Measuring mindfulness—the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) Harald Walach a,d, * , Nina Buchheld b , Valentin Buttenmu¨ ller c , Norman Kleinknecht c , Stefan Schmidt a a University of Northampton, School of Social Sciences, Division of Psychology and Samueli Institute—European Office, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK b Klinik fu¨ r Tumorbiologie, Breisacherstr. 63, 79108 Freiburg, Germany c Institut fu¨ r Psychologie der Universita¨ t Freiburg, Germany d Universita¨ tsklinik Freiburg, Institut fu¨ r Umweltmedizin und Krankenhaushygiene, Germany Received 10 January 2005; received in revised form 1 November 2005; accepted 1 November 2005 Available online 27 March 2006 Abstract Mindfulness, a concept originally derived from Buddhist psychology, is essential for some well-known clinical interventions. Therefore an instrument for measuring mindfulness is useful. We report here on two studies constructing and validating the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) including a short form. A preliminary questionnaire was constructed through expert interviews and extensive literature analysis and tested in 115 subjects attending mindfulness meditation retreats. This psychometrically sound 30-item scale with an internal consistency of Cronbach alpha = .93 was able to significantly demonstrate the increase in mindfulness after the retreat and to discriminate between experienced and novice meditators. In a second study we broadened the scope of the concept to 86 subjects without meditation experience, 117 subjects with clinical problems, and 54 participants from retreats. Reducing the scale to a short form with 14 items resulted in a semantically robust and psychometrically stable (alpha = .86) form. Correlation 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2005.11.025 * Corresponding author. Address: University of Northampton, School of Social Sciences, Division of Psychology and Samueli Institute—European Office, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL, UK. E-mail address: harald.walach@northampton.ac.uk (H. Walach). www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Personality and Individual Differences 40 (2006) 1543–1555