Meditation

Improve Attitudes and Mental Health at Work with Mindfulness

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Improve Attitudes and Mental Health at Work with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindfulness is, above all, about being aware and awake rather than operating unconsciously. When you’re consciously present at work, you’re aware of two aspects of your moment-to-moment experience—what’s going on around you and what’s going on within you. To be mindful at work means to be consciously present in what you’re doing, while you’re doing it, as well as managing your mental and emotional state.” –  Shamash Alidina

 

Stress is epidemic in the western workplace with almost two thirds of workers reporting high levels of stress at work. In high stress occupations burnout is all too prevalent. It frequently results from emotional exhaustion. Burnout is the fatigue, cynicism, emotional exhaustion, sleep disruption, and professional inefficacy that comes with work-related stress. Sleep disruption is an important consequence of the stress.  This exhaustion produces a loss of enthusiasm, empathy, and compassion. Regardless of the reasons for burnout or its immediate presenting consequences, it is a threat to the workplace. From a business standpoint, it reduces employee efficiency and productivity and increases costs. From the worker perspective, it makes the workplace a stressful, unhappy place, promoting physical and psychological problems. Hence, preventing burnout in the workplace is important. One technique that is gaining increasing attention is mindfulness training. It has been demonstrated to be helpful in treating and preventing burnout in a number of work environments.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindful2Work: Effects of Combined Physical Exercise, Yoga, and Mindfulness Meditations for Stress Relieve in Employees. A Proof of Concept Study.” See summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241323/

de Bruin and colleagues performed a pilot study of the effectiveness of a program of exercise, meditation, and yoga for the relief of work related stress symptoms. They recruited

workers who were referred by physicians who diagnosed them with work related stress issues. The workers received training in six weekly 2-hour sessions and a follow-up session, consisting of 20 minutes of aerobic exercise, 20 minutes of Hatha restorative yoga, and 80 minutes of mindfulness meditation including psycho-education. The participants were encouraged to practice at home. They were measured before and after the intervention, 6 weeks and 6 months after the completion of the program for workability, perceived stress, anxiety, depression, emotions, and sleep.

 

They found that the participants liked the program rating it at 8.1 on a 10-point scale. Following the intervention work-related fatigue and exhaustion (burnout) was markedly and significantly reduced while motivation, activation, focus and concentration, and energy were significantly increased. The employees became significantly less likely to leave their job, worked a significantly greater proportion of their contract hours, and found the work environment to be significantly better. Hence, the employees showed markedly improved attitudes and behavior toward their jobs. The employees’ psychological health was also greatly improved, with significant reductions in anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and increases in sleep quality and positive emotions. These effects all had very large effect sizes and were still strong and present 6 months after the conclusion of training. Hence, work-related psychological issues were improved in a lasting way with the intervention.

 

These results of this pilot study were impressive. But, the lack of a control group or condition markedly limits the conclusions that can be reached. Also, since the intervention contained meditation, yoga, and aerobic exercise, it cannot be determined which, or which combination of components are necessary for the benefits. But, the results certainly suggest that a large randomized controlled clinical trial should be conducted. With the intense stresses of the modern work environment, a program that reduced stress and improved attitudes and emotions, would be extremely valuable both to the employer and the employees.

 

So, improve attitudes and mental health at work with mindfulness.

 

“Many corporations and employees are realizing that the benefits of mindfulness practices can be dramatic. In addition to supporting overall health and well-being, mindfulness has been linked to improved cognitive functioning and lower stress levels.” – Carolyn Gregoire

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

De Bruin, E. I., Formsma, A. R., Frijstein, G., & Bögels, S. M. (2017). Mindful2Work: Effects of Combined Physical Exercise, Yoga, and Mindfulness Meditations for Stress Relieve in Employees. A Proof of Concept Study. Mindfulness, 8(1), 204–217. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0593-x

 

Abstract

Work-related stress and associated illness and burnout is rising in western society, with now as much as almost a quarter of European and half of USA’s employees estimated to be at the point of burnout. Mindfulness meditation, yoga, and physical exercise have all shown beneficial effects for work-related stress and illness. This proof of concept study assessed the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of the newly developed Mindful2Work training, a combination of physical exercise, restorative yoga, and mindfulness meditations, delivered in six weekly group sessions plus a follow-up session. Participants (n = 26, four males), referred by company doctors with (work-related) stress and burnout complaints, completed measurements pre and post the intervention, as well as at 6-week (FU1) and 6-month (FU2) follow-up. Results showed very high feasibility and acceptability of the Mindful2Work training. The training and trainers were rated with an 8.1 and 8.4 on a 1–10 scale, respectively, and training dropout rate was zero. Significant improvements with (very) large effect sizes were demonstrated for the primary outcome measures of physical and mental workability, and for anxiety, depression, stress, sleep quality, positive and negative affect, which remained (very) large and mostly increased further over time. Risk for long-term dropout from work (checklist individual strength [CIS]) was 92 % at pre-test, reduced to 67 % at post-test, to 44 % at FU1, and 35 % at FU2, whereas employees worked (RTWI) 65 % of their contract hours per week at pre-test, which increased to 73 % at post-test, 81 % at FU1 and 93 % at FU2. Intensity of home practice or number of attended sessions were not related to training effects. To conclude, the newly developed Mindful2Work training seems very feasible, and acceptable, and although no control group was included, the large effects of Mindful2Work are highly promising.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5241323/

 

What’s Wrong with Meditation II – Improper Instruction

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What’s Wrong with Meditation II – Improper Instruction

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“The next biggest danger is that no one thinks there are or can be any dangers to meditation, so there is almost no discussion and information-gathering on the subject. Everyone is just going blah blah about the benefits. As a consequence, meditators are constantly being blindsided and derailed by things that should be trivial hazards, easily dismissed or bypassed. If we compare meditation to a day at the beach, it is as if people are saying, “Oh, don’t worry, you can never get enough direct sunlight. Just soak it up. You don’t even need a hat. And swim out in the ocean as far as you want. It’s a lake. With dolphins that will love you.”” – Lorin Roche

 

As was discussed in the prior essay on What’s Wrong with Meditation I – Expectations there are three essential problems with the way meditation has been presented in the west that have produced problems, misconceptions, and misunderstandings. First, meditation has been presented in a way that has evoked beliefs, ideas, and images that are overly idealized and not reflective of the typical experiences of meditation practice. Secondly, is the focus of the present essay, that immediately jumping into meditation practice has been encouraged, without the provision for proper background information, study, or instruction. Lastly, the jargon used to describe the process, experiences, obstacles, and results is extreme, evoking images and expectations that far exceed normal experience.

 

The Dalai Lama was brought on a tour of a major new meditation center in the United States. At the end of the tour, he simply asked “where’s the library?” He was astonished when he was told that there wasn’t one. He commented that before any of his new monks were allowed to meditate that had to spend at least a couple of years studying before they were allowed to meditate. He stressed that it is imperative that the practitioner have a proper background to understand the practical and theoretical basis for meditation before starting. This story exemplifies the difference between ancient Tibetan practice and meditation as it’s taught in the west where practitioners are launched into meditation practice with only minimal instruction. Hence people dive in without knowledge of obstacles and dangers hidden beneath the surface.

