Figure 2.

Panel A: the emotional spiral; illustrating the distinction between mindful and appraisal orientations. The mindful orientation engages attention towards unappraised sensation, representing a neutral point along the spiral, whereas appraisal orientations serve to mobilize attentional and emotional resources, shifting emotional context either up or down the spiral. Bubbles with plus (+) or minus (−) signs represent positively and negatively appraised experiences, respectively. In the face of an unambiguously stressful life event, what varies is the number of other experiences (i.e., positive events and stimuli) available to awareness with which one may construct positive reappraisals to moderate the emotional context. The emotional context is the total set of appraisals that occupy working memory, which over time are ‘packaged’ into longer term memory as situational meanings. Panel B: the conventional appraisal orientation; each step in the cycle constrains and determines the following step, mutually constraining the deployment of attention and broader contextual meaning. Panel C: a schematic of the deployment of mindful attention; inhibiting the occurrence of appraisal and reorienting attention towards sensation when it is noticed that appraisal is occurring. Panel D: the consequence of the mindful orientation; a weakening of habitual appraisal and strengthening more adaptive reappraisals of experience.