# Beyond Meditation: Understanding Everyday Mindfulness Practices and
Technology Use Among Experienced Practitioners

Jingjin Li  Cornell UniversityIthacaNew YorkUSA<EMAIL_ADDRESS>,  Karen
Anne Cochrane  University of WaterlooWaterlooCanada<EMAIL_ADDRESS>and  Gilly Leshed  Cornell UniversityIthacaNew YorkUSA<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
(2024)

###### Abstract.

Mindfulness, a practice of bringing attention to the present non-judgmentally,
has many mental and physical well-being benefits, especially when practiced
consistently. Many technologies have been invented to support solo or group
mindfulness practice such as mobile apps, live streams, virtual reality
environments, and wearables. In this paper, we present findings from an
interview study with 20 experienced mindfulness practitioners about their
everyday mindfulness practices and technology use. Participants identify the
benefits and challenges of developing long-term commitment to mindfulness
practice. They employ various strategies, such as brief mindfulness exercises,
social accountability, and guidance from teachers, to sustain their practice.
While conflicted about technology, they adopt and appropriate a range of
technologies in their practice for reminders, emotion tracking, connecting
with others, and attending online sessions. They also carefully consider when
to use technology, when and how to limit its use, and ways to incorporate
technology as an object for mindfulness. Based on our findings, we discuss
expanding the definition of mindfulness and the tension between supporting
short- and long-term mindfulness practice. We also propose a set of design
recommendations to support everyday mindfulness including such as through the
lens of metaphor, reappropriating non-mindfulness technology, and bringing
community support into personal practice.

Mindfulness, meditation, technology use, well-being, everyday mindfulness

††copyright: acmcopyright††journal: PACMHCI††journalyear: 2024††doi:
XXXXXXX.XXXXXXX††ccs: Human-centered computing Empirical studies in HCI

##  1\. Introduction

Mindfulness, a practice of maintaining awareness by bringing attention to the
present without judgment (Kabat-Zinn and Hanh, 2009), has been growing in
popularity in the past decades. Scientific research has shown that mindfulness
practice brings various mental and physical well-being benefits such as
reduced stress and anxiety, improved emotion regulation, improved focus, and
reduced chronic pain (Brown and Ryan, 2003). Similar to other cognitive or
physical exercises, obtaining these benefits relies on people’s consistent
practice.

Mindfulness has been a growing trend in recent Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI) research (Lukoff et al., 2020; Daudén Roquet and Sas, 2018; Derthick,
2014; Daudén Roquet and Sas, 2020; Zhu et al., 2017; Tan et al., 2023; Li and
Leshed, 2022; Li, 2022; Li et al., 2023), with a range of perspectives on what
mindfulness is and motivations for the research (Terzimehić et al., 2019).
Mindfulness HCI research also strives to design, develop, and evaluate digital
technologies to support mindfulness practice. These include, for example, web-
based mindfulness practice guidance (Krusche et al., 2013), wearables that
detect stressful moments and deliver in-time mindfulness interventions
(Kressbach, 2018), and immersive virtual reality environments for mindfulness
practice (Amores et al., 2016; Roo et al., 2017; Prpa et al., 2018). With a
myriad of commercial technologies to support mindfulness (e.g., Calm,
Headspace), HCI research also explores the features of mobile mindfulness
meditation apps and conducted expert reviews of these apps (Lukoff et al.,
2020; Daudén Roquet and Sas, 2018; Schultchen et al., 2021). Findings from
these studies provide a comprehensive understanding of digital technologies,
their affordances, benefits, and drawbacks. Research on people’s daily
experiences and technologies to support mindfulness practice has focused on
novices in a mindfulness training program (Parsons et al., 2019), or on
experienced practitioners’ formal meditative practice (Markum and Toyama,
2020).

Despite the development of those mindfulness technologies and empirical
studies examining their use, there is a gap in understanding how mindfulness
practitioners, who have been practicing mindfulness for a long time,
incorporate or refrain from using these technologies in their daily practice.
Understanding the practices of those long-term practitioners with sustained
engagement with mindfulness has the impact of designing practical everyday
mindfulness technologies that resonate with individuals’ well-being needs in
the long-term.

To address this gap, we focus on understanding how mindfulness practitioners
practice mindfulness both formally and informally in their daily activities.
We examine their experienced benefits and challenges, and the technologies
they use in their practice. We are especially interested in the potential of
social computing technologies and how these technologies can support long-term
mindfulness practice. In this study, we address the following research
questions:

  * •

RQ1: What are the working definitions and characteristics of both informal and
formal mindfulness practice from the practitioners’ perspectives to give HCI
researchers a richer understanding of holistic mindfulness practice?

  * •

RQ2: What are the motivations, perceived benefits, and challenges faced by
mindfulness practitioners in maintaining a regular practice? How can we learn
from these insights to inform designs that support consistent mindfulness
practice?

  * •

RQ3: What roles do technologies play in practitioners’ everyday mindfulness
practice? How does it inform the design of future social computing
technologies for mindfulness and mental well-being?

We approach our research questions by conducting semi-structured interviews
with 20 mindfulness practitioners who have been regularly practicing
mindfulness for four years or more. Our findings point to a range of
definitions for mindfulness and what it consists of, based on participants’
everyday formal and informal mindfulness activities. Furthermore, short- and
long-term physical and mental benefits motivated practitioners to practice it
more consistently. Despite the benefits, all participants, even those with
established long-term daily practice routines, felt that sticking to the
practice was not easy. They adopted various strategies to maintain the
practice, including practicing short mindfulness exercises, leveraging social
accountability, and seeking help from a teacher. While being wary about
relying on or including technology for mindfulness, experienced practitioners
adopt and appropriate a range of technologies for their daily mindfulness
practice. These included technologies that are not necessarily designed to
support mindfulness practice, such as a calendar for reminders, spreadsheets
for recording emotions, music and video streaming platforms, and video
conferencing tools to connect with others and attend online meditation
sessions. To support their practice, participants carefully considered their
use of technology, when and how to limit its use, and ways to incorporate
technology as an object for mindfulness.

Based on our findings, we propose that mindfulness technology should be
designed in a way that supports mindfulness as a personally meaningful and
ongoing process that incorporates practitioners’ informal daily activities and
technology habits. We discuss the tension between supporting short- and long-
term mindfulness practice. Lastly, we propose a set of design recommendations
to support everyday mindfulness including designing for mindfulness through
the lens of metaphor, using a toolkit approach to design for mindfulness,
reappropriating non-mindfulness technology for mindfulness, minimizing the
negative effects of technology on mindfulness etc. We also highlight
leveraging social computing tools to bring community support into personal
mindfulness practice such as utilizing live stream mindfulness (Li et al.,
2024) for collective awareness.

This work contributes to: (1) an in-depth and holistic understanding of
everyday mindfulness practices from the perspectives of mindfulness
practitioners, and their technology use and non-use in the practice. (2) a set
of recommendations for the research and design of mindfulness technologies
that are better situated and integrated into practitioners’ daily lives, along
with opportunities for HCI researchers to design future technologies to
support mindfulness practice.

##  2\. Background

In this section, we review the current literature on mindfulness practice, the
definitions, and the well-being benefits of mindfulness along with the current
HCI and CSCW literature which looks at the relationship between mindfulness
and technology. Through the literature review we highlight the current gap and
articulate how our study fills it.

###  2.1. Definitions of Mindfulness

The source of mindfulness practice is spiritual, and although mindfulness can
be found in almost every religion, we look towards to Buddhist tradition to
understand its origins. In Buddhism, mindfulness comes from the word Sati
which loosely means ”to remember”, ”to recollect”, or ”to bear in mind” in the
Pali language. It can be interpreted as being aware of one’s sensations being
illusions and not permanent (Bodhi, 2013). According to Buddhist faith, the
only way to end or be free of suffering is by removing oneself from the
craving and attachment to these sensations, whether they are pleasant or
unpleasant. In this tradition, mindfulness is oriented to ethical and
spiritual considerations of Buddhism as a religious faith and practice (Bodhi,
2013; Nilsson and Kazemi, 2016).

A more commonly used definition of mindfulness, paying attention to the
present moment without judgment, was popularized by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the
pioneer of the eight-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program.
This therapeutic approach borrowed mindfulness from Buddhism, adapting it as a
behavioral intervention to help people regulate their attention and emotions
for mental and physical health-related outcomes (Kabat-Zinn and Hanh, 2009).
In the past decades, mindfulness practice has been widely applied in clinical
and non-clinical therapy groups in the West (Creswell, 2017).

Building on the therapeutic approach, psychology research has operationalized
mindfulness as a two-component concept: (1) self-regulation of one’s attention
to the present moment, with (2) an orientation of curiosity, openness, and
acceptance to this present experience (Bishop et al., 2004). Mindfulness can
be viewed as a practice, a state, or a trait (Kiken et al., 2015). As a
practice, mindfulness refers to a set of mental exercises to achieve the state
of mindfulness, by bringing awareness to the present moment with an open and
non-judgmental orientation. As a state, it refers to being in a mindful
situation, where one is non-judgmentally aware of the present moment. And as a
trait, it is one’s capacity to easily get into a mindful state. Research has
shown that increasing the frequency of state mindfulness over time through
practice can contribute to trait mindfulness (Kiken et al., 2015). Mindfulness
exercises use therapeutic approaches in both formal and informal practices.
Formal practices are more structured mindfulness exercises that can include
activities such as sitting and walking meditation (Kabat-Zinn and Hanh, 2009),
whereas informal practices bring the foundations and ideologies (such as being
in the present moment) into everyday activities such as folding laundry
(Hindman et al., 2015; Terzimehić et al., 2019).

