ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overarching perspective on the nature and mechanisms of mindfulness based on theory and research dealing with self-awareness, identity, and self-relevant thought. Fundamentally, mindfulness is a cognitive-attentional habit that, like all habits, can be strengthened through practice. Thus, over time, continued practice of mindfulness causes people to become more dispositionally mindful. The chapter explores the role of hypo-egoic mindsets in the relationship between mindfulness and people’s self-construals, values, reactions to undesired events, defensiveness, and social relationships. Hypo-egoicism is associated with self-construals that include one’s connections with other people and the natural world. A reduction of egoic thought, with its excessive self-preoccupation, should result in lower prioritization of values associated with self-enhancement and greater emphasis on self-transcendence values. Indeed, egoicism can lead to overt selfishness, as manifested in an array of inconsiderate, irresponsible, and antisocial attitudes and behaviours that undermine relationships.