 

This western practice would be fine if meditation was straightforward and there weren’t any difficulties and traps that could ensnare the meditator. But, meditation practice is not simple and straightforward and without instruction in what to expect and how to recognize true progress, the practitioner is left to grope and stumble their way through the process. Beginners are generally not instructed, except in very general terms, as to what is the goal and how to recognize it if they attain it. They are frequently told to just follow and/or count the breath but receive no instruction as to what to do when their mind inevitably wanders. They are told simply return to following the breath. This was exactly how I was instructed when I began meditation practice.

 

As a result of this lack of instruction, beginners deride themselves for mind wandering making the process unpleasant. They are not told that this is effectively punishing themselves for recognizing that their mind has wandered. This makes it less likely that the individual will recognize and return from mental discursions. With a little instruction, they can learn that minds do what minds do, and that’s OK. They’re going to wander. Get used to it! But, they also need to be instructed to celebrate their recognizing it and returning to the meditative focus. This instruction produces reward for recognizing that the mind has wandered making it more likely that it will be recognized again and sooner. If beginners were simply given this much simple instruction their meditation practice will be much more enjoyable and productive and they’ll be much less likely to give up the practice.

 

Beginning meditators are frequently told that they should quiet the mind but are never instructed as to exactly what that means. They often confuse a quiet mind with a total blank, believing that a quiet mind is one without content. If they are simply instructed that they are to quiet the internal chatter, not everything. There’ll still be sounds, sights, odors, touches, etc. But when the mind is quiet there is no verbal commentary accompanying them. They are simply observing these stimuli as they are without categorization, judgment, labelling, reflection on past stimuli, or projections as to the future course of the stimuli. That’s a quiet mind. But few beginners are taught this. A completely blank mind can and will happen later in practice, but only after the mind has been quieted, not stopped. If beginning meditators were simply provided instruction about what is their goal and what a quiet mind is actually like their meditation practice will be much more enjoyable and productive.

 

A very important instruction for beginners is to warn them about the troubling kinds of thoughts and memories that often spontaneously arise during meditation. People come with the misconception that meditation will help them escape from their problems. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, meditation does the exact opposite, forcing the meditator to confront their issues. The strength here is that meditation is a wonderful occasion to begin to deal with these issues. But, often the thoughts or memories are overwhelming. Proper instruction is needed on how to work with issues gradually, avoiding delving too deeply too soon. At retreats, there are always boxes and boxes of tissues available for the inevitable copious tears shed by some of the participants as they are dealing with deeply troubling issues. Yes, in meditation you try to quiet the mind. But, in that relaxed quiet state, powerful, highly emotionally charged thoughts and memories are likely to emerge. The practitioner needs proper instruction beforehand of the likelihood of this happening and how to deal effectively with it. Knowing that this is normal, healthy, and part of the process, helps immeasurably to lessen the impact of these thoughts and memories on the individual and increases the likelihood that they can be effectively resolved. At times, professional therapeutic intervention may be needed. Once again, if this is understood ahead of time, the individual is more likely to seek assistance.

 

Meditation practice can also produce some troubling experiences beyond unmasking deep psychological issues. These are rarely presented or discussed with people before engaging in meditation. Not the least of these experiences are awakening experiences themselves. These can occur at any time and even to beginners. If they are not properly understood, they can lead to sometimes devastating consequences. These experiences are so powerful and unusual that they can be misinterpreted. Awakening experiences have been misdiagnosed as psychotic breaks and the individual placed on powerful drugs and/or institutionalized. There are no systematic studies of the extent of this problem, but a number of psychiatrists who meditate and understand awakening experiences have said that it is quiet extensive. At the very least, the individual may believe that they are losing their sanity or as one has said, “I just got used to the idea that occasionally I would have just one of those days.” This is one of the reasons why the Dalai Lama insists that beginners study first, so they can recognize what is happening to them if and when these experiences arise.

 

Meditation practice can sometimes produce energetic states that can vary in intensity, location, and duration. If and when these occur, they are usually quite surprising and unexpected. Many practitioners never experience these states or only experience very mild energy states. But, for those that do, if they have no prior instruction they can readily misinterpret them. They are sometimes called Kundalini energy states and involve energy focused in specific parts of the body or overall. They can feel like nervousness, tension, or almost like electrical currents flowing through the body and can produce spontaneous and undirected movements. These can be minor or overwhelmingly intense and can last from a few days to years. With these states sleep can be quite difficult and the individual may go days at a time without any sleep whatsoever. These energy states are usually found to be aversive and difficult to cope with. If the practitioner hasn’t been instructed about these states, they may seek out medical help. Unfortunately, the medical professions are not trained to recognize these states and often prescribe powerful anxiolytic drugs that can stupefy the individual but not affect the energies. Monasteries and major retreat centers are often equipped to recognize and treat these energies states. But, the vast majority of meditators and meditation instructions are completely devoid of an understanding of Kundalini energies. A little prior study and instruction can go a long way toward preventing misinterpretations and getting assistance from experienced teachers.

 

Another state that can be produced by awakening experiences has been termed as the “dark night of the soul.” After awakening there is, almost inevitably, a honeymoon period of happiness and bliss. But this is frequently followed by an aversive state that has been described as a spiritual desert. These have been reported by awakened individuals throughout the centuries, including the Christian and Sufi mystics and saints, Buddhist masters, and everyday practitioners. In these states the individual loses interest in life and seemingly has no motivation to do virtually anything. They feel emotionally dry and lament the loss of what they call the juice of life. Everything is flat and the individual often becomes deeply depressed. This dark night can last for months or years. To deal with dark nights the individual needs sophisticated instruction from accomplished teachers. No preparatory instruction will help to stop or prevent this from occurring. But, with proper instruction the individual can be better prepared to understand what is happening to them and what to expect in the future. This again can prevent misinterpretation and consequent maladaptive responses and harmful consequences.

 

At this point it should be clear why the Dalai Lama is so insistent upon extensive study and instruction prior to engaging in meditation. It can prevent potential negative reactions and consequences to some of the unexpected consequences of meditation. It has been my experience that the less instruction a person has prior to engaging in meditation the greater the likelihood that problems occur and the greater the likelihood of them being misinterpreted and counterproductive and even damaging responses occurring. So, study about meditation, work with an experienced teacher, and prepare yourself ahead of time before getting deeply involved in meditation practice. If you do, the rewards can be maximized and the pitfalls minimized, making practice productive and potentially profoundly altering.

 

The issues discussed above can seem off putting. You may be asking yourself if it makes any sense at all to engage in a meditation practice with all these potential problems. The answer is a resounding yes. The amazing benefits of meditation practice on your psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual health make it well worth the effort. In fact, it has the potential to change you in profound ways for all of existence. The above caveats should be taken as indicators that study and guidance should be undertaken and that meditation should be practiced with understanding of what to expect both good and bad ahead of time. These warnings are important but should not be taken a stop signs, only caution signs. Know what you’re getting into, be prepared, and then reap the extraordinary benefits.