While formal mindfulness practice can be effective and helpful to one’s well-
being (Brown and Ryan, 2003), it requires one to find a time and a place to
practice. Research has shown that mindfulness can be cultivated not only
through rigid meditation practice, but also through everyday mindful
activities (Hanley et al., 2015; Shankland et al., 2021). Informal mindfulness
offers more diverse and flexible ways to practice, such as washing dishes
(Hanley et al., 2015) and mindful eating (Shankland et al., 2021), and may be
more accessible to novices (Hanley et al., 2015). The idea of using technology
to help novice practitioners transfer what they learned in mindfulness
practice to daily life has been suggested by meditation teachers (Lukoff et
al., 2020). Within community practices, mindfulness practices are supported
both in-person and virtually within teaching and educational sessions for both
beginners and more advanced practitioners to learn new techniques and
exercises and more community-based experiences where people will meditate
together (Adkins et al., 2010; El Morr et al., 2020). In traditional
mindfulness practice, community practices are often focused on more formal
practices rather than informal ones.

Mindfulness and meditation are sometimes used interchangeably in HCI research
(Terzimehić et al., 2019) and in mindfulness research (Van Dam et al., 2018).
We differentiate between the two terms, referring to meditation as a more
formal practice with a wide range of techniques that aim to train the mind and
achieve a heightened level of awareness or focus (Sparby and Sacchet, 2021).
Meditation and mindfulness can intersect, for example, through mindfulness
meditation practice, a practice that involves sitting quietly, focusing on the
present moment, and non-judgmentally observing one’s breath, thoughts,
emotions, and bodily sensations to cultivate mindfulness and self-awareness.
But mindfulness and meditation are not the same. Mindfulness, the present-
moment awareness with a non-judgmental orientation, can be cultivated through
various exercises and activities, one of which being mindfulness meditation.
Other mindfulness practices don’t necessarily involve formal meditation; we
refer to informal practices as everyday mindfulness (Thompson and Waltz,
2007), which involve ”maintaining the open, accepting, present focus of
attention during day-to-day life.”

Moreover, while HCI research has adopted certain definitions of mindfulness,
individuals may adapt various definitions based on what they learned,
following spiritual or secular traditions. Because mindfulness is highly
practice-based, it is also important to understand how each individual
translates their definitions into specific forms of practice, and how their
definitions and practices evolve over time. By learning about these
characteristics and trajectories from experienced practitioners, we hope to
inform HCI research and design toward supporting mindfulness practice in the
long run. Furthermore, we also note the limited works in HCI that explore both
the formal and informal practice of mindfulness (Terzimehić et al., 2019) and
the difference in definitions between HCI researchers and practitioners.
Therefore, in our work, we look to fill the gap by understanding and
developing guidelines and prototypes to support mindfulness prototypes not
only for the formal practice of mindfulness but also to encourage informal
practices.

We acknowledge the importance of the spiritual and religious elements of
mindfulness; in this paper, we focus more on the ways in which practitioners
define mindfulness, which may have different aspects, and on the practice of
how they do mindfulness in their everyday life, as opposed to the more
spiritual aspects and their religious achievements.

###  2.2. Well-being benefits of mindfulness and individuality

Scientific findings about the health-related benefits of mindfulness have been
well-documented (Brown and Ryan, 2003). However, the effectiveness of
mindfulness training is affected by individual differences such as
personality, dispositional traits, and prior experiences of emotion regulation
(Tang and Braver, 2020b). Personality traits, for example, can predict
individual preferences for different mindfulness guidance techniques (Tang and
Braver, 2020a). Individuals also react differently to different mindfulness
practices (Farias and Wikholm, 2016). Besides individual differences, research
on trajectories of mindfulness practice shows that, over time, novices’
mindfulness practice changed to be less effortful, more interesting, and more
meaningful (Osin and Turilina, 2022). Research that explored how people first
got into mindfulness and what keeps them practicing in the long run, found
that practical resources, routines, and support from others help sustain the
practice (Birtwell et al., 2019). Such studies emphasize mindfulness practice
as an ongoing journey and propose exploring how this change happens over time
and how to support this journey to make mindfulness more useful and meaningful
to individuals. However, to our knowledge, there is limited work on how
technology can be utilized (both technology specifically designed for
mindfulness and technology for our means) as a way to emphasize the
longitudinal practice of both individual and community-based mindfulness.

Given this research, one-size-fits-all mindfulness interventions are often
considered less effective (Osin and Turilina, 2022). Instead, support for
mindfulness should be individually tailored to people traversing through
different personalized journeys (Lundh, 2020), to increase the receptiveness
and outcomes of mindfulness. Individuals may obtain different benefits from
mindfulness practice and have different motivations and barriers to the
practice. One promising direction is using technology that offers
personalization and customization of mindfulness interventions to promote more
effective goals and health outcomes (Sliwinski et al., 2017). Yet with this
knowledge, it is unclear how future HCI designs can support this understanding
of mindfulness. In our work, we look at developing strategies that HCI
researchers can use to support the practice of mindfulness.

Our research does not aim at measuring personalities or traits of mindfulness.
Instead, our goal is to explore individualized experiences by obtaining an in-
depth insight into mindfulness practitioners’ own perspectives on their
motivations, experienced benefits, and challenges of keeping consistent
mindfulness practice. This investigation provides new understandings and
design implications for supporting mindfulness as a meaningful personal
journey.

###  2.3. Technology for mindfulness

HCI research on mindfulness has largely focused on designing, developing, and
evaluating interactive technologies that facilitate mindfulness meditation
(Vidyarthi and Riecke, 2014; Cochrane et al., 2021; Roo et al., 2017; Prpa et
al., 2018; Niksirat et al., 2019; Sas and Chopra, 2015; Moraveji et al., 2012;
Wongsuphasawat et al., 2012). Such interactive technologies include online
mindfulness classes (Krusche et al., 2013), wearables (Kressbach, 2018;
Cochrane et al., 2022), and virtual reality environments (Amores et al., 2016;
Roo et al., 2017; Prpa et al., 2018).

With a myriad of commercial technologies to support mindfulness (e.g., Calm,
Headspace), and research into new modalities such as XR (Döllinger et al.,
2021), HCI researchers also examined existing technologies for mindfulness and
meditation, the features they offer for meditation practice (Daudén Roquet and
Sas, 2018), and how they are perceived (Markum and Toyama, 2020) and used by
meditators (Derthick, 2014; Li and Leshed, 2022) and mindfulness teachers
(Lukoff et al., 2020).

However, this group of studies has a preliminary focus on technologies that
are used to help with guided meditation and a formal practice (Daudén Roquet
and Sas, 2018; Döllinger et al., 2021) as well as sleep and meditation (Lukoff
et al., 2020). The people who use these technologies for their meditation
practice think about the pros and cons of using them (Markum and Toyama, 2020;
Derthick, 2014). Only recently, Tan et al’s (Tan et al., 2023) work studied
“on-the-go mindfulness practice”, with the aim to support mindfulness in the
context of casual walking with AR glasses. Overall, most technologies were
tested over short periods, potentially limiting the examination of long-term
use and the benefits of sustained mindfulness practice.

While mindfulness is traditionally viewed as a self-centered and solitary
practice, a few HCI and CSCW work explored practicing mindfulness with others
via technology such as in video-mediated communition tools, VR and AR
technologies. For example, Li and Guo’s (Li et al., 2024) work suggests that
people attend live meditation to get the teacher’s guidance and to connect
with other meditators worldwide. ZenVR (Feinberg et al., 2022) mimics in-
person meditation learning environment by having virtual pre-recorded teacher
voicing the structured curriculum to a group of learners represented by
avatars. Besides, Mindful Garden, an AR system, displays guided individual’s
biosignals as flowers to support co-located mindfulness meditation for greater
connection (Liu et al., 2022). These technologies bridge the gap between
individual and collective mindfulness experiences and emphasize the potential
of incorporating social support in the well-being practice.

In contrast to involving mostly novices in HCI mindfulness research, some
research with experienced mindfulness practitioners, those who have been
practicing for a long time, found that they use video chat for meditation
sessions and to connect with teachers (Derthick, 2014), and less commercial
meditation apps (Markum and Toyama, 2020). They are concerned about tracking
the practice as an interference with a sense of self (Derthick, 2014), and
about stimulation and distractions coming from technologies that negatively
impact transcendent experiences (Markum and Toyama, 2020). Recent changes in
lifestyles and technology use, especially in response to the COVID-19
pandemic, raise an important question of how experienced practitioners
interact with technology for both formal and informal practice have changed.
According to David Levy’s proposal in Mindful Tech (Levy, 2016), which is
based on his own practice and teaching experience, this might resemble
mindfulness exercises that a practitioner engages in to become aware of their
use of digital technology. This perspective provides a new lens on using
technology mindfully instead of outright criticizing its downsides and pushing
against it.

To sum, despite many supporting technologies available, there appears to be a
disconnect between the operational definitions of mindfulness embedded in
these technologies (short-term, formal meditation, technology support,
individual-oriented) and the traditional understanding held by practitioners
(long-term, formal and informal practice, mindful technology use, combining
individual practice and group/community support). Do experienced mindfulness
practitioners welcome technology or stay away from it in their everyday
mindfulness practice? In what ways do they use and not use technology? To gain
an in-depth understanding of these questions, we carried out our study,
presented next.

