Reduce Stress with Preventative On-line Mindfulness Training
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Mindfulness not only reduces stress but also gently builds an inner strength so that future stressors have less impact on our happiness and physical well-being.” – Shamash Alidina
Mindfulness training has been shown through extensive research to be effective in improving physical and psychological health and particularly with the physical and psychological reactions to stress. Techniques such as Mindfulness Training, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) as well as Yoga practice and Tai Chi or Qigong practice have been demonstrated to be effective. This has led to an increasing adoption of these mindfulness techniques for the health and well-being of both healthy and ill individuals.
The vast majority of the mindfulness training techniques, however, require a certified trained therapist. This produces costs that many clients can’t afford. In addition, the participants must be available to attend multiple sessions at particular scheduled times that may or may not be compatible with their busy schedules. As a result, there has been attempts to develop on-line mindfulness training programs. These have tremendous advantages in decreasing costs and making training schedules much more flexible. But, the question arises as to whether these programs are as effective as their traditional counterparts.
In today’s Research News article “Effects of preventive online mindfulness interventions on stress and mindfulness: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5199155/, Jayawardene and colleagues reviewed and conducted a meta-analysis of the published research literature on the effectiveness of preventative mindfulness training on-line with normal, non-clinical, individuals for the relief of stress effects. They found 8 published randomized controlled trials. Most used modifications of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and lasted from 2 to 12 weeks. MBSR includes body scan, meditation, and yoga practices.
They found that the published studies report significant reductions in perceived stress of moderate effect sizes and increases of mindfulness of small effect sizes following mindfulness training in comparison to baseline and control conditions. These effects persisted up to several months after the end of training. They also found that the older the participant the larger the reduction in perceived stress produced by mindfulness training.
These results are significant but not unexpected as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was developed specifically to target perceived stress. What is significant is that this effectiveness occurs even when the training occurs strictly over the internet and with normal, non-clinical, populations. This is important as it suggests that inexpensive mindfulness training can be offered to widespread audiences. In addition, online training is convenient for the participants, as they do not have to go to a practitioners site on a particular schedule. This, in turn, allows for the application of mindfulness training for the prevention and treatment of psychological and physical disorders with busy people, low income people, and even people in remote locations, thus greatly expanding the numbers of people who can benefit.
Mindfulness training has been shown to have a myriad of physical and psychological benefits. The present findings are exciting in that they suggest that mindfulness training can occur inexpensively to disparate populations. The on-line mindfulness training may then, by reducing stress effects in normal people, act to prevent the many physical and psychological problems that result from chronic stress, improving their health and well-being.
So, reduce stress with preventative on-line mindfulness training.
“These are difficult times right now for a lot of people. Learning to become more “present,” frees us to be more flexible and creative – and ultimately, more resilient, enjoying better health and well-being.’”– Elisha Goldstein
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Jayawardene, W. P., Lohrmann, D. K., Erbe, R. G., & Torabi, M. R. (2017). Effects of preventive online mindfulness interventions on stress and mindfulness: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Preventive Medicine Reports, 5, 150–159. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2016.11.013
Abstract
Empirical evidence suggested that mind-body interventions can be effectively delivered online. This study aimed to examine whether preventive online mindfulness interventions (POMI) for non-clinical populations improve short- and long-term outcomes for perceived-stress (primary) and mindfulness (secondary). Systematic search of four electronic databases, manuscript reference lists, and journal content lists was conducted in 2016, using 21 search-terms. Eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating effects of POMI in non-clinical populations with adequately reported perceived-stress and mindfulness measures pre- and post-intervention were included. Random-effects models utilized for all effect-size estimations with meta-regression performed for mean age and %females. Participants were volunteers (adults; predominantly female) from academic, workplace, or community settings. Most interventions utilized simplified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction protocols over 2–12 week periods. Post-intervention, significant medium effect found for perceived-stress (g = 0.432), with moderate heterogeneity and significant, but small, effect size for mindfulness (g = 0.275) with low heterogeneity; highest effects were for middle-aged individuals. At follow-up, significant large effect found for perceived-stress (g = 0.699) with low heterogeneity and significant medium effect (g = 0.466) for mindfulness with high heterogeneity. No publication bias was found for perceived-stress; publication bias found for mindfulness outcomes led to underestimation of effects, not
studies. POMI had substantial stress reduction effects and some mindfulness improvement effects. POMI can be a more convenient and cost-effective strategy, compared to traditional face-to-face interventions, especially in the context of busy, hard-to-reach, but digitally-accessible populations.