 

“It’s a kind of re-birth.  The dark night of the soul is a kind of death that you die.  What dies is the egoic sense of self.  Of course, death is always painful, but nothing real has actually died there – only an illusory identity.  Now it is probably the case that some people who’ve gone through this transformation realized that they had to go through that, in order to bring about a spiritual awakening.  Often it is part of the awakening process, the death of the old self and the birth of the true self.” – Eckhart Tolle
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

What’s Wrong with Meditation 1 – Expectations

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What’s Wrong with Meditation 1 – Expectations

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“When you meditate, whether you know it or not, you unconsciously setup expectations or conditions. This starts off simple enough. You expect to relax, you expect to release tension from your muscles or core, you expect to find some relief from your day-to-day concerns etc. These expectations, although they may be subconscious and we aren’t aware of them, they are there and often feed the babbler. More so, they greatly limit the depth of meditation you will experience. For the novice, it can make the difference of finding yourself frustrated half way through your meditation because you are dissatisfied that you are not relaxing as much as you had hoped or expected. So by default your session has ended or ironically created more frustration and self-disappointment.” – Eric Pepin

 

How many time have I heard people say, “I tried meditation, but I can’t do it,” or “I tried meditation, but it scared me,” or “I stopped meditating since it didn’t seem to be going anywhere,” or “It’s against my religion to engage in a heathen practice.” These statements are reflective of the large numbers of people who could benefit from meditation but refuse to try it, abandon the practice, or feel that they failed at the practice and abandoned it. All of these statements reflect the prevailing misconceptions and misunderstandings about meditation.

 

I believe that there are three essential problems with the way meditation has been presented in the west that have produced problems, misconceptions, and misunderstandings. First, meditation has been presented in a way that has evoked beliefs, ideas, and images that are overly idealized and not reflective of the typical experiences of meditation practice. Secondly, immediately jumping into meditation practice has been encouraged, without the provision for proper background information, study, or instruction. Lastly, the jargon used to describe the process, experiences, obstacles, and results is extreme, evoking images and expectations that far exceed normal experience.

 

These three problems set up expectations about what the meditator is supposed do and what should be experienced. Unfortunately, that is simply not what actually occurs. As a result, new practitioners quickly give up the practice as they find that they can’t meditate like their image of what meditation should be, they get overwhelmed by the unexpected and powerful psychological issues that arise, sometime precipitating negative consequences, or they are thoroughly disappointed as they discover the promised benefits are subtler than they were led to believe. I’ll admit it, that I was a victim of inaccurate expectations and I’d be willing to bet that at the beginning of a meditation practice most westerners also have them.

 

The media, including print, video, books, and the internet have presented idealized images of meditation, including blissfully meditating people in serene settings. They are presented on the seashore, on mountain tops, at waterfalls, in gorgeous temples, in meditation groups populated by extremely attractive young people, and even floating in the clouds. Just do a google search on meditation pictures and this is what you’ll find. These can be wonderful settings, except perhaps clouds, but are not the usual or even common setting where meditation occurs. Meditation not only doesn’t require this it actually distorts reality. For example, the meditation hall in one of the first meditation centers in the U.S., the San Francisco Zen Center, is located at street level on a noisy, busy city street.

 

Establishing a relatively quiet place to meditate is helpful, but meditation can occur virtually anywhere. I frequently meditate while sitting at the gate at an airport waiting for my flight to board, while in flight, or in a car when I’m a passenger on a long trip. When the weathers nice I like to meditate in my back yard, with the breeze blowing, with noise from traffic barking dogs, and planes passing overhead prevalent. In fact, I find meditation in real-world settings to be particularly beneficial. After all, meditation is useful only to the extent that it transfers to the real world. If meditation only produced effects that only occurred in a quiet room, it wouldn’t be very useful. For meditation effects to transfer to real life, what psychologists call generalization, then the more similar the meditation environment is to the real world, the better. It can be difficult to meditate with all the hubbub and distraction of the real world, but you can learn more, practicing observing without judgment when there’s lots present that you normally judge.

 

The media also presents images of meditating people in perfect lotus posture, with serene, peaceful, and blissful expressions. But, meditation is rarely blissful. It’s wonderful when it is. But, this is the rare exception, not the rule. For that matter it’s rarely peaceful and serene. Once again, it’s great on the rare occasions when it is, but this is not the usual experience. Meditation is often chaotic, sometimes stressful, sometimes troubling, but, if you take an open attitude, it’s always beneficial. That is not to say that meditation does not bring serenity, happiness, and occasional bliss. It does. But, not at first and not with every meditation. These states grow over time. I had people commenting about how I’d changed before I even realized it myself. Be patient. It will happen.

 

Also, very few meditators can comfortably maintain a lotus position. Most find that they are better off sitting in a chair, kneeling with a bench, sitting with a back-jack, or with their feet up in a recliner. We’re taught that getting too comfortable promotes sleepiness and therefore erect sitting postures on a mat are preferred. What is not taught is how excruciating painful these postures can be and how pain is not conducive to meditation. The truth is, each individual needs to experiment to find what works best for them and discard the media’s image of what should be. Meditation is best when the individual is alert but comfortable. Every individual needs to find the position and posture that produces this state of alert comfort best for them.

 

One of the most frequent misunderstandings is that meditation produces a quiet mind. This is generally what is taught and expected with meditation. It’s true with continued practice the mind does settle down and occasionally becomes quiet. But, again, this is not the typical experience, particularly for new meditators. I have frequently asked groups of people who are not practiced meditators to simply try to close their eyes and count breaths while concentrating on their breathing for two minutes. They are often astounded to find that they can’t do this. Within a brief time after beginning their minds wander. I point out to them that they were unable to control their mind even for two minutes. It’s important that the beginning meditator should take note that they can’t control their mind and reflect upon the fact that their notions of control are delusions. They are not in control at all. This is eye opening. It is rarely taught to the beginning meditator, but is perhaps the most important teaching of all before entering into a meditation practice. You can learn from looking at what the mind does rather than trying to quiet it and getting frustrated. You can learn a great deal from the so called “monkey mind.” Fighting it is doomed to failure. Instead watch it and learn. Learn that you are not your mind!

 

It is important that we teach the realities of meditation rather than the ideal. Beginning meditators need to be instructed not to expect to be able to control their minds, but to relax, learn from the internal chaos, don’t fight it and don’t invite it in, just observe it. Don’t worry about perfect posture and position. Explore what works best that produces a state of sustainable alert comfort. Don’t only meditate in quiet comfortable surroundings. Rather, meditate where you are when reflective time is available. It doesn’t have to be for a fixed period of time. Again, experiment and find what works and don’t be afraid to change it. Think of meditation practice as an experiment with one participant. See how it goes, keep what works, and change what doesn’t. Finally, leave expectation at the door. See for yourself. Be open. Let it flow. The benefits will come but only when you stop trying to make them happen.

 

 “‘It is hard to have a balanced view when the media is full of articles attesting to the benefits of meditation and mindfulness. We need to be aware that reports of benefits are often inflated … whereas studies that do not discover significant benefits rarely pick up media interest, and negative effects are seldom talked about.” – Catherine Wikholm

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Decrease Stress Hormones with Meditation

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Decrease Stress Hormones with Meditation

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Individuals who scored high on the mindfulness questionnaire also had low levels in cortisol, both before and after the retreat. Subjects whose mindfulness score increased after the retreat also showed a decrease in cortisol.” – Tonya Jacobs

 

Stress is an integral part of life. In fact, I’ve quipped that the definition of death is when stress ceases. People often think of stress as a bad thing. But, it is in fact essential to the health of the body. If the muscles are not stressed to some extent they deteriorate. As it turns out, this is also true for the brain. The same goes for our psychological health. If we don’t have any stress, we call it boredom. In fact, we invest time and resources in stressing ourselves, e.g ridding rollercoasters, sky diving, competing in sports, etc. We say we love a challenge, but, challenges are all stressful. So, we actually love to stress ourselves. In moderation, it is healthful and provides interest and fun to life.