##  3\. Method

###  3.1. Authors’ Positionality

The first and second authors are mindfulness practitioners with seven and
twelve years of intermittent mindfulness practice respectively. While we
grounded the research in the literature, our backgrounds in mindfulness
practice inevitably motivated the research conceptualization, utilization of
personal networks for participant recruitment, and interpretation of the data.
The third author, not actively engaged in mindfulness meditation, provided an
external perspective to enhance the rigor of our data analysis, reflections,
and research presentation.

###  3.2. Participants

Our focus in this research is to understand the practices of people who are
beyond the learning stage and have been practicing mindfulness in their
everyday lives for a long term. To obtain a nuanced and in-depth perspective,
our targeted participants were those who self-identified as regular
practitioners of mindfulness. Our inclusion criteria focused on participants’
consistency of mindfulness practice over multiple years; we excluded those who
are new to mindfulness or who have just “tried it out”. Starting from the
first author’s networks, we first approached the mindfulness teachers in the
local community and used the snowball sampling strategy subsequently to extend
our search for suitable participants. We stopped recruiting participants when
we reached data saturation in the analysis.

We recruited 20 individuals who self-identify as regularly practicing
mindfulness (13 female, 7 male; ages 18-74; 12 White, 5 Asian, 2 African
American, 1 Hispanic; see Table LABEL:talble:1). All participants report more
than 4 years of mindfulness practice experience, and twelve of them have
mindfulness teaching experience. While previous work distinguished the
tradition of participants’ meditation practice (Lukoff et al., 2020; Markum
and Toyama, 2020), most of our participants didn’t identify with any tradition
regardless of their religious beliefs, except three participants (Lisa, Grace,
Amber) who self-identify as Buddhists.

Table 1. Demographics of the participants Pseudonym | Gender | Age | Ethnicity |  | Years of
---
Practice
| Frequency
---
of Practice
Form
Alice | F | 25-34 | Asian | 5 | 3 times/week | Meditation
Clare | F | 25-34 | Asian | 6 | Daily | Meditation, yoga
Paul | M | 45-54 | White | 20 | Daily | Meditation
Jasmine | F | 45-54 | Asian | 8 | Daily | Meditation
Carson | M | 25-34 | White | 7 | Daily | Meditation, affirmation
Karina | F | NA | Black | 40 | Daily | Meditation
Mike | M | 45-54 | White | 20 | Daily | Meditation, yoga, taichi
Alison | F | 65-74 | White | 31 | Daily | Meditation
Penny | F | 45-54 | White | 7 | Daily | Meditation, yoga
Lisa | F | 55-64 | White | 14 | Daily | Meditation
Grace | F | 35-44 | Hispanic | 10 | Daily | Meditation
Amber | F | 35-44 | Asian | 15 | Daily | Meditation
Steven | M | 65-74 | White | 45 | Daily | Taichi, daily life
Cam | M | 35-44 | White | 12 | 4-5 times/week |  | Formal and informal
---
ongoing practice
Kaylee | F | 55-64 | Black | 35 | Daily | Meditation
Erica | F | 45-54 | White | 34 | Daily |  | Moment to moment awareness,
---
sitting and movement
John | M | 55-64 | White | 10 | Daily | Meditation
Shu | F | 18-24 | Asian | 4 | Daily | Meditation
Melissa | F | 35-44 | White | 20 | Daily | Yoga, meditation, walking
Jeremy | M | 25-34 | White | 9 | Daily | Meditation, daily activities

###  3.3. Interview procedure and data analysis

We conducted interviews from April 2021 to August 2022 via Zoom or in-person,
depending on participants’ preferences. We developed a semi-structured
interview protocol based on the research questions and iterated it following
pilot interviews. The interview protocol consisted of four sections:

  1. (1)

Background: We started by asking participants background questions such as
“how did you get into mindfulness” and “how long have you been practicing it”.

  2. (2)

Everyday mindfulness: We then moved to questions about the participant’s
everyday mindfulness practices, such as when and how they practice, including
both formal and informal practice.

  3. (3)

Perceived impacts: We then asked questions about their perceived benefits and
barriers to practicing mindfulness.

  4. (4)

Role of technology: Finally, we asked about digital technologies they use to
support their mindfulness practices for solo practice or in a group setting
and the impacts of these tools. We also encouraged them to show us these
technologies.

Interviews lasted 45-90 minutes, were audio-recorded with participants’
permission, and fully transcribed, changing names to pseudonyms. Interview
transcripts were imported into Atlas.ti111https://atlasti.com, a qualitative
data analysis software. Initial discussions and analysis of the interview
transcripts ensued immediately after each interview. Our analysis included
open and axial coding (Saldaña, 2021) with the following steps, repeated
iteratively as more data was added from additional interviews:

  1. (1)

First, two researchers read through the transcripts independently multiple
times and conducted an initial open coding. For example, we identified codes
such as “mindful brushing teeth” and “mindful washing dishes” to describe the
informal mindfulness activities, “increasing emotional stability” and
“reducing chronic pain” to describe participants’ perceived benefits of
mindfulness practice, “using Headspace for guided mindfulness session” and
“using Zoom to attend group meditation” to describe technology use for
mindfulness.

  2. (2)

Then, the two researchers went over each other’s codes, refined the codes,
discussed the transcripts together, highlighted excerpts and identified
categories into which we grouped the codes (axial coding). For example, we
created categories such as “definitions of mindfulness”, “strategies for
consistent practice”, “formal and informal mindfulness practice”, and
“technology non-use”. Appendix A summarizes the categories we identified and
examples of specific codes each category included in the data analysis.

We stopped interviewing participants once we reached saturation and no new
themes emerged: all the data collected from our 19th and 20th participants
fell into the existing categories and codes we identified in the data analysis
process.

##  4\. Findings

Based on our analysis, we report findings on how participants define
mindfulness practice, characteristics of their daily practice, experienced
benefits and challenges, and their use and non-use of technology for everyday
mindfulness practice. We organize the findings by our guiding research
questions. We start by presenting findings related to the practice of
mindfulness regardless of technology, to help contextualize the role of
technology, presented later.

###  4.1. Everyday mindfulness: Defining, practicing, and finding

RQ1: What are the working definitions and characteristics of both informal and
formal mindfulness practice from the practitioners’ perspectives to give HCI
researchers a richer understanding of the holistic mindfulness practice?

####  4.1.1. Defining everyday mindfulness

We found a range of perspectives on the definition of mindfulness and what
counts as mindfulness practice, and these definitions were based on
participants’ everyday mindfulness activities. One of these definitions,
paying attention to the present moment with awareness, was often based on
formal mindfulness practices, e.g., sitting meditation, walking with
awareness, or doing yoga with attention to one’s breath. While most
participants focused on the concept of awareness in mindfulness, Grace added
to her definition the concept of kindness:

> ”How can we be mindful and kind at the same time? […] Because I think there
> is a danger of taking mindfulness completely out of its context. Because you
> could use mindfulness in the military, for your soldiers to be very mindful
> about how they’re shooting their target.”

Other definitions were based on more casual activities in participants’ daily
lives. For example, they defined mindfulness as doing one thing at a time,
such as focusing on washing dishes. Kaylee explained how eating without doing
anything else demonstrates mindfulness:

> ”Let me just use the first bite as a being mindful thing, and then I can
> talk to my friends. I want people to enjoy their food. I know we’re always
> trying to multitask. But actually, we’re not really multitasking, we’re
> toggling between these different activities. And really, the concept behind
> mindfulness is that it’s okay to do one thing at a time.”

The third way that participants defined mindfulness is as a way of destressing
and relaxation, such as doing artwork or walking in nature. For example, Shu
treated her Yoga practice before bedtime as ”a process of becoming aware of my
body, and then relaxing it. At the same time, it is also beneficial for my
sleep”.

These three definitions were not mutually exclusive for our practitioners’
practice. Instead, we found that some practitioners flexibly adopted these
definitions and translated them into various mindfulness exercises in their
daily lives. For example, Melissa has her dedicated morning yoga and
meditation practice and she also practices eating mindfully: ”I started just
eating more slowly and without distraction. And that really helped me digest
better.[…] I was enjoying the food more too”. Besides these two activities,
she also views tea break as a mindfulness exercise to relax and ”take a break,
like in the middle of the morning, make some green tea, and then it’s like,
very relaxing in it.” .

The conceptualization and definition of mindfulness can be abstract and
complex. However, we found mindfulness practitioners are able to incorporate
their own experiences and daily activities to define mindfulness using a
bottom-up approach, bringing flexibility and personalization into mindfulness.
In other words, they develop an understanding of what mindfulness is based on
their own experiences and day-to-day activities of mindfulness, instead of
adopting a predefined definition. Understanding this bottom-up approach
recognizes the varied ways that individuals engage with mindfulness and helps
inform a broad spectrum of designs that are deeply resonant with people’s
mindfulness journeys. We expand the specific design implications in the
discussion 5.1.

####  4.1.2. Practicing mindfulness formally and informally

Participants reported a mix of formal practices and casual activities in their
daily life that together comprise their mindfulness practice. They highlighted
the importance of their formal practice, associating it with their morning or
night routine, as part of their habits. The morning mindfulness routine was
particularly valued, as the awareness trained in the morning may be
transferred to the rest of the day, as Alison described:

> ”I have a sitting meditation at 7 am. That lasts for half an hour. […]
> There’s the ending bell that stops, ”you’re done.” But the day of my life is
> a laboratory for exploring how to continue in all inner conditions, all
> outer conditions. […] I want to remember myself as often as possible.”

