TY - JOUR
T1 - Understanding Selfhood to Elucidate the Phenomenology of Mindfulness
AU - Higgins, Joe
PY - 2022/4/1
Y1 - 2022/4/1
N2 - The health benefits of practising mindfulness are well documented, yet the phenomenological mechanisms of such practice remain under-theorised from both ontogenetic and social perspectives. By leveraging an enactive perspective on selfhood, these lacunae can be addressed: firstly, it is argued that proper understanding of mindfulness – and the health benefits that mindfulness practices seek – relies on recognising the socio-embodied nature of the self; consequently, occasions in which the therapeutic need for mindfulness are most pressing will be shown to be inextricably tied to socio-embodied fluctuations across different stages of life. What emerges is a phenomenological understanding of mindfulness as allowing one to dwell in the sensuous density of the present and, through this, remain connected to the social world of open possibilities.
AB - The health benefits of practising mindfulness are well documented, yet the phenomenological mechanisms of such practice remain under-theorised from both ontogenetic and social perspectives. By leveraging an enactive perspective on selfhood, these lacunae can be addressed: firstly, it is argued that proper understanding of mindfulness – and the health benefits that mindfulness practices seek – relies on recognising the socio-embodied nature of the self; consequently, occasions in which the therapeutic need for mindfulness are most pressing will be shown to be inextricably tied to socio-embodied fluctuations across different stages of life. What emerges is a phenomenological understanding of mindfulness as allowing one to dwell in the sensuous density of the present and, through this, remain connected to the social world of open possibilities.
KW - Enactivism
KW - Mindfulness
KW - Phenomenology
KW - Selfhood
KW - Social ontology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125281798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11406-022-00481-4
DO - 10.1007/s11406-022-00481-4
M3 - Article
VL - 50
SP - 551
EP - 566
JO - Philosophia (United States)
JF - Philosophia (United States)
SN - 0048-3893
IS - 2
ER -