 

If stress, is high or is prolonged, however, it can be problematic. It can damage our physical and mental health and even reduce our longevity, leading to premature deaths. So, it is important that we develop methods to either reduce or control high or prolonged stress or reduce our responses to it. Mindfulness practices have been found routinely to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. A physiological indicator of stress is the levels of the hormone Cortisol in the blood. Mindfulness training has been shown to reduce Cortisol levels. But, it is not known what types of mindfulness training techniques are effective and which may be less so. Hence, it makes sense to test the effectiveness of different meditation practices to reduce responsiveness to stress as measured by plasma Cortisol levels.

 

In today’s Research News article “Osho Dynamic Meditation’s Effect on Serum Cortisol Level.” See summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198312/

Bansal and colleagues recruited male and female adults, aged 20 to 50 years, who had not previously meditated. They agreed to and participated in 21 consecutive days of Osho meditation practice from 6:00 to 7:00 am daily at a meditation center. “Osho Dynamic Meditation is a 60 minute formatted meditation technique of 5 stages, first of which is fast, deep and chaotic breathing for 10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of catharsis, 10 minutes of jumping and shouting a mantra “hoo”, 15 minutes of silence, and finally 15 minutes of celebration through dance.” Before and after the 21 days of practice plasma samples were drawn and analyzed for Cortisol levels.

 

They found that after the 21 days of Osho meditation practice every participant showed a decrease in plasma Cortisol levels. On average the decrease was significant and constituted a 29% decline in Cortisol levels. These results suggest that Osho meditation practice may reduce stress levels. This study, however, should be considered as a pilot study. There was no control group, so firm conclusions cannot be drawn. In addition, no other form of mindfulness practice was included to evaluate the relative effectiveness of Osho meditation practice relative to other practices. In addition, no measure of perceived stress was included. So, the present study should be considered a proof of concept study and as evidence that more extensive controlled trials are warranted.

 

So, decrease stress hormones with meditation.

 

“training the mind to focus on immediate experience may reduce the propensity to ruminate about the past or worry about the future, thought processes that have been linked to cortisol release.” – Tonya Jacobs

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Bansal, A., Mittal, A., & Seth, V. (2016). Osho Dynamic Meditation’s Effect on Serum Cortisol Level. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research : JCDR, 10(11), CC05–CC08. http://doi.org/10.7860/JCDR/2016/23492.8827

 

Abstract

Introduction

Dynamic meditation is one of the most popular active meditation, introduced by an Indian mystic Osho in 1970. This one hour meditation consists of five stages: Deep fast chaotic breathing, catharsis, using a mantra “Hoo”, silence, and dancing. A previous study observed that Osho dynamic meditation causes decrease in several psychopathological variables such as aggressive behaviour, anxiety and depression. However, it is not objectively established that the dynamic meditation has an anti-stress effect.

Aim

To find out the effect of Osho dynamic meditation on the serum cortisol levels (cortisol is an indicator of stress) and therefore to observe whether it has any anti-stress effect.

Materials and Methods

An experimental study was planned doing the dynamic meditation empty stomach in morning at 6 to 7 am every day for 21 days from 1st March 2015 to 21st March 2015 at Lucknow. Twenty healthy volunteers between 20 to 50 years (14 males and 6 females) participated in the study. Serum cortisol level was estimated from the blood samples collected in the morning one day prior (baseline) and post-meditation on the 21st day of the study. The difference between mean cortisol levels of the baseline and post-meditation groups were tested for significance by applying the paired t-test.

Results

Sixteen volunteers out of the 20 completed the study while four dropped out due to their health and personal reasons. The serum cortisol levels were decreased in all the 16 participants on 21st day as compared to the baseline levels and the decline in the mean cortisol level was highly significant (p<0.001).

Conclusion

The results of the study showed a significant reduction in plasma cortisol levels when the participants were tested after 21 days of meditation; it can be concluded that the Osho dynamic meditation produces anti-stress effects. The mechanism of action could primarily be attributed to the release of repressed emotions and psychological inhibitions and traumas. Thus, dynamic meditation could be recommended for the amelioration of stress and stress related physical and mental disorders. More clinical studies should be done on dynamic meditation to prove its efficacy and become an approved therapy in hospitals.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198312/

 

Reduce Anxiety with Mindfulness and Aroma Therapy

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Reduce Anxiety with Mindfulness and Aroma Therapy

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“If you have unproductive worries, you can train yourself to experience those thoughts completely differently. “You might think ‘I’m late, I might lose my job if I don’t get there on time, and it will be a disaster!’ Mindfulness teaches you to recognize, ‘Oh, there’s that thought again. I’ve been here before. But it’s just that—a thought, and not a part of my core self,’” – Elizabeth Hoge.

 

Everyone experiences occasional anxiety and that is normal. But, frequent or very high levels of anxiety can be quite debilitating. These are termed anxiety disorders and they are the most common psychological problem. In the U.S., they affect over 40 million adults, 18% of the population, with women accounting for 60% of sufferers One out of every three absences from work are caused by high levels of anxiety and it is the most common reason for chronic school absenteeism. In addition, people with an anxiety disorder are three-to-five times more likely to go to the doctor and six times more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric disorders than non-sufferers, making it a major burden on the healthcare system.

 

Anxiety disorders have generally been treated with drugs. It has been estimated that 11% of women in the U.S. are taking anti-anxiety medications. But, there are considerable side effects and these drugs are often abused. Although, psychological therapy can be effective it is costly and only available to a small number of sufferers. So, there is a need to develop alternative treatments. Recently, it has been found that mindfulness training can be effective for anxiety disorders. In addition, aromatherapy, the inhalation of essential oils, has been reported to reduce stress and anxiety, but there has been little systematic scientific study and none combining aromatherapy with mindfulness training.

 

In today’s Research News article “Aromatherapy with two essential oils from Satureja genre and mindfulness meditation to reduce anxiety in humans.” See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198818/

Soto-Vásquez & Alvarado-García investigated the individual and combined effects of aromatherapy and mindfulness on anxiety in otherwise normal humans. They recruited normal adults between the ages of 25 and 45 years and randomly assigned them to 6 different gender balanced groups; a wait-list control group, mindfulness meditation, aromatherapy with S. brevicalyx essential oil, aromatherapy with S. boliviana essential oil, mindfulness meditation plus aromatherapy with S. brevicalyx essential oil, and mindfulness meditation plus aromatherapy with S. boliviana essential oil. Interventions occurred for 12, 30-minute, sessions over 2 weeks administered Monday through Saturday. Participants were measured for both state and trait anxiety levels before and after treatment.

 

They found that all of the interventions resulted in a significant decrease in both state and trait anxiety levels. The meditation and aromatherapy interventions alone produced and average decrease in state anxiety of 24.1% and trait anxiety of 27.8%. But when meditation and aromatherapy were combined there was, on average, a greater decrease in state anxiety of 34.3% and trait anxiety of 42.4%, although the differences with monotherapy were not statistically significant. All of these effects were of significantly very large magnitude.