Alison’s account demonstrates how formal mindfulness practice can carry over
to their informal daily activities, especially because, as Grace explained, it
is easier to get distracted during day-to-day interactions in complex real-
life contexts. Mike also explained,

> ”It’s harder, because it’s more complex. And so because this intention to be
> attentive is so fragile, one is swept away from it so easily. […] It does
> help to set aside a time and place in which there’s nothing else that’s
> being tried other than [mindfulness].”

Participants reported that when they just started practicing, their
mindfulness activities were more narrow, and focused on sitting meditation or
yoga. Over time, they incorporated more mindful activities in their daily
lives while keeping the key principle: paying attention to the present moment
without judgment. Practicing mindfulness during daily activities and
interactions was seen by participants as a way to bring the core of
mindfulness into their everyday lives. They mentioned activities such as
brushing teeth with full concentration and sensation, using mindfulness for
work-life boundary management, and dealing with interpersonal conflicts by
pausing to observe physical sensations without judgment and immediate
reactions. Karina said:

> “I meditate every day, but I also just do things mindfully. So if I’m doing
> the dishes, I’m paying attention to doing the dishes. I’m not watching a
> television show and talking and having a conversation at the same time.
> Because that’s not mindfulness.”

Further, despite the importance of formal practice, participants mentioned
that when life is going well, or when they are getting busy, formal practice
may not be prioritized, but they still tried to keep the habit of mindfulness
through informal practice. As experienced practitioners, casual mindfulness
practices such as mindful eating, walking, and exercising, were easier to
integrate into their daily lives. Unlike formal mindfulness practices such as
sitting meditation, informal mindfulness activities didn’t require them to
find a specific time and place to practice. For example, Jeremy, a barista who
drives to work every day and washes dishes as part of his job, incorporates
these two activities in his mindfulness practice. Mindful driving allows him
to be awake for safety and dishwashing permits him to pause the work to
”settle myself from the hecticness of everything”. He described the importance
of these moments for ”recollecting myself, [otherwise] I would probably be a
much less functional person.”

####  4.1.3. Finding the appropriate form of practice

As experienced mindfulness practitioners, our participants reflected on
choosing suitable activities to practice mindfulness in their daily lives.
With various formal practices available such as observing one’s breath, body
scan, and mindfulness movement, they expressed that these meditation practices
may not be suitable for everyone. As the core of these practices is to
cultivate non-judgemental awareness, it is acceptable to experiment with
different types of practice and identify what one mostly resonates with and
can maintain in the long run. For example, Kaylee, a mindfulness instructor,
mentioned that in her teaching experience, she encountered people who were not
able to do sitting meditation:

> ”We ask them, have you had serious addictions, trauma, major depression, it
> may be that a sitting meditation is not the right thing. And especially
> anxious people can’t sit for half an hour. […] So in that case, uh, moving,
> a walking meditation, mindful yoga. Something that is connected to the body
> in motion is hugely helpful.”

Paul also proposed that beginners start with a dynamic form of practice to
help understand the nature of mindfulness:

> ”Something else that’s immediate, and you don’t have to learn anything, is
> the walking meditation. Go for a walk, and for ten minutes, try the exercise
> of turning off thinking, keep senses on what you feel, hear, see, smell,
> keep your thoughts to what you’re experiencing in the present moment.”

We found that while practitioners’ formal practices were standardized and
structured, based on what they learned through in-person mindfulness programs
or online resources, informal practices were more flexible and personalized,
given one’s daily routines. Repetitive daily chores such as sweeping the floor
and washing dishes were in particular seen as opportunities for informal
practice. Therefore, the social aspect of mindfulness is more easily
identified in the formal process rather than the informal process of
mindfulness. Mike explained ”It helps if there’s a simple physical task, it
can be repetitive, or just something simple, physical, that the attention can
stay with the body as it does.” These tasks do not require excessive mental
resources, and involve multiple bodily sensations such as touch, hearing,
sight, smell, and taste that can be attended to while doing the task.
Transforming these tasks into a mindfulness activity helps train awareness of
being present and relieves the boredom of doing the task. Jasmine explained:

> ”I get irritated with, household chores are so boring, like never-ending but
> […] focus on the hot water, focus on the sensation of the soap, feel the
> vessel with your hand that itself is a meditation, do the dishes can be. […]
> focus on the actual act of doing the dishes. And that helps me have a better
> spiritual about chores.”

However, participants commented that practicing everyday mindfulness in real
life can be distracting, especially for novices, and it may be easier to start
with one or two informal exercises and expand the practice once one becomes
skilled. Grace explained:

> ”Every activity can be an opportunity, however, for beginners it’s probably
> better to start with certain conditions and not start, say in the middle of
> a baseball game, sitting in the crowd. Ultimately, […] when you’re more
> experienced, then you can do it anywhere.”

Finally, informal practice can be chosen based on one’s purpose for practicing
mindfulness, such as sleeping better, reducing stress, or improving one’s
relationships. For example, several participants mentioned that to improve
relationships, one could practice mindful listening, by fully engaging in a
conversation, observing body sensations, pausing before responding, and then
making an informed response instead of unconsciously reacting. Such informal
exercise can be very useful but is also difficult to apply as it requires one
to face their stressor and self-observe before reacting. However, supporting
such informal mindfulness practice makes one’s mindfulness practice more
meaningful. For example, Mike, a mindfulness instructor, reported that his
students come to him to learn mindfulness practice to solve life issues (e.g.,
stress, divorce, loss of loved ones), and he tries to tailor the practice to
their needs outside of meditation. He explained that the degree to which they
feel less stressed, more empowered, and more creative in these daily
situations is a meaningful measure of the progress of their mindfulness
practice.

###  4.2. Benefits, barriers, and strategies of maintaining practice

RQ2: What are motivations, perceived benefits, and challenges faced by
mindfulness practitioners in maintaining a regular practice? How can we learn
from these insights to inform designs that support consistent mindfulness
practice?

####  4.2.1. Benefits and motivations

Our participants reported short- and long-term physical and mental benefits of
mindfulness, which motivated them to continue practicing it consistently.

In the short-term, participants reported immediate benefits right after a
short mindfulness session, such as a 10-minute sitting meditation or a half-
hour mindful walk: feeling calm, relaxed, and clear-headed, and getting better
sleep. Carson said: ”if you have a good mindfulness session or practice, then
you feel relaxed and centered.” Melissa described that a practice session
”lifts a veil.”

Several participants saw the pursuit of short-term benefits as stepping stones
to long-term practice. But some also cautioned that the short-term benefits
may just be the byproducts of the cultivation of non-judgmental awareness and
these effects vary for different people. They saw the real benefits of
mindfulness experienced in the long-term process of self-discovery. Steve
explained that it is possible to attract people to mindfulness through short-
term benefits, which he called ”extrinsic”, but they will need to find the
balance with long-term ”intrinsic” benefits to maintain the practice, as there
is no ”finish line” in mindfulness:

> ”It’s extrinsic benefits and intrinsic benefits. And in anything that we do,
> there are some benefits that are very obvious, very external, very
> measurable, like a finish line. Then there are the intrinsic benefits, which
> are much deeper, much more subtle, but much more profound.”

The long-term benefits participants reported included enhanced emotional
regulation, reduced chronic pain, increased resilience and a sense of control
over their life, and improved interpersonal relationships. These experienced
benefits motivated participants to keep practicing consistently. Some
participants even attributed their well-being to the practice of mindfulness,
attributed messiness in their daily lives to the lack of mindfulness practice,
and felt that their life would have been worse if they had not kept the
practice. Paul explained:

> “Whatever happens with my health down the road, I know that it won’t be as
> severe as it would be if I wasn’t doing yoga, if I wasn’t doing meditation,
> if I wasn’t doing those things. Maybe I would be taking antidepressant
> pills.”

Overall, while some of the reported benefits of mindfulness align with
previous findings (Brown and Ryan, 2003; Creswell, 2017; Grossman et al.,
2004), we identified two metaphors that participants used to relate to the
benefits of mindfulness: medicine vs. vitamin. This perspective could be
especially insightful for designers aiming to promote consistent mindfulness
practice for mental well-being, as we further elaborated in the discussion
section 5.3.1. Some participants, for example, Paul, referred to mindfulness
as a medicine, practicing it to obtain mental and physical health, as Melissa
said ”If I do those practices, it just keeps me grounded. I just feel like
everything’s okay.” Others related to mindfulness as a vitamin, where it is a
habit and has preventative effects on one’s well-being in the long term. These
two metaphors may co-exist for practitioners, who practice mindfulness both as
medicine to respond to immediate difficulties in their lives and as a vitamin
to maintain their long-term well-being.

####  4.2.2. Barriers

Despite the benefits, all participants, even those who have established a
long-term daily practice routine, felt that sticking to the practice was not
easy. Steve described being able to maintain the practice as a privilege: ”I
feel that it is a privilege to live the life that I do, because I have the
opportunity each day that I am training, to choose a healthy relationship and
empowering relationship with stress”.

