Mindful awareness and ADHD

Abstract

One of our most important faculties is attention. It is a doorway into our experience and a foundational quality of our awareness. Where and how we place our attention or where and how other things grab our attention determines our daily experiences, relationships with ourselves and others, and the quality of our lives. This connection between the ability to regulate attention and well-being is profoundly exemplified in mindfulness or mindful awareness, and a neuropsychiatric condition called attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In both, the role of attention is thought to be crucial to the self-regulation of cognition, emotion, and behavior, and while ADHD may be considered a disorder characterized by difficulties in self-regulation, mindful awareness training maybe considered a tool of enhancing self-regulation. © 2009 Springer-Verlag New York.