 

These are interesting results and suggest that both meditation and aromatherapy effectively reduce anxiety in normal adults. Although not significant the results provide a suggestion that the combination of meditation with aromatherapy produces a greater reduction in anxiety than either alone. This would suggest that they work through different mechanism which can produce additive effects. Unfortunately, the lack of an active control group, greatly reduces confidence in the results. The wait-list control group did not receive any attention, placebo, or active activity. Hence, the results could be due to attentional effects, placebo effects, practice effects, or experimenter bias effects. It remains for future research to investigate these effects with larger groups to improve statistical power and active control conditions to eliminate potential confounds.

 

Regardless, the results are suggestive that aromatherapy and meditation, alone or in combination, may be useful for reducing anxiety in normal humans.

 

“It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us. It’s also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living ‘in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behavior. An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience. This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. It’s about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.” – Mark Williams

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Soto-Vásquez, M. R., & Alvarado-García, P. A. A. (2017). Aromatherapy with two essential oils from Satureja genre and mindfulness meditation to reduce anxiety in humans. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, 7(1), 121–125. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcme.2016.06.003

 

Abstract

The goal of this study was to verify whether association of aromatherapy with essential oils of Satureja brevicalyx or Satureja boliviana and mindfulness meditation can reduce anxiety levels in humans. A randomized experimental trial was carried out with 108 participants who were divided into 6 groups, comprising a waiting list control group and five experimental groups. Aromatherapy was carried out by inhalation of essential oils while mindfulness intervention program was focused on “flow meditation”. The anxiety index was evaluated by State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Measures were taken two times: pretest and posttest. State and Trait anxiety scores showed a decrease in posttest study phase in comparison with pretest in all experimental groups (p < 0.005), especially in those where aromatherapy and mindfulness meditation were used together. All Cohen’s d scores were over to 1 that means a large size effect in anxiety variable. Percentages of change showed reductions of anxiety variable ranging between 20% and 47%. All treatments used isolated or associated, may be considered alternative treatment options for anxiety.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5198818/

Improve Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms with Mindfulness

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Improve Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“mindfulness can be conceptualized as a facilitator of transition, enabling people to adapt to living with a long-term condition, and that this transition is associated with improved, self-directed management, important to both people with long-term conditions and healthcare providers.” – Daniela Semedo

 

MS is a progressive demyelinating disease which attacks the coating on the neural axons which send messages throughout the body and nervous system. It affects about 2 million people worldwide and about 400,000 in the U.S. It is most commonly diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 and 50 years.  Unfortunately, there is no cure for multiple sclerosis. There are a number of approved medications that are used to treat MS but are designed to lessen frequency of relapses and slow the progression of the disease, but they don’t address individual symptoms.

 

Although there is a progressive deterioration, MS is not fatal with MS patients having about the same life expectancy as the general population. Hence, most MS sufferers have to live with the disease for many years. So, quality of life becomes a major issue. Quality of life with MS is affected by fatigue, cognitive decrements, physical impairment, depression, and poor sleep quality. There is a thus a critical need for safe and effective methods to help relieve the symptoms of MS and improve quality of life. Since mindfulness has been previously shown to improve depression, sleep quality, cognitive impairments, emotion regulation, and fatigue, it would seem likely that mindfulness practice might be effective in improving the quality of life and lessening fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis.

 

In today’s Research News article “The effect of group mindfulness-based stress reduction and consciousness yoga program on quality of life and fatigue severity in patients with MS.” See  summary below or view the full text of the study at http://journals.tbzmed.ac.ir/JCS/Manuscript/JCS-5-325.pdf

Nejati and colleagues recruited patients with multiple sclerosis, aged 20-45 years, who did not practice meditation or yoga, and randomly assigned them to receive either an 8-week program of meditation and yoga practice or treatment as usual (control). Training in meditation and yoga occurred in 8 weekly 2-hour sessions with home practice. Both groups were measured before and after treatment for multiple sclerosis quality of life, psychiatric diseases, and fatigue.

 

They found that the meditation and yoga practice produced significant improvements in the multiple sclerosis quality of life subscales including physical health, role limitations due to physical and emotional problems, energy, emotional well-being, health distress, health perception, and satisfaction with sexual function, overall quality of life, and fatigue severity. There was no improvement found in overall health.

 

It should be noted that this was a quasi-experimental design as the control group did not receive any active additional treatment. Hence, various confounding factors such as placebo effects, attentional effects, etc. could have been responsible for the results. In addition, since the intervention contained both meditation and yoga practice, it cannot be determined which one or both were responsible for the improvements.

 

Nevertheless, the results are encouraging and suggest the mindfulness training might be effective in relieving fatigue and improving the quality of life in patients with multiple sclerosis. Since these patients will likely be spending the rest of their lives coping with the disease, making it easier for them to function and improving the quality of their lives is vitally important to their ling-term well-being.

 

So, improve multiple sclerosis symptoms with mindfulness.

 

“Living with the pain, discomfort, and the uncertainties of MS can lead to feelings of frustration, anger, anxiety, and depression. These feelings can lead to physiological changes such as increased fatigue and muscle pain, impaired memory and concentration, and poor sleep. “By becoming mindful and aware of our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, we can better control situations, and we have more choices. Mindful awareness helps us to become fully conscious of the world as it is, rather than how we wish it could be.” – Regina Boyle Wheeler

 

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Nejati S, Rajezi Esfahani S, Rahmani S, Afrookhteh G, Hoveida Sh. The effect of group mindfulness-based stress reduction and consciousness yoga program on quality of life and fatigue severity in patients with MS. J Caring Sci 2016; 5 (4): 325-35. doi:10.15171/jcs.2016.034.

 

Abstract

Introduction: The chronic nature of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), have can leave devastating effects on quality of life and fatigue. The present research aimed to study the effect of group Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and conscious yoga program on the quality of life and fatigue severity among patients with MS. Methods: This study was quasi-experimental with intervention and control groups. The statistical population included all members to MS Society of Tehran Province, 24 of whom diagnosed with MS were selected as the sample based on the inclusion criteria. The subjects were randomly assigned into the test group (12 patients) and the control group (12 patients). MS Quality of Life-54 (MSQOL-54) and Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) were used for data collection. Subjects in the test group underwent a MBSR and conscious yoga program in 8 two-hour sessions. The data were analyzed using the SPSS ver.13 software. Results: The study findings showed that there was a significant difference between subjects in the experimental and control groups in terms of mean score of some subscales of quality of life including physical health, role limitations due to physical and emotional problems, energy, emotional well-being, health distress, health perception, and satisfaction with sexual function, overall quality of life, and fatigue severity. Conclusion: The results show that the program is effective in reduction of fatigue severity and improving some subscales of quality of life in MS patients. Hence, this supportive method can be used as an effective way for improving quality of life and relieving fatigue in MS patients.

http://journals.tbzmed.ac.ir/JCS/Manuscript/JCS-5-325.pdf

 

Increase Connectedness by Meditating in Pairs

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Increase Connectedness by Meditating in Pairs

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Couples meditation provides a great way for you and your partner to tune your instruments to one another. By taking a few minutes to meditate with your partner, you greatly increase your chances of having meaningful conversation and intimate connection. Couples meditation is a way of bringing your emotional state and psychological rhythms into alignment.” –  John Wise

 

Meditation training has been shown to improve health and well-being. It has also been found to be effective for a large array of medical and psychiatric conditions, either stand-alone or in combination with more traditional therapies. As a result, meditation training has been called the third wave of therapies. One problem with understanding meditation effects is that there are, a wide variety of meditation techniques and it is not known which work best for improving different conditions. Also, meditation occurs in a variety of social conditions. It is practiced, alone, with another, dyad, or with groups of varying sizes. It is not known what the effects, if any, of these different social conditions might be on the effectiveness of meditation practice.