Busy or inflexible schedules were frequently mentioned as a barrier to keeping
the practice. Some participants, especially those who share a workspace with
others or who take care of kids, found it difficult to fit into their
schedules formal mindfulness practice, which requires a quiet and undisturbed
space. Kaylee described that when her kids were young, ”I would always get up
about an hour before my kids would get up, so that I would have the time to
sit and to come into the present moment.” Busy lifestyles also led to feeling
too tired to practice, like Shu, who had to fight her own resistance to
practice after ”I have been in front of the computer for a long time, I would
then feel very tired physically and mentally”.

Sometimes it wasn’t about finding a time or a place to practice, but about
experiencing strong emotions or physical pain, or a fear of facing these
uncomfortable sensations during formal practice. Jasmine eloquently described
the conflict between forcing herself to keep the practice regardless of how
she felt in the moment and the core of mindfulness: being non-judgmentally
aware of the present moment:

> ”I sometimes feel very tired. Or I’m not feeling well, my pain is some days
> worse. I don’t feel like being mindful. And on those days, in a weird way,
> it is mindful in the sense that I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Another difficulty participants faced was related to breaking habitual
patterns. Creating a habit of mindfulness may be especially difficult as mind-
wandering seems to be the default mode of the human brain (Killingsworth and
Gilbert, 2010; Buckner et al., 2008). Some of our participants who were
teaching mindfulness observed this in their students who are new to
mindfulness, as Erica said: ”there may be resistance because this is a new
practice. And for all of us changing habits, it’s always the hardest, but give
it a try.” Even the very experienced practitioners faced their own resistance
after years of practice. Being aware of and normalizing the difficulty, they
still sat down on the cushion for the practice, as Alison, with 30 years of
experience, said:

> ”The resistance is never going to go away. You just have to learn. It’s like
> my teacher told me about some other things. It’s just like a stick in the
> road. You hop over it. You go around it.”

####  4.2.3. Strategies

Although not every practitioner encounters the same difficulties in
mindfulness practice, we identified three primary strategies that our
participants adopted to maintain a long-term mindfulness practice: practicing
short mindfulness exercises, leveraging social accountability, and seeking
help from a teacher.  We further discuss the practical design implications of
these strategies for supporting mindfulness in section 5.3.5.

Practicing short mindfulness exercises was a commonly used strategy among our
participants to maintain their practice. The short practice might be part of
morning or night routines or during brief breaks throughout the day, as Erica
suggested, ”even use the phone alarm to pause five or 10 times a day, to pause
to come into the actuality of our living over a moment”. Maintaining
mindfulness doesn’t mean a certain number of minutes of daily practice;
showing up for the practice is more important in the long run. Jasmine
explained:

> ”It doesn’t matter how long you do it, or how well you do it. What matters
> is you show up every day. So some days, when I had a lot of pain, I couldn’t
> do more than 10 minutes. So I’d said it’s okay. But I still counted it as a
> practice because of letting go of needing to be perfect.”

Although participants mostly practice mindfulness alone, being part of a
community makes them more accountable for the practice. Such communities can
be in different forms: in-person mindfulness programs, Zoom weekly meditation
groups, and family and friends around them who also practice mindfulness.
Katrina said that her practice was stronger ”whenever I’m in a community.” For
Cam, mindfulness was ”more of like a social thing as opposed to just like
doing it individually on my own. I was having weekly meditation group and
having a community, or speaking with my wife or kids about it, where there was
some level of accountability and reminders socially about it”.

Seeking help from, and the presence of a teacher was another strategy that
participants reported helped them discover and learn about mindfulness, answer
questions along with the practice, and overcome barriers along their
mindfulness journeys. Some of our participants who were mindfulness teachers
talked about helping their students. Mike, for example, helped beginners get
into mindfulness by shortening the practice, offering guided meditation
recordings, and working with his students to identify possible times to
practice, ”and then observe and see how it goes and modify as needed.”.

Digital technologies also play an important role in supporting mindfulness, as
presented next.

###  4.3. Technology use and non-use for mindfulness practice

Our third research question asks ”What roles do technologies play in
practitioners’ everyday mindfulness practice? How does it inform the design of
future social computing technologies for mindfulness and mental well-being?”
We present the findings related to the first aspect of the question below and
elaborate the latter part more thoroughly in the discussion section.

####  4.3.1. Using technology to remind, assist, and record

Table LABEL:table:2 presents a list of the digital technologies that our
participants reported using or have tried for their mindfulness practice, some
of which have been directly designed for this purpose. For example,
participants mentioned using mobile meditation apps such as Headspace and Calm
that provide guided resources and helped create an atmosphere of mindfulness
practice with ambient music, Eat Right Now for learning mindful eating, and
online journaling apps such as the Japanese Awarefy for recording emotions.

Table 2. Summary of digital tools reported by experienced mindfulness practitioners and primary uses for mindfulness practice Technology | Ways used for mindfulness practice
---|---
Headspace | Guided meditation resources
Calm | Guided meditation resources; ambiant music
Insight Timer | Guided meditation resources; Timer; Community features; Record length of practice sessions
Awarefy | Check in and record emotions; Self-care activity recommendations
Liberate | Guided meditation resources with voices from people of color
Eat Right Now | Short lessons and guided mindfulness resources for mindful eating
Waking Up | Streamlined lessons to relearn mindfulness theory and practice
Meditation Timer | Set duration; Set start, interval and end sounds for a practice
Audio files | Guided recordings from teachers in offline classes
Spotify | Meditation playlist; Ambient music
Youtube | Mindfulness video resources
Zoom | Online mindfulness group sessions
Calender | Reminders and blocked times for meditation
Google sheets |  | Record daily life events, emotions and mindfulness practice.
---
Find correlation of practice and emotion

Our participants appreciated the easy access to lots of mindfulness resources
with these apps, as Grace described ”it’s democratizing access to something
that perhaps is harder to get access to.” In addition to using these resources
for their own practice, some of our participants recommend appropriate
resources from these platforms to others. For example, Erica tried resources
on Insight Timer before recommending to her students:

> ”I like to try a practice before I recommend it to a student or anybody. So
> I’ve recommended things for sleep, like a guided meditation for sleep, or
> for just anxiety and panic, or just different things. The one that I’ve used
> the most is Kristin Neff’s five-minute self-compassion break.”

Choosing the right resources for different scenarios requires prior
mindfulness experience, and getting too many resources might be overwhelming.
To deliver mindfulness in a simple and clear way, Cam recommended the app
Waking Up to his friends for its streamlined lesson and exercise design. In
addition to actively using guided resources for daily meditation practice,
participants used these digital applications for re-establishing meditation
habits, especially after a long period without practice. For example, Cam
relearned the same content on Waking Up but still got benefits from it, ”even
if I knew the content, just the accountability, and the structure for
continuing to practice would be important, even if it was repeated content”.
Likewise, Amber uses this app to create a guided structure for her meditation
practice after she left a temple where she had a very structured practice.

Aside from using dedicated mindfulness technologies, some participants use
other technologies that apply mindfulness principles in specific life
situations. For example, Alison used to have an eating addiction and she is
aware of how mindfulness could help: ”If I’m feeling bad, and I reach for a
piece of chocolate, and then it makes me feel better. Something happens there,
under the layers, and I want more. I just want more. And this is how
addictions get rolling. So with mindfulness, we’re asked to pause.” The
mindful eating weight loss app Eat Right Now helped her apply mindfulness to
her eating addiction, ”I tried it for a month and it made a shortcut to things
I have spent years learning.”

At the same time, participants were aware of some aspects of these
applications that presented a conflict with the principles of mindfulness. For
example, some of the apps apply social or reward mechanisms to motivate
keeping the practice. While the original purpose may be to leverage social
accountability, it might induce social comparison, which Cam found unhelpful:
”I feel Headspace is bad at this, where they gamify it and it becomes a social
thing, or they encourage streaks or communication in a way that’s more
hierarchical and competitive.” Similarly, Insight Timer has the feature of
recording the length of the daily practice and how many consecutive days one
has practiced. This design motivated Carson to keep consistent practice, but
also presented a conflict about losing the internal motivation for practicing
mindfulness:

> ”I’m kind of conflicted about the stars, I mean I do feel better after I
> meditate. I generally do like having a daily practice, right? But creating
> these kinds of incentives from the technology to get your stars or keep your
> streak is bad because it’s somehow like an external motivation, and it
> should be more internally driven.”

Interestingly, our participants also discussed a range of digital technologies
that aren’t specifically designed for mindfulness practice. These included
productivity tools such as an online calendar and spreadsheets. For example,
some scheduled mindfulness practice sessions in their calendars to remind them
to practice. Reminders were set at a fixed time or multiple times throughout
the day as opportunities to take a pause. This was similar to reminder
features in some mindfulness apps that send notifications to practice
mindfulness. While reminders were generally considered helpful, Amber
cautioned that reminders should be used to scaffold building a habit but
eventually one has to develop the ability to remember to be mindful on their
own:

> ”Some apps have alarms that can remind you, now it’s time to do 30 seconds
> of meditation. Now it’s time to be mindful and there’s something about
> having something tell you to be mindful. That, in the beginning, is really
> helpful but then I think there becomes a certain point where if you’re not
> learning to do that on your own, then are you really learning mindfulness?
> Part of mindfulness is you engaging with your mind and remembering to do
> that throughout your day.”

Besides setting reminders, participants also used technology to record their
mindfulness journey. Jasmine used Google Sheets to record daily events,
emotions, and mindfulness practice, then used calculations to find
relationships between her practice and emotions:

> ”I try to log down at night. I try to be very ruthless with myself about
> that. […] I made a bar graph with the number of times I got angry, it was
> direct, it was inversely correlated with the number of times that I did
> meditation. So it showed that the less meditation I did, the more angry I
> got.”

