{"id":78212,"date":"2021-07-26T13:02:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T17:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?p=78212"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:23","slug":"mindfully-motivated-can-mindfulness-meditation-help-you-achieve-your-personal-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/2021\/mindfully-motivated-can-mindfulness-meditation-help-you-achieve-your-personal-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindfully Motivated: Can Mindfulness Meditation Help You Achieve Your Personal Goals?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Mindfully Motivated: Can Mindfulness Meditation Help You Achieve Your Personal Goals?\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Over the last two decades, the concept of mindfulness has found a place in mainstream media and everyday conversations. Mindfulness has been associated with greater health and well-being, better relationships and even higher job satisfaction. However, some recent research questions whether mindfulness meditation impairs motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carleton University <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/\">psychology<\/a> master\u2019s student <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/goallab\/people\/aidan-smyth\/\">Aidan Smyth<\/a>, with his supervisor Marina Milyavskaya, recently published an article on <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/ejsp.2770\">the impact of mindfulness on an individual\u2019s motivation to accomplish personal goals<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis research provides preliminary evidence that a brief, 10-minute session of mindfulness mediation may enhance individuals\u2019 motivation towards their personal goals by sustaining, or potentially increasing, their motivation,\u201d said Smyth. \u201cThese benefits were only observed when individuals reported their motivation towards their personal goals and not when they were asked to report their motivation towards a random laboratory task. The motivational benefits of the meditation appear to depend, in part, on the degree to which individuals perceive their goals to be meaningful and engaging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While there is ongoing debate over the definition of mindfulness, a common conceptualization involves paying attention to the present moment, intentionally, in an open and non-judgmental manner. According to this perspective, mindfulness is characterized by qualities such as acceptance and awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Media Contact<br>\n<\/strong>Steven Reid (he\/him)<br>\nMedia Relations Officer<br>\nCarleton University<br>\n613-265-6613<br>\n<a href=\"mailto:Steven.Reid3@carleton.ca\">Steven.Reid3@carleton.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Follow us on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom\">www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom<\/a><br>\nCOVID 19 Updates:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/\">https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last two decades, the concept of mindfulness has found a place in mainstream media and everyday conversations. Mindfulness has been associated with greater health and well-being, better relationships and even higher job satisfaction. However, some recent research questions whether mindfulness meditation impairs motivation. Carleton University psychology master\u2019s student Aidan Smyth, with his supervisor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":60427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[131,99,91],"class_list":["post-78212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-releases","tag-graduate-studies","tag-psychology","tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78214,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78212\/revisions\/78214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}