 

Four types of meditation are the most commonly used practices for research purposes. In body scan meditation, the individual focuses on the feelings and sensations of specific parts of the body, systematically moving attention from one area to another. Loving kindness meditation is designed to develop kindness and compassion to oneself and others. The individual systematically pictures different individuals from self, to close friends, to enemies and wishes them happiness, well-being, safety, peace, and ease of well-being. In focused attention meditation, the individual practices paying attention to a single meditation object, learns to filter out distracting stimuli, including thoughts, and learns to stay focused on the present moment, filtering out thoughts centered around the past or future. On the other hand, in open monitoring meditation, the individual opens up awareness to everything that’s being experienced regardless of its origin. These include bodily sensations, external stimuli, and even thoughts. The meditator just observes these stimuli and lets them arise, and fall away without paying them any further attention.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effects of Contemplative Dyads on Engagement and Perceived Social Connectedness Over 9 Months of Mental Training: A Randomized Clinical Trial.” See:summary below, Kok and Singer investigate the effectiveness of loving kindness meditation and open monitoring meditation practiced in dyads; meditating in pairs. They recruited normal adults aged between 20 to 55 and randomly assigned them to two different orders of conditions in a complex research design. Training in meditation began with a 3-day retreat, followed by 3 months of home-based breath focused attention and body scan meditations practiced in pairs, dyads. The first group of participants then spent 3 months practicing loving kindness meditation in combination with a taking turns for 5-minutes describing feelings and bodily sensations during a difficult situation. The next 3 months they practiced open monitoring meditation in combination with a taking turns for 5-minutes describing a recent situation from the perspective of a randomly assigned “inner part.,” e.g. “the judge” or “the loving mother.” The second group reversed the order to these home-based 3-month dyadic practices.  The participants reported daily on their feeling states, contents of thought, meta-cognition, closeness to their partner, valence, and arousal.

 

They found that the participants liked the loving kindness meditation segment best. Self-disclosures increased and became more personal over the training but this did not differ between conditions. Both conditions also produced significant increases in felt closeness to the partner, but the loving kindness meditation segment produced the greatest increase and the fastest rate of increase in this sense of connectedness.

 

These results suggest that meditating in pairs is an effective technique producing the usual benefits of meditation and also a social benefit of increasing felt closeness and self-disclosure. This could help in relieving loneliness that is often associated with depression. Loving kindness meditation appeared to be best in promoting these social benefits. Future research needs to investigate the impact of this improved social connectedness on the physical and mental health of the participants. This research is a step in the right direction of better understanding the consequences of different meditation types performed in different social conditions. Such an understanding should improve the targeting of specific meditation techniques to specific physical or psychological needs.

 

So, increase connectedness by meditating in pairs.

 

 “If you are partnered perhaps either you haven’t felt as connected as you used to or things are going great but you want to make them even better. In either case, meditating together daily, or as often as possible, could make a big difference in the quality of your relationship.” – Your Tango

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

Kok BE, Singer T. Effects of Contemplative Dyads on Engagement and Perceived Social Connectedness Over 9 Months of Mental Training A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. Published online December 28, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.3360

 

Key Points

Question  Can 2 newly developed dyadic contemplative exercises increase perceived social connectedness?

Findings  In this randomized clinical trial of 242 healthy adults, social closeness increased during a 10-minute dyadic practice session for both the socioaffective affect dyad and the sociocognitive perspective dyad. Furthermore, predyad social closeness and self-disclosure increased significantly for both dyads over the 3 months of a given training module.

Meaning  Contemplative dyadic exercises may effectively prevent or reduce the detrimental effects of loneliness and the social deficits often observed in many psychopathologies by increasing perceived social connectedness.

Abstract

IMPORTANCE:

Loneliness is a risk factor for depression and other illnesses and may be caused and reinforced by maladaptive social cognition. Secularized classical meditation training programs address social cognition, but practice typically occurs alone. Little is known about the effectiveness of contemplative practice performed in dyads.

OBJECTIVE:

To introduce and assess the effectiveness of contemplative dyadic practices relative to classical-solitary meditation with regard to engagement and perceived social connectedness.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS:

The ReSource Project was a 9-month open-label efficacy trial of three, 3-month secularized mental training modules. Replacement randomization was used to assign 362 healthy participants in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany. Eligible participants were recruited between November 11, 2012, and February 13, 2013, and between November 13, 2013, and April 30, 2014. Intention-to-treat analyses were conducted.

INTERVENTIONS:

Breathing meditation and body scan (the presence module), loving-kindness meditation and affect dyad (the affect module), and observing-thoughts meditation and perspective dyad (the perspective module).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES:

Primary outcomes were self-disclosure and social closeness. Engagement measures included compliance (ie, the mean [95% margin of error] number of meditation sessions that a participant engaged in per week), liking, and motivation to practice.

RESULTS:

Thirty participants dropped out after assignment to 3 experimental groups; 90 participants were assigned to a retest control that did not complete the main outcome measures; 16 participants provided no state-change data for the affect and perspective modules (226 remaining participants; mean age of 41.15 years; 59.3% female). Results are aggregated across training cohorts. Compliance was similar across the modules: loving-kindness meditation (3.78 [0.18] sessions), affect dyad (3.59 [0.14] sessions), observing-thoughts meditation (3.63 [0.20] sessions), and perspective dyad (3.24 [0.18] sessions). Motivation was higher for meditation (11.20 [0.40] sessions) than the dyads (9.26 [0.43] sessions) and was higher for the affect dyad (10.11 [0.46] sessions) than the perspective dyad (8.41 [0.46] sessions). Social closeness increased during a session for the affect dyad (1.49 [0.12] sessions) and the perspective dyad (1.06 [0.12] sessions) and increased over time for the affect dyad (slope of 0.016 [0.003]) and the perspective dyad (slope of 0.012 [0.003]). Self-disclosure increased over time for the affect dyad (slope of 0.023 [0.004]) and the perspective dyad (slope of 0.006 [0.005]), increasing more steeply for the affect dyad (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE:

Contemplative dyads elicited engagement similar to classical contemplative practices and increased perceived social connectedness. Contemplative dyads represent a new type of intervention targeting social connectedness and intersubjective capacities deficient in participants who experience loneliness and in many psychopathologies.