Participants also used music and video platforms that weren’t designed for
mindfulness practice to find guided resources and ambient music for their
practice, or sounds of bells to signal the beginning and end of meditation.
Unlike meditation apps that required spending money or time to learn the app,
Youtube and Spotify were already integrated into participants’ daily use for
other purposes, and the transition to using them for mindfulness practice
seemed natural. Clare described the convenience of using Spotify for guided
meditation:

> ”I just discovered that some teachers upload their audio recordings to
> Spotify, and they make it as a playlist. So I think that’s very convenient
> for me, because I use Spotify everyday to listen to music. And I can also
> use that for my sleeping meditation or guided meditation, even though the
> resources are not as much as Insight Timer and Calm, it’s convenient enough
> for me to open the app and start doing it.”

####  4.3.2. Using technology to connect with the mindfulness community

In addition to these resources, participants also connected with their
mindfulness community through digital technologies such as Zoom, instant
messaging tools, or even recorded talks of their teachers. Connecting with
others creates a sense of community and helps practitioners to maintain their
practice in the long run. For example, Erica discussed the potential of online
groups to facilitate one’s ongoing mindfulness journey through mentor and peer
support.

The COVID-19 pandemic specifically opened the door for technologies such as
Zoom for online group mindfulness sessions. Penny felt that Zoom relieved her
anxiety about teaching meditation and yoga in-person during the pandemic, ”I’m
in home space, not a lot of people around me”. Online mindfulness sessions
weren’t considered ideal compared to in-person for human connection and
environmental cues. At the same time, they allowed flexibility of time and
place for instructors and students, and had the benefit of controlling the
camera and microphone during the session. Jasmine explained:

> ”I have allergies and often sneeze. So I can just mute it. I can sneeze and
> it doesn’t disturb. […] But if I sneeze during a guided session in person,
> that was awkward for me.”

Comparing Zoom sessions with listening to guided recordings, Paul said that
”there are real people and there’s some community like-mindedness.”. In other
words, live online group meditation sessions brought a sense of social
presence and connectedness that recordings didn’t, when in-person connections
were not an option at the height of the pandemic.

####  4.3.3. Using technology as an object for mindfulness

As technology has become an indispensable part of everyday life, in a few
cases, participants applied mindfulness as part of their technology use
habits. In his mindfulness teaching, Mike encouraged his students to turn
checking their phones into an awareness exercise, ”for many people, checking
email or social networks or automatically checking the phone is a habit that
they’ve been aware of and are interested in becoming more aware of.” This
echoes to mindful information exercise introduced in Mindful tech (Levy,
2016).

Alison associates technology use with mindfulness practice by doing specific
mindfulness exercises of checking her emotions, applying breathing exercises,
being aware of the intention of use before looking at her phone or starting to
work on the computer:

> ”There’s a whole set of habits and patterns that are happening in our
> relationship to technology, that can be the object of mindfulness practice.
> So I can start to become aware of my automatic looking at the phone, or I
> can start to be aware of my emotional state, as I check to see if a post was
> liked. […] Every time you pick up your phone you can associate it with being
> very present for three breaths, something like that. Every time I start a
> new project on a computer, or if I sit down and touch the keyboard to not
> make it external to your practice, but to incorporate everything.”

In this way, instead of viewing technology as a separate means that delivers
mindfulness or provides external reminders, the very act of using one’s
devices turned into an opportunity to bring mindfulness to the present moment,
and facilitate meaningful digital devices use.

####  4.3.4. Technology non-use to defend mindfulness

Despite the benefits of technology for mindfulness practice, our participants
also described the downsides of technology, like relying on built-in
incentives to practice mindfulness, as discussed above. They also expressed
concerns about over-reliance on phones in particular to practice mindfulness,
as Jasmine expressed: ”If someone says, Oh, I don’t have a smartphone, so I
can’t meditate. That should not become an excuse.” Jeremy expressed a conflict
between using the phone for mindfulness resources and the costs that come with
phone overuse:

> ”There are great databases of free meditations now. You just have to
> download an app. And then you’re on your phone again. And like Insight
> Timer, it’s a great app. It has great meditations on it. I like doing them
> sometimes. But then I’m on an app. And then once I finish, I have to open my
> phone to turn it off. And then I’m on Instagram again. ”

Many participants mentioned that sometimes removing technology helps defend
mindfulness, by providing a mindful break from screens and eliminating
distractions. For example, silencing incoming messages on one’s digital
devices helped people stay more focused during the practice by creating an
unobtrusive offline environment and reducing participants’ anxiety about
receiving notifications. Melissa explained:

> ”I never have my phone on. It’s always on silent, always. I don’t even put
> it on vibrate, like just silent. […] It’s so distracting. […] If I have it
> on, I feel distracted, even if there’s no sound and no one’s messaging me, I
> feel like someone’s going to message me and the thought of being
> interrupted, makes me stressed. So I just keep my phone off.”

Sometimes, participants had limited success with using built-in features to
defend themselves from mindlessly using their phones. For example, Jeremy
applied a black and white mode to his screen to make it less attractive, but
he ”just looks at the thing in black and white. It doesn’t change much.” Grace
used a 20-minute timer to limit her social media use, but when the time is up
”I override and I click and more and more.” She imagined that instead of
applying device built-in features, a mindfulness exercise could help overcome
and replace the mindless social media use:

> ”What if there was a meditation practice, a five-minute pause of like, okay,
> just breathe and then you cannot go back in the thing. You’re going to feel
> anxious and upset that you’re not able to, but a guided meditation, ticking
> with your body to keep with your breathing. Go out for a walk, stretch your
> body, things like that.”

Finally, some participants felt that they needed to completely remove their
devices from their environment, especially when they were with other people.
This helped them be more focused on their interactions with others, as Penny
tried to have family dinner time without looking at screens, ”we try at least
once a week on Friday to sit together and eat and no phones.”. For Melissa,
putting her phone away when she was with other people helped her establish a
healthy boundary of phone use: ”If we have people over, I don’t even look at
my phone, I just put it aside.”

To sum, our participants were aware of the advantages and disadvantages of
using technologies in their mindfulness practice and in their everyday lives.
As experienced practitioners, they were thinking carefully about which
technologies would be useful and how to incorporate and adapt these
technologies in their practice. At the same time, similar to previous research
(Markum and Toyama, 2020), our participants were also mindful about when these
technologies become a hindrance and should be put away or turned off, and came
up with ways to undesign (Pierce, 2012) distracting technologies from their
mindfulness lifestyle.

##  5\. Discussion

This study examines mindfulness practitioners’ everyday practices, the
benefits and barriers they experience, and technologies they use and don’t use
in supporting mindfulness practice. In this section, we first discuss what we
learned about mindfulness and how we expand the definition of mindfulness in
HCI. Then we discuss how our study findings extend the current HCI and CSCW
research and provide recommendations for designing future mindfulness tools
for mental well-being.

###  5.1. Expanding the definition of mindfulness

Our findings (4.1) presented an in-depth understanding of mindfulness as an
ongoing personal journey, involving various definitions, forms of practice,
experienced benefits and barriers, and the interactions between these factors.
The mindfulness literature often defines mindfulness as a non-judgemental
present-moment awareness (Kabat-Zinn and Hanh, 2009; Bishop et al., 2004).
Research in HCI defines mindfulness in a similar way, often focusing on the
formality of the practice in the definition (Terzimehić et al., 2019).
However, we found that experienced practitioners perceive mindfulness as a
multifaceted concept that goes beyond this conventional definition,
encompassing a range of informal practices in daily life.

Consistent with the debate on how to define and operationalize mindfulness
(Terzimehić et al., 2019; Van Dam et al., 2018), we found that mindfulness
practitioners have a range of definitions of what consists of mindfulness
practice. In addition to the common definition of “paying attention to the
present moment without judgment”, our participants defined mindfulness as the
ability to focus on one activity at a time, as well as destressing and
relaxing from everyday pressures.

These experienced practitioners found suitable formal and informal mindfulness
practices based on their personal goals, daily activities, and life
situations. Informal mindfulness practices were often more accessible and
easier to incorporate into daily life, such as eating, driving, doing house
chores, and interacting with others. This expanded understanding of
mindfulness in HCI, with both formal and informal practices, emphasizes the
importance of considering mindfulness as a long-term practice and lifestyle.
Although this perspective aligns with findings from some prior mindfulness
literature (Hanh, 1999; Shankland et al., 2021; Fredrickson et al., 2019), HCI
work has mainly focused on the formal practice to define mindfulness.

Our findings suggest that considering the range of definitions of what counts
as mindfulness from practitioners’ perspectives can enrich the design space
for mindfulness technology. We call researchers to broaden the definition of
mindfulness by taking into account the dynamic nature of the practice, the
various forms it can take, and the individual experiences and preferences of
practitioners.

###  5.2. Tension between supporting short- and long-term mindfulness practice

A key challenge in designing mindfulness technologies lies in balancing the
support for both short-term and long-term mindfulness practice. Our findings
(4.2) indicated that, despite the benefits mindfulness brings, even
experienced practitioners who have established a long-term daily practice
routine felt that sticking to the practice was not easy.

