Emotions

Improve Security Guards Coping with Emotions with Yoga

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Improve Security Guards Coping with Emotions with Yoga

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Officer safety and wellness can improve when agency leaders are willing to support a shift in the culture that is innovative and supports mind-body approaches to health and well-being.” – Jennifer Elliott

 

It is understood that policing is difficult and stressful. Police are hired, trained, and paid by government entities and as such have reasonable compensations and job security. But, private security service is one of the most rapidly growing occupations worldwide employing a large cadre of people. They are generally hired, trained, and paid by private companies or in some cases are volunteers. In the United States there are over a million security guards employed and providing security services to businesses, schools, medical facilities, private homes, casino surveillance, and involved in investigations. Their compensation tends to be low with a median yearly income of $24,410.

 

It has been demonstrated that officers and civilian staff in law enforcement agencies face enormous stress that can have a negative impact on physical, psychological, and emotional health. But, with security guards, there is very little known about the stresses involved in these positions and their impact on the health and well-being of the guards. In one study, people in different occupations rated their satisfaction and happiness with their jobs. Security guard was rated as the unhappiest career. This was primarily due to a perceived lack of rewards and growth opportunities. Another study found that security guard was rated as a stressful occupation, to some extent due to often working late hours alone. Stress is known to have negative effects on physical and mental health. It is likely that security guards are not immune.

 

It has been shown that mindfulness practices in general can reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress and improve emotion regulation. Yoga practice in particular has been shown to reduce stress and improve emotions. So, it would make sense to investigate whether yoga practice could be used to improve the emotional states of guards.

 

In India, the Home Guards are a volunteer group that provides security for public events such as festivals, elections, sporting events, traffic control, etc. In today’s Research News article “Effect of integrated Yoga module on positive and negative emotions in Home Guards in Bengaluru: A wait list randomized control trial”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1212075688816355/?type=3&theater

or see below, or for full text see

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728956/

Amaranath and colleagues studied the emotional health of these Home Guards and investigated the impact of integrated yoga practice. Home Guards were randomly assigned to either a yoga group or no treatment. The yoga group practiced yoga for 2 months for 1 hour per day for 6 days per week. Positive and negative emotions were measured. Positive emotions included attentive, interested, excited, strong, enthusiastic, determined, proud, inspired, active, alert, happy, pleased, content, and glad.  Negative emotions included afraid, distressed, upset, jittery, guilty, nervous, scared, hostile, ashamed, irritable, disappointed, sad, unhappy, troubled, and miserable. These positive and negative emotions were measured before and after the 2-months of yoga practice.

 

They found that yoga practice produced and increase in positive emotions and a decrease in negative emotions in the Home Guards. On the other hand, the control group had the opposite effect with a decrease in positive emotions and an increase in negative emotions.  The yoga group showed the greatest changes in the positive emotions of content, glad, pleased, and excited and the greatest reductions in the negative emotions of disappointed, distressed, upset, sad, and unhappy. Hence yoga practice had a large beneficial effect on the emotional states of the Home Guards .

 

These results are interesting but it should be noted that the study lacked an active control. So, it is impossible to determine if the effects were due to yoga practice specifically, or possibly simply to exercise or subject expectancy effects, demand characteristic, etc. It remains for more tightly controlled studies to determine the exact cause of the emotional improvements in the Home Guards.

 

Nevertheless, it is clear that yoga practice can improve security guards coping with emotions.

 

“the scientific study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are not just closely allied, but are essentially equivalent. The evidence is growing that yoga practice is a relatively low-risk, high-yield approach to improving overall health.” – Harvard Medical Health Letter

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

 

Study Summary

Amaranath, B., Nagendra, H. R., & Deshpande, S. (2016). Effect of integrated Yoga module on positive and negative emotions in Home Guards in Bengaluru: A wait list randomized control trial. International Journal of Yoga, 9(1), 35–43. http://doi.org/10.4103/0973-6131.171719

 

Abstract

Background: The beneficial aspect of positive emotions on the process of learning and the harmful effect of negative emotions on coping with stress and health are well-documented through studies. The Home Guards (HGs) are working in a very stressful situation during election, managing traffic and other crowded places. It is quite essential in present day circumstances that they have to manage their emotions and cope up with different stressful situations.

Objective: To study the efficacy of integrated Yoga module (IYM) on emotions (positive and negative affect [PA and NA]) of HGs.

Methods: A total of 148 HGs both males and females who qualified the inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly divided into Yoga group (YG) and control groups (CG). The YG had supervised practice sessions (by trained experts) for 1 h daily, 6 days a week for 8 weeks along with their regular routine work whereas CG performing their routine work. Positive affect negative affect scale (PANAS) was assessed before and after 8 weeks using a modified version of PANAS.

Results: PA in YG had significantly increased (P < 0.05) whereas it had decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in CG. Other positive effect in YG had significantly increased (P < 0.001), whereas it had decreased significantly (P< 0.001) in CG. NA in YG had significantly decreased (P < 0.001), whereas it had significantly increased (P< 0.001) in CG. Other NA in YG had significantly decreased (P < 0.001), whereas it had significantly increased (P < 0.01) in CG.