Meditation Practice Amplifies Awareness of the Cause of an Event

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Meditation Practice Amplifies Awareness of the Cause of an Event

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“What is an illusion is when you are looking but not seeing completely, listening but also daydreaming. To walk around half perceiving and half in a daydream, this is to walk around in an illusion and in a dream. What is worse is when the dreams of the mind cloud perception.” –  Brian Miles

 

Meditation, by training and improving attention to everything that occurs, is thought to produce a greater awareness of cause and effect. This is particularly evident in recognizing when an event was caused by one’s own volitional actions. One way to measure this is called “Intentional binding.” It refers to the subjectively reported time compression that occurs between an intentional action and its outcome when compared to the timing of an action alone and of an event that does not depend upon an action” (Haggard, Clark and Kalogeras 2002). In other words, when an event is perceived to have been produced intentionally, the time between the cause and effect is experienced as shorter than if there was no intention involved.

 

It would be predicted, then, that if experienced meditators had better attentional ability that they should show greater “Intentional binding” than non-meditators; they should estimate less time between a cause and an effect when they are the initiator of the event than when they are not.. In today’s Research News article “Illusory Temporal Binding in Meditators.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1478243438866244/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-016-0583-z/fulltext.html

Lush and colleagues examine this prediction. They recruited experienced meditators with on average 15 years of experience and a group of age and gender matched non-meditators. The participants either initiated the presentation of a tone by pressing a button which produced the tone a quarter of a second later or simply observed the tone presented by the computer. After a delay the participants move a clock hand to the time that they experienced the tone occurring. The difference between the actual time and the perceived time of the tone was measured. “Intentional binding” was measured by the difference between the errors for the intentional and the non-intentional conditions.

 

They found that meditators errors were significantly greater in estimating the time of occurrence of the tone as earlier when they initiated the tone than when they didn’t. This suggests greater “Intentional binding” for the meditators than the matched non-meditators. Although this is a fairly indirect way of measuring the individual’s ability to recognize the cause of an event, it suggests that meditation improves the individual’s ability to recognize intention. This, in turn, suggests that meditation training makes an individual more aware of agency, that is what caused and event to occur.

 

These results further document the improvements in attentional ability produced by meditation practice. In this case the attention to the cause of events occurring in their experience. Meditation practice appears to alter our mental processing of experience heightening our attention to and awareness of what is occurring around us. Since most modern people are constantly distracted and rarely in contact with what is actually happening around them in the present moment, meditation practice would appear to be an antidote to the modern disease of inattention to the present.

 

“Whether you’re interested in mindfulness or cognitive neuroscience, perception is at the heart of your work with others.  Helping people become aware of their perceptions assists them in counterbalancing a tendency to become awash with their affect.“ – Megan Van Meter

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Lush, P., Parkinson, J. & Dienes, Z. Illusory Temporal Binding in Meditators.  Mindfulness (2016) 7: 1416. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0583-z

 

Abstract

We investigate conditions in which more accurate metacognition may lead to greater susceptibility to illusion and thus conditions under which mindfulness meditation may lead to less accurate perceptions. Specifically, greater awareness of intentions may lead to an illusory compression of time between a voluntary action and its outcome (“intentional binding”). Here, we report that experienced Buddhist mindfulness meditators rather than non-meditators display a greater illusory shift of the timing of an outcome toward an intentional action. Mindfulness meditation involves awareness of causal connections between different mental states, including intentions. We argue that this supports improvements in metacognition targeted at motor intentions. Changes in metacognitive ability may result in an earlier and less veridical experience of the timing of action outcomes either through increased access to sensorimotor pre-representations of an action outcome or by affording greater precision to action timing judgements. Furthermore, as intentional binding is an implicit measure of the sense of agency; these results also provide evidence that mindfulness meditators experience a stronger sense of agency.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-016-0583-z/fulltext.html

 

 

Reduce Amygdala Mediated Stress responses with Mindfulness

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Reduce Amygdala Mediated Stress responses with Mindfulness

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“It is vital to practice mindfulness to ensure you help the mind to relieve stress. Notably, constant fear and anxiety are likely to sabotage and hinder achievements. Mindfulness can be effective in dealing with both stress and anxiety.“ – Pick the Brain

 

Stress is an integral part of life. In fact, I’ve quipped that the definition of death is when stress ceases. People often think of stress as a bad thing. But, it is in fact essential to the health of the body. If the muscles are not stressed to some extent they deteriorate. As it turns out, this is also true for the brain. The same goes for our psychological health. If we don’t have any stress, we call it boredom. In fact, we invest time and resources in stressing ourselves, e.g. ridding rollercoasters, sky diving, competing in sports, etc. We say we love a challenge, but, challenges are all stressful. So, we actually love to stress ourselves. In moderation, it is healthful and provides interest and fun to life.

 

If stress, is high or is prolonged, however, it can be problematic. It can damage our physical and mental health and even reduce our longevity, leading to premature deaths. So, it is important that we employ methods to either reduce or control high or prolonged stress or reduce our responses to it. Mindfulness practices have been found routinely to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress. It is known that stress not only affects the body but also affects the brain, producing changes particularly in neural circuits involving the Amygdala. Mindfulness also alters the brain, particularly neural circuits involved in attention, executive functions, and emotion regulation. This suggests that mindfulness may also alter the Amygdala circuits in the brain to affect the stress responses.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1470331626324092/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666115/

Taren and colleagues recruited adult participants from the community and measure perceived stress and also scanned their brains with functional magnetic imaging (f-MRI). They found that the greater the perceived stress in the individual the greater the functional connectivity between the Amygdala and the Cingulate Cortex. This verified the notion that stress can act by altering the neural circuits involving the Amygdala but was correlational and did not demonstrate causation.

 

Taren and colleagues then went on to examine the effects of meditation practice on these Amygdala circuits. They recruited unemployed community participants who were seeking employment and also exhibited high stress levels and randomly assigned them to either an intensive 3-day mindfulness meditation condition or a 3-day rest and relaxation condition. The mindfulness practice consisted of the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program condensed into an intensive 3-day period. In the rest and relaxation condition, the participants engaged in similar activities to those included in an MBSR program but were instructed to do them in a restful way rather than a mindful way. Before and after the 3-day intervention the participants underwent f-MRI scans of their brains.

 

The researchers found that prior to the intervention period both groups displayed relatively high functional connectivity of the Amygdala with the Cingulate Cortex, but following meditation training, but not relaxation, there was a significant reduction in this connectivity. They also found that a biological marker of stress, cortisol levels, was inversely related to reductions in the connectivity; the greater the reduction in connectivity the greater the reduction in the cortisol levels. This suggests that mindfulness training reduces stress responses by reducing the ability of the Amygdala to affect other brain regions.

 

These results are interesting and provide evidence of the types of changes in the brain produced by mindfulness training that underlie the stress reducing properties of mindfulness training. The Amygdala is known to be involved in stress responses and emotionality so reducing its ability to affect other neural structures would appear to be critical for mindfulness’ stress reducing properties. Hence, a coherent picture is emerging of the physiological mechanisms underlying the ability of mindfulness to reduce stress responses.

 

So, reduce amygdala mediated stress responses with mindfulness.

