Mindfulness and More: Toward a Science of Human Flourishing

This commentary for this Special Issue on mindfulness highlights the progress and maturity of this growing field of scientific investigation and points the way toward important questions that require further study. Important methodological and implementation issues including the nature of proper comparison groups, the extension of mindfulness-based interventions to underserved populations, the assessment of baseline characteristics that predict beneficial outcomes, and how mindfulness might be combined with other health-promoting activities such as physical exercise are considered. New questions for future research were also showcased, including best practices for mobile interventions, the development and assessment of microinterventions, and the need for a more expansive framework to cultivate human flourishing. The learning of well-being is conceptualized as an urgent public health need that will require new approaches for global scaling.