Conclusions: The results suggested that IYM can be useful for HGs to improve the PA and to decrease NA score. Moreover, IYM is cost-effective and helps HGs for coping up with emotions in stressful situations.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4728956/

Mindfully Control Back Pain

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“MBSR is a practice that can help you “turn the volume down” on the perception of back pain by teaching you to look into the pain, and being with the experience and not resisting it so much. Looking into our emotional reactivity to it. Focusing on the present, rather than being bitter about the past or worried about the future about your back pain, helps you take ownership of the situation (i.e., accept your pain), and ultimately, find creative solutions for pain relief. It trains you to be in control of your mind, not for your mind to control you.” – Mark Neenan
Low Back Pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide and affects between 6% to 15% of the population. It is estimated, however, that 80% of the population will experience back pain sometime during their lives. There are varied treatments for low back pain including chiropractic care, acupuncture, biofeedback, physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, massage, surgery, opiate pain killing drugs, steroid injections, and muscle relaxant drugs. These therapies are sometimes effective particularly for acute back pain. But, for chronic conditions the treatments are less effective and often require continuing treatment for years and opiate pain killers are dangerous and can lead to abuse and addiction. Obviously, there is a need for safe and effective treatments for low back pain that are low cost and don’t have troublesome side effects.

 

Pain involves both physical and psychological issues. The stress, fear, and anxiety produced by pain tends to elicit responses that actually amplify the pain. So, reducing the emotional reactions to pain may be helpful in pain management. Mindfulness practices have been shown to improve emotion regulation producing more adaptive and less maladaptive responses to emotions. So, it would seem reasonable to project that mindfulness practices would be helpful in pain management. Indeed, these practices have been shown to be safe and  beneficial in pain management in general and Yoga and mindfulness has been shown to specifically improve back pain. Mindfulness Based Stress Reductions (MBSR) programs contain both yoga and mindfulness practices. So, it would seem reasonable to project that MBSR practice would improve emotion regulation and thereby be beneficial for back pain.

 

In today’s Research News article “Brain and behavior changes associated with an abbreviated 4-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course in back pain patients”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1205293852827872/?type=3&theater

or see below.

Braden and colleagues investigate the effectiveness of a 4-week program of Mindfulness Based Stress Reductions (MBSR) for the treatment of low back pain. They randomly assigned patients with chronic low back pain to either an MBSR or reading control group. They found that only the MBSR group reported a significant decrease in low back pain and the somatic-affective aspects of depression following the MBSR training. In addition, they performed functional magnetic imaging of the brains of the patients, both before and after training, during a task designed to induce emotions. They found that after MBSR training there was increased activity in response to emotions in the subgenual Anterior Cingulate Cortex and the ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex. Both of these areas have been associated with emotion regulation processing.

 

Hence the results suggest that a 4-week MBSR training program can be effective for the relief of low back pain and the improvement in emotions. The results suggest that the improvements may have been due to changes in brain processing of emotions produced by the MBSR training. Unfortunately, at a one year follow up the reductions in pain and depression were not maintained. This suggests that an abbreviated program of 4 weeks of MBSR (the standard program is 8-weeks) may be able to improve the patients but not sufficient to produce lasting effects. It remains to be shown if the standard 8-week program can produce more lasting effects. Regardless, the findings provide support for further research into the utility of MBSR training for the treatment of chronic low back pain.

 

So, mindfully control back pain.

 

“Mindfulness soothes the circuits that amplify secondary pain and you can see this process happening in a brain scanner. In effect, mindfulness teaches you how to turn down the volume control on your pain. And as you do so, any anxiety, stress and depression that you may be feeling begins to melt away too. Your body can then relax and begin to heal.” – Danny Penman

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

 

Study Summary

Braden BB, Pipe TB, Smith R, Glaspy TK, Deatherage BR, Baxter LC. Brain and behavior changes associated with an abbreviated 4-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course in back pain patients. Brain Behav. 2016 Feb 16:e00443. [Epub ahead of print]

 

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduces depression, anxiety, and pain for people suffering from a variety of illnesses, and there is a growing need to understand the neurobiological networks implicated in self-reported psychological change as a result of training. Combining complementary and alternative treatments such as MBSR with other therapies is helpful; however, the time commitment of the traditional 8-week course may impede accessibility. This pilot study aimed to (1) determine if an abbreviated MBSR course improves symptoms in chronic back pain patients and (2) examine the neural and behavioral correlates of MBSR treatment.

METHODS: Participants were assigned to 4 weeks of weekly MBSR training (n = 12) or a control group (stress reduction reading; n = 11). Self-report ratings and task-based functional MRI were obtained prior to, and after, MBSR training, or at a yoked time point in the control group.

RESULTS: While both groups showed significant improvement in total depression symptoms, only the MBSR group significantly improved in back pain and somatic-affective depression symptoms. The MBSR group also uniquely showed significant increases in regional frontal lobe hemodynamic activity associated with gaining awareness to changes in one’s emotional state.

CONCLUSIONS: An abbreviated MBSR course may be an effective complementary intervention that specifically improves back pain symptoms and frontal lobe regulation of emotional awareness, while the traditional 8-week course may be necessary to detect unique improvements in total anxiety and cognitive aspects of depression.

 

Improve Gastrointestinal Disorders with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

 “The functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are a group of more than 20 chronic and hard to treat medical conditions of the gastrointestinal tract that constitute a large proportion of the presenting problems seen in clinical gastroenterology.” – Jennifer Wolkin

 

Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders are the most common disorders of the gastrointestinal tract in the general population. The most common disorder in this group is Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders can involve the esophagus, stomach and/or intestines and are disorders of function (how these structures work), not structural or biochemical abnormalities. Estimates vary, but about 25% of people in the United States have one of these disorders. The conditions account for about 40% of GI problems seen by doctors and therapists.

 

The cause(s) of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders are not known. But, emotion dysregulation is suspected to be involved. It is clear that psychological stress exacerbates the illnesses and