor frequently influences a person's mental state, it becomes a personality trait. As such, the sum of mental factors in a person's mind makes up their personality. 

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