According to a recent study article – “mindful people might be happier because they have a better idea of who they are”.

Two things that make us unhappy are difficult decisions and a feeling of lack of control. Mindfulness can help us overcome both of those scenarios. How?

When facing a difficult decision, we often experience self-doubt as to whether the choice we are gravitating to is the right one. When this is a business decision, we can be guided by our mission and strategic objectives, but when the decision is personal in nature, we often don’t have a strategic plan to fall back on. However what we do have is what the researchers called “self-concept clarity.” This basically means having a stable, clear, and unconflicted view of oneself. Knowing who we are leads to a sense of greater self-esteem and independence. That helps us cultivate a sense of purpose in life, that we can use to guide our decisions.

This sense of self is a critical stabilising influence in times of rampant change. “It can be used to guide behaviour in consistent, personally meaningful, and fulfilling ways.” It is this sense of inner confidence that leads to a confident feeling of a sense of control. Self-concept clarity is essential to personal growth and feeling a sense of purpose in life. In turn, this leads to higher well-being.

Okay, but where does this inner confidence come from?

The study indicates that inner confidence comes from the non-judgmental awareness that is mindfulness.
Mindfulness helps us be more aware of our thoughts and feelings, and to respond to them in “deliberate, non-reactive, non-judgmental ways”.

Two Traits of Mindfulness

The data also revealed two traits of mindfulness that resulted in different outcomes:

• Those who were more non-judgmental about their thoughts and feelings tended to report a higher sense of self- concept clarity, whereas
• Those who were better at observing the present actually had slightly lower self-concept clarity.

When we don’t expect ourselves to be perfect, we are more willing to dig into our hidden shadows and explore the darker side of ourselves. This requires a healthy level of self-compassion.

So does mindfulness and a strong sense of self work together to make us happier?

Well, yes. Besides reducing the stress that typically accompanies uncertainty and conflict of self-doubt, they support us to confidently pursue the goals and relationships that are most authentically important to us. When one is clear about ones self, and ones values, then we have a guidance system that helps us make progressive decisions towards our goals. Being mindful helps us understand our hesitancy or fear in making a decision or taking a particular path. It helps us uncover the value driver behind the emotion – such as “I’m not good enough”.

In summary, even if mindfulness doesn’t show a direct causal link to us developing a stronger sense of self, but it does show a clear association between these two traits.