Relational Mindfulness and Appreciative Inquiry: Sense, Direct Experiential Reference, and the Performative Praxis of Being-With

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.22533/at.ed.515712602015

• Palavras-chave: -

• Keywords: relational mindfulness; appreciative inquiry; direct reference; peak experience; performativity; being-with.

• Abstract: Contemporary mindfulness-based interventions have expanded widely across clinical, educational, and organizational contexts. However, their theoretical foundations have often remained anchored in individualistic and representational assumptions inherited from modern psychological paradigms. In parallel, Appreciative Inquiry has developed as a relational and generative methodology grounded in social constructionism, yet it has predominantly operated at the level of narrative meaning rather than lived experience. This article proposes an integrative framework that articulates relational mindfulness and Appreciative Inquiry through a bifactorial theory of meaning, distinguishing between sense and direct experiential reference—not as an abstract semantic taxonomy, but as an ontological tool for clarifying different modes of access to experience in relational practices. From this perspective, mindfulness is understood as a practice that cultivates access to direct experiential reference, while Appreciative Inquiry functions as a performative methodology capable of transforming such experiential moments into shared meanings, relational commitments, and coordinated futures. By revisiting the notions of peak experience and peak narrative, the article shows how experiential presence and relational inquiry can be integrated into a praxis of being-with, understood as an embodied, dialogical, and performative way of inhabiting shared worlds. This articulation offers a non-individualistic and non-internalist conception of mindfulness as a relational practice grounded in lived experience and joint action.