 

“The picture we have is that mindfulness practice increases one’s ability to recruit higher order, pre-frontal cortex regions in order to down-regulate lower-order brain activity. In other words, our more primal responses to stress seem to be superseded by more thoughtful ones.” – Adrienne Taren

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Taren, A. A., Gianaros, P. J., Greco, C. M., Lindsay, E. K., Fairgrieve, A., Brown, K. W., … Creswell, J. D. (2015). Mindfulness meditation training alters stress-related amygdala resting state functional connectivity: a randomized controlled trial. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 10(12), 1758–1768. http://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsv066

 

Abstract

Recent studies indicate that mindfulness meditation training interventions reduce stress and improve stress-related health outcomes, but the neural pathways for these effects are unknown. The present research evaluates whether mindfulness meditation training alters resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) of the amygdala, a region known to coordinate stress processing and physiological stress responses. We show in an initial discovery study that higher perceived stress over the past month is associated with greater bilateral amygdala-subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) rsFC in a sample of community adults (n = 130). A follow-up, single-blind randomized controlled trial shows that a 3-day intensive mindfulness meditation training intervention (relative to a well-matched 3-day relaxation training intervention without a mindfulness component) reduced right amygdala-sgACC rsFC in a sample of stressed unemployed community adults (n = 35). Although stress may increase amygdala-sgACC rsFC, brief training in mindfulness meditation could reverse these effects. This work provides an initial indication that mindfulness meditation training promotes functional neuroplastic changes, suggesting an amygdala-sgACC pathway for stress reduction effects.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666115/

 

Improve Personality and Well-being with a Meditation Retreat

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Improve Personality and Well-being with a Meditation Retreat

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Even if you’re terrified, even if you have no interest in being a monk and you’re not an extremist by nature, I know that sitting in silence for 10 days will blow your mind.” – MeiMei Fox

 

Retreat can be a powerful experience. But, in some ways, is like being on vacation. Everything is taken care of, beds made, towels and linens provided, all meals prepared, and time is dictated by a detailed schedule of meditations, talks, question and answer periods, and reflective time. All the individual has to do is show up, meditate, relax, contemplate and listen. The retreatants are terribly spoiled! That seeming ease, however, is deceptive. Retreat is actually quite difficult and challenging. It can be very tiring as it can run from early in the morning till late at night every day. It can also be physically challenging as engaging in sitting meditation repeatedly over the day is guaranteed to produce many aches and pains in the legs, back, and neck. But the real challenges are psychological, emotional, and spiritual. Retreat can be a real test.

 

Retreat isn’t all relaxation and fun. Far from it. The darkness can descend. During silent retreat, deep emotional issues can emerge and may even overwhelm the individual. Many participants will spontaneously burst out in tears. Others may become overwhelmed with fear and anxiety and break out in cold sweats, and still others are sleepless and tormented. How can this be, that something so seemingly peaceful as silent retreat can be so emotionally wrenching? The secret is that the situation removes the minds ability to hide and distract.

 

Humans have done a tremendous job of providing distractions for the mind including books, movies, magazines, music, television, sports, amusement parks, surfing the internet, tweeting, texting, etc. Any time troubling thoughts or memories of traumatic experiences begin to emerge in everyday life, the subject can easily be changed by engaging in a distraction. So, the issues never have to truly be confronted. But, in silent retreat there is no escape. Difficult issues emerge and there is no place to hide. They must be confronted and experienced. For some people this may be the first time in their entire life that they’ve had to directly face themselves and their darkest thoughts. It’s no wonder that retreat can be so wrenching.

 

With all these difficulties, why would anyone want to put themselves through such an ordeal and go on a meditation retreat? People go because retreat has many profound and sometimes life altering benefits. The benefits of retreat were investigated in today’s Research News article “Psychological Effects of a 1-Month Meditation Retreat on Experienced Meditators.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1469065896450665/?type=3&theater

or see summary below or view the full text of the study at:

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01935/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w51-2016

Montero-Marin and colleagues recruited experienced meditators who participated in a 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat, with 8-9 hours of meditation and 1-2 hours of teaching each day, and compared them to a control group of experienced meditators matched on gender, age, ethnicity, educational, and type of meditation practice. They were measured before and after the retreat for non-attachment, decentering, mindfulness, loving kindness, compassion, joy, and acceptance toward both the self and others, positive and negative affect, satisfaction with life, temperament, and character.

 

They found that following the retreat participants, compared to controls, showed increased non-attachment, observing, mindfulness, positive-affect, balance-affect, and cooperativeness; and decreased describing, negative-others, reward-dependence and self-directedness. Employing a sophisticated statistical technique, they were able to show that non-attachment had a mediating role in decentring, acting aware, non-reactivity, negative-affect, balance-affect and self-directedness; and a moderating role in describing and positive others, with both mediating and moderating effects on satisfaction with life. Hence, attending a 1-month retreat produced improvements in non-attachment, which, in turn, produced improvements in mindfulness, positive emotions, temperament and character.

 

These are important results demonstrating the ability of participation in retreat to powerfully affect an individual beyond what is accomplished by long-term experience meditating. Concentrated practice over an extended period during retreat appears to magnify the effects of meditation, producing even greater positive benefits to the individual. Hence, even though retreat can be difficult, physically and emotionally, it is clear that its benefits, for many, far exceed its costs. This isn’t even considering the powerful spiritual experiences that can occur during retreat. This might account for the popularity of retreat and why it has been seen as an essential component of practice over hundreds of years.

 

So, improve personality and well-being with a meditation retreat.

 

“The retreat helped me realize that I’m full of desire, of longings for raw experience, and unbelievably controlling of how my life is lived. It sounds simple, but one week of silence may give you a hint, maybe more reliably than almost anything else, of who you are.” – Tim Wu

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts

 

Study Summary

Montero-Marin J, Puebla-Guedea M, Herrera-Mercadal P, Cebolla A, Soler J, Demarzo M, Vazquez C, Rodríguez-Bornaetxea F and García-Campayo J (2016) Psychological Effects of a 1-Month Meditation Retreat on Experienced Meditators: The Role of Non-attachment. Front. Psychol. 7:1935. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01935

 

Background: There are few studies devoted to assessing the impact of meditation-intensive retreats on the well-being, positive psychology, and personality of experienced meditators. We aimed to assess whether a 1-month Vipassana retreat: (a) would increase mindfulness and well-being; (b) would increase prosocial personality traits; and (c) whether psychological changes would be mediated and/or moderated by non-attachment.

Method: A controlled, non-randomized, pre-post-intervention trial was used. The intervention group was a convenience sample (n = 19) of experienced meditators who participated in a 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat. The control group (n = 19) comprised matched experienced meditators who did not take part in the retreat. During the retreat, the mean duration of daily practice was 8–9 h, the diet was vegetarian and silence was compulsory. The Experiences Questionnaire (EQ), Non-attachment Scale (NAS), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Temperament Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R-67), Five Facets Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Self-Other Four Immeasurables (SOFI) and the MINDSENS Composite Index were administered. ANCOVAs and linear regression models were used to assess pre-post changes and mediation/moderation effects.

Results: Compared to controls, retreatants showed increases in non-attachment, observing, MINDSENS, positive-affect, balance-affect, and cooperativeness; and decreases in describing, negative-others, reward-dependence and self-directedness. Non-attachment had a mediating role in decentring, acting aware, non-reactivity, negative-affect, balance-affect and self-directedness; and a moderating role in describing and positive others, with both mediating and moderating effects on satisfaction with life.

Conclusions: A 1-month Vipassana meditation retreat seems to yield improvements in mindfulness, well-being, and personality, even in experienced meditators. Non-attachment might facilitate psychological improvements of meditation, making it possible to overcome possible ceiling effects ascribed to non-intensive practices.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01935/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w51-2016