The tension between short-term and long-term benefits in mindfulness practice
highlights an intriguing point, specifically the contrast between Western and
Eastern perspectives. Eastern mindfulness traditions typically emphasize it as
a lifestyle, while Western approaches often focus on stress relief (Schmidt,
2011). This discrepancy can be discouraging for practitioners trained in
Eastern methods, who perceive mindfulness as a comprehensive lifestyle
transformation rather than just a tool for health benefits. However, when
designing for a Western audience, it is essential to acknowledge the short-
term benefits as an initial step to capture users’ interest and inspire them
to delve deeper into mindfulness practice (Aronson, 2004).

By emphasizing short-term benefits as incentives for behavioral change (Fogg,
2002), mindfulness technology can inspire beginners to adopt mindfulness
consistently and practically in their lives and facilitate the habit of
building long-term practice. Incorporating brief, easily accessible
mindfulness activities is one opportunity to explore, following a growing body
of research that highlights the benefits of micro breaks and short pauses on
well-being (Zacher et al., 2014) and happiness (Kaur et al., 2020).

By designing technology with a focus on promoting these small, manageable
exercises, we can create a more approachable and engaging mindfulness
experience (Lukoff et al., 2020). For example, mindfulness technology that
emphasizes post-practice feelings and incremental health benefits can help
support beginners initially and gradually shift their focus towards
appreciating the present moment, with open and non-judgemental awareness.

Supporting an ongoing mindfulness journey also means providing people with
meaningful motivation to keep consistent practice. Reward mechanisms in
mindfulness and wellness systems need to be personally meaningful and
intrinsic (Weiser et al., 2015; Specker Sullivan and Reiner, 2021). A
mindfulness tool that counts time one practiced may be focusing on what Baumer
& Silberman (Baumer and Silberman, 2011) call computational transformation,
rather than addressing the intent of mindfulness practice: attention,
reflection, and awareness. Instead of, for example, displaying the number of
minutes and days of an individual’s practice, a system can rephrase it as how
many minutes of mindfulness a person has contributed to the community.
Alternatively, transforming numerical data into visually expressive formats,
such as coloring a mandala (Tucci, 2001) to represent days of practice, may
offer rewards in a more artistic and personally meaningful form. At the same
time, designers need to be cautious about social comparisons that may pressure
users to feel an obligation to practice, as has been emphasized in previous
work (Lukoff et al., 2020; Laurie and Blandford, 2016).

Besides supporting motivations for novice practitioners, it is essential to
consider the needs and preferences of more experienced practitioners. Our
findings (4.3) suggested long-term mindfulness practitioners often have a
different approach to technology than newcomers, viewing mindfulness as a
lifestyle rather than merely a tool for stress relief. Their use of technology
related to mindfulness tends to be selective and purposeful, relying less on
guided practices and more on traditional tools or apps that indirectly support
mindfulness, such as scheduling apps, timers, or music and video platforms.
Focusing on adding reflection, adaptability, and personalization to those
existing technologies can help ensure that technology remains a useful and
supportive tool for those who have incorporated mindfulness into their daily
lives. HCI researchers have looked at both how blenders can be mindful in
everyday contexts (van Rheden and Hengeveld, 2016) and more traditional
practices and how technologies can bring mindfulness communities together
using platforms such as YouTube (Schmidt, 2011). Our research highlights the
significance of everyday digital technology for mindfulness; participants
mentioned the importance of digital calendars and spreadsheets in their
practice. We propose future mindfulness interventions for more advanced
practitioners might want to instead of just having in-app reminders

The tension between demonstrating immediate effectiveness and addressing the
ongoing nature of mindfulness practice presents a critical consideration for
designers. While previous HCI work focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of
mindfulness technologies for a short period of time (Daudén Roquet and Sas,
2020; Terzimehić et al., 2022), it remains unclear how these technologies
would impact well-being and other life aspects in the long term. The benefits
and depth of mindfulness practice increase with time and consistent
engagement; therefore, testing and evaluating mindfulness technologies over
the long term is crucial instead of solely assessing their short-term impact
or acceptance. This is consistent with calls to expand HCI research beyond the
short-term focus on efficiency and productivity toward exploring the design
and integration of slow, long-term technology in everyday life (Odom et al.,
2014, 2018, 2019). In the context of mindfulness technology, longitudinal
research and design efforts would allow for gaining a comprehensive nuanced
understanding of its long-term impact. Designers could consider how the
technology supports the users’ mindfulness journey, from beginners who might
initially be drawn to short-term benefits to experienced practitioners who
seek to deepen their practice over time. For example, using an
autobiographical design approach (Neustaedter and Sengers, 2012; Cochrane et
al., 2022; Li et al., 2024) for mindfulness products may allow researchers
with mindfulness experiences to design and use the technology themselves, and
gain valuable insights into the design process and user experience.

###  5.3. Design recommendations

####  5.3.1. Designing for mindfulness through the lens of metaphor

The use of metaphor to “understand one thing by describing it as though it
were another” (Blackwell, 2006) as a design tool has a long history in HCI.
The use of metaphors can provide valuable insights into designing technology
for mindfulness and affect specific design decisions. Our findings (4.2.1)
suggest two metaphors for the roles that mindfulness play in participants’
daily lives: vitamin and medicine. Using the “vitamin” metaphor for
mindfulness implies the need for ongoing support to integrate mindfulness into
daily life, similar to taking daily vitamins to support ongoing health in the
long run. Design features may include scheduling, planning, contextual
reminders for informal activities, and mobility to ensure mindfulness
practices are accessible wherever users may be. For example, the Headspace app
includes a feature that recommends a daily itinerary of mindfulness
activities, from morning routines to evening wind-downs, which follows the
“vitamin” approach by promoting regular, sustained engagement with mindfulness
practices. The “streak” feature, popular in mindfulness apps, also resonates
with the “vitamin” metaphor.

On the other hand, if mindfulness is perceived through the “medicine”
metaphor, the design should focus on detecting stressful situations or events
that require intervention, similar to taking painkillers during moments of
pain or discomfort. This could involve monitoring a user’s heart rate or sleep
patterns, and prompting the system to suggest mindfulness practices when
necessary.

The specific design features incorporated into a product will be influenced by
the metaphor through which mindfulness is perceived, either as a “vitamin” for
ongoing support or as “medicine” for an intervention during stressful times. A
third approach is to integrate both “vitamins” and “medicine” metaphors in
mindfulness design. For instance, many wearables already cater to short-term
needs, such as watches that remind users to breathe during stressful times,
serving as “medicine”. Over time, the use of a wearable designed for
mindfulness may gradually switch toward a “vitamin” function, such as more
assistance in recognizing everyday activities, like dishwashing, commuting
(Tang and Braver, 2020a), as opportunities to practice mindfulness.

####  5.3.2. Using a toolkit approach to design for mindfulness

Our findings (4.1.3) indicated that experienced practitioners experimented
with different forms of mindfulness practice and over time found the
appropriate practice based on their changing needs. At the same time, most
mindfulness technologies focus on a small number of mindfulness practices,
such as meditation or breathing exercises. Instead of prescribing a one-size-
fits-all solution, we suggest adopting a toolkit approach, offering various
mindfulness techniques, exercises, and activities to cater to different
preferences in different situations. A toolkit approach acknowledges that
individuals have unique needs and ways of engaging with mindfulness practices.
Moving beyond supporting breathing or meditation exercises, it is important to
consider alternative everyday mindfulness activities that focus on awareness
of other sensations, such as mindful eating, walking, and cooking, to
accommodate a wide range of changing preferences and abilities. A toolkit to
support everyday mindfulness activities could encourage individuals to explore
various mindfulness practices to determine which methods are most effective
for them at any point. One example is Chen et al.’s ColorAway, with features
for recollecting and evaluating one’s travel experiences toward gaining self-
knowledge through interacting with their travel photos (Chen et al., 2018).

Using a toolkit approach does not focus on providing a single, specific
mindfulness exercise. Instead, it offers a meta-method for people to explore,
create, and experiment with various mindfulness activities, ultimately
discovering the ones that work best for them at different stages of their
mindfulness journey. This shift in focus has the potential to lead to
innovative and creative ways of seamlessly integrating mindfulness into
everyday activities, fostering a more personalized and accessible experience.

A toolkit approach also supports a personalized and accessible experience with
the mindfulness technology. Personalization in technology is a meaningful way
to support ownership of technology (Cochrane et al., 2021). Designers should
consider the user’s feelings and preferences, not only for physical artifacts
but also in the digital aspects, such as providing users with a choice of
background color for an app. These seemingly small choices can create a more
personalized experience, provide users with a sense of control and ownership,
and increase their engagement with mindfulness practice. As Jack Kornfield’s
work emphasizes the importance of finding a practice that suits the
individual, recognizing that everyone’s journey and preferences might differ.
(Kornfield, 2009). Additionally, despite concerns regarding the potential
drawbacks of AI, it can be employed as a helpful guide in this context. By
integrating AI into mindfulness (Kinkhabwala, 2020; Kumar et al., 2023),
technologies could offer personalized guidance and support, adapting to users’
experience levels and individual needs. For example, an AI-powered chatbot can
help beginners integrate mindfulness into daily activities by offering
context-relevant examples tailored to their needs.

####  5.3.3. Reappropriating non-mindfulness technology for mindfulness

Our findings (4.3.1) suggested that mindfulness practitioners often utilized
technologies that are not explicitly designed for mindfulness to facilitate
their practice. We call designers to welcome such creative appropriations when
the user acts as an ”everyday designer” (Wakkary and Maestri, 2008),
integrating an ecosystem of technologies for their idiosyncratic practice.
Reappropriating familiar tools one has already used, such as scheduling apps
and timers, can be effective aids in promoting mindfulness. This also echoes
the idea of ”making strange” (Loke and Robertson, 2013, 2007, 2007), allowing
users to reframe everyday tools for various activities, including mindfulness
practices.

Despite the availability of numerous wearables and mobile apps specifically
designed to support mindfulness, designers should also explore existing
technologies and determine how they can be repurposed to encourage
mindfulness. For example, while productivity tools traditionally emphasize
efficiency and strict scheduling, designing mindfulness into them (e.g.,
prompting a short mindfulness exercise, especially during prolonged periods of
work) could foster well-being and reflection amidst daily tasks. In the case
of a digital calendar, using it to schedule a mindfulness session may seem
redundant with notifications, but without scheduling these sessions in one’s
agenda, consistent mindfulness may rely much on one’s memory and self-
discipline. Besides, by integrating the mindfulness concept, and the present
awareness into technologies that users are already using, designers can
promote more widespread adoption and diverse practice in different contexts.
For example, non-mindfulness-specific platforms, such as music and video
platforms, can be effectively utilized for mindfulness practice as they have
already been widely used in one’s routine.

####  5.3.4. Minimizing the negative effects of technology on mindfulness

Our findings (4.3.4) suggest that designers should consider minimizing the
negative effects of technology by promoting a healthy relationship between
mindfulness and technology (Levy, 2016). In contrast to digital well-being
tools that focus on limiting screen time (Hiniker et al., 2016) or
discouraging the use of certain applications (Kim et al., 2019), our findings
point (similar to (Lukoff et al., 2018)) toward promoting intentional and
mindful technology use. This support can happen before, during, or after
people interact with technology for mindfulness practice. During the practice
of mindfulness, digital devices could automatically turn on silent mode to
keep a tranquil environment for users to practice mindfulness based on the
phone status (e.g., if the user is playing a guided mindfulness practice). To
provide concrete suggestions for this design implications, we use the phone as
an example because of its prevalence in people’s daily life.

Phones can provide lots of mindfulness resources, and offer reminders and
other tools for mindfulness. However, some of our participants indicated a
conflict around using their phone for mindfulness which adds to their overall
phone use. A design that simplifies or shortens the steps of reaching the
needed support (e.g, starting a meditation timer) for example, through one-
click shortcuts 222https://support.apple.com/guide/shortcuts/ could reduce
potential distractions from one’s phone. This design may be especially
valuable for practicing mindfulness for better sleep, given that sleep can be
facilitated by mobile mindfulness resources (Huberty et al., 2021) and at the
same time be disrupted by excessive phone use time (Li et al., 2015).

Another suggestion coming from our participants (in 4.3.3) is transforming the
use of technology into a mindful activity. Rather than seeing technology as a
separate object outside the mindfulness practice, researchers may develop
mindfulness resources to teach people to use the mindfulness principle to
become aware of their technology use. This echos what Levy (Levy, 2016)
teaches in his book Mindful Tech and the Mindphone intervention that prompts
mental check-ins or writing reflections whenever users unlock their phone
(Terzimehić et al., 2022).

A third way to minimize technology’s negative effects is to integrate
mindfulness exercises as digital well-being interventions. Similar to
applications that encourage taking micro-breaks from screens for physical
health to reduce eye strain (e.g., EyeLeo) and to stretch (e.g., Stretchly), a
mindfulness break can recommend taking an outdoor walk or doing a quick
breathing exercise to create a pause and leave space for mindful decisions.
One such example is Microsoft Viva Insights333https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-viva/insights, a workplace analytics tool that incorporates
reflection features and interfaces with Headspace for guided meditations,
aiming to increase productivity by promoting mental well-being. Another
example is Zenscape, a tangible system that offers mini zen garden activities,
engaging users in mindful micro-breaks from screen work (Khot et al., 2022).
We suggest that designers incorporate mindfulness exercises as an internal,
soft, and non-judgemental digital well-being strategy to potential technology
overuse, which extends previous work of enhancing user agency in technology
use with internal and abstract support (Zhang et al., 2022) and may also
reduce the temptation to re-engage with the devices (Aranda and Baig, 2018).

####  5.3.5. Bringing community support into personal mindfulness practice

Mindfulness is mostly seen as an individual and personal journey: it is about
one’s personal mind, connected with their body, life, and activities. But this
personal journey doesn’t happen in a social vacuum. Our participants (in
4.3.2) talked about having meaningful conversations with others in group
meditation sessions over Zoom and in-person, a community that they connect
with, and teachers they look up to. Together, these experiences make this
personal journey bigger and more meaningful. Future studies may explore ways
to support consistent mindfulness practice by bringing community support into
personal mindfulness practice. One example of that is to understand and
explore more the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies in
the group mindfulness practice (Derthick, 2014) and enhance the support.

A community-based approach to designing for mindfulness opens up more
opportunities for supporting mindfulness through group effort, by learning
from, being inspired by, and getting support from fellow practitioners. Future
research could explore ways of strengthening this connection. For example,
Mindful Garden used augmented reality and sensors to create shared mindfulness
experiences among two meditation partners to enhance feelings of connectedness
and relatedness (Liu et al., 2022). Furthermore, although individuals may
learn and practice mindfulness on their own, connecting to a teacher allows
people to get more personalized guidance and help along the journey. The
importance of findings a teacher to support mindfulness practice has been both
emphasized by our participants and in previous research (van Aalderen et al.,
2014). Future research may explore how to help individuals find and connect to
teachers in various forms (e.g., in-person, live stream (Guo and Fussell,
2022; Li et al., 2024), resources) and the benefits and downsides of each form
for everyday mindfulness practice. Beyond supporting personal mindfulness,
future work could also look at the ways in which technologies can help build
and enhance interpersonal mindfulness. For example, a design intervention that
slows down the pace of polarizing online conversations can help conversation
partners reflect on and be more thoughtful about messages they write (Masrani
et al., 2023).

###  5.4. Limitations and Future Work

This paper presents in-depth accounts of everyday mindfulness practice from 20
practitioners, all having long-term experience in mindfulness (4 to 20+
years). Our findings are therefore limited to the experiences and practices of
these advanced mindfulness practitioners who are beyond the stage of learning
mindfulness. Many of them being teachers, they provided useful suggestions for
finding the right forms of mindfulness practice based on their interactions
with their novice students. However, our findings may not generalize to the
perspectives of the novices. Furthermore, we did not investigate differences
between practitioners based on their levels or years of experience, e.g.,
less/more than 10 years versus over 10 years of practice. To address this,
future research could explore these aspects more comprehensively and develop
personalized support strategies for practitioners based on their level of
experience. Moving forward, one future direction is to conduct longitudinal
studies with novice practitioners and track how they develop their skills and
maintain the practice with technology use over the long term (Odom et al.,
2019). Another direction is to design and evaluate tools that support
mindfulness in everyday activities that incorporate personal goals,
experiences, and daily schedules (e.g., in videoconference meetings (Wu et
al., 2024) and casual walks (Tan et al., 2023)).

##  6\. Conclusion

In this paper, we present findings from a semi-structured interview study with
20 experienced mindfulness practitioners, with the aim to gain in-depth
insights into individualized everyday mindfulness practice, motivations,
experienced benefits, and challenges of keeping consistent mindfulness
practice, and the role of technology in the process. This work contributes to
an in-depth understanding of everyday mindfulness practices beyond meditation,
technologies used in the practice, and guiding the design of mindfulness
technologies that are better situated in practitioners’ daily lives for
consistent mindfulness.

###### Acknowledgements.

We would like to thank all mindfulness practitioners for being willing to
share their experiences with us. We would also like to thank Lee Humphreys and
Katherine Sender for their valuable feedback on the initial draft of this
paper.

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##  Appendix A Categories, descriptions, and examples of codes

Category |  Description |  Examples of Specific Codes
---|---|---
Definitions of Mindfulness |  Describes how participants define mindfulness in both formal and informal contexts. |  Paying attention to the present moment; doing one thing at a time; destressing and relaxation
Formal and Informal Mindfulness Practice |  Describes both formal and informal mindfulness practices |  Sitting meditation; Mindful eating; Mindful walking; yoga; attention to breath; mindfulness phone use; mindful driving
Benefits of Mindfulness |  Short-term and long-term benefits experienced by participants |  Better sleep; reducing chronic pain; reduced stress; better mental clarity; increasing emotional stability; improved interpersonal relationships
Barriers to Mindfulness |  Challenges faced by participants in maintaining consistent mindfulness practice. |  Busy schedules; difficulty finding time and space; strong emotions or physical pain; habitual patterns;
Technology Use |  The role of digital tools in supporting mindfulness practice |  Use of mindfulness apps like Headspace for guided sessions; attending online group sessions via Zoom; reminders; use technology as a focus object for mindfulness practice
Technology Non-use |  Describes scenarios where participants choose to limit or avoid technology to enhance mindfulness or avoid distractions. |  Silencing notifications during practice; applying a black and white mode; limiting time spent on devices; removing devices
Strategies for Consistent Practice |  Strategies developed by participants to overcome barriers and keep consistent mindfulness practice. |  Practice short mindfulness exercises in morning/night routine; joining mindfulness online/offline community; seeking help from a teacher
Table 3. Overview of categories, descriptions and example of codes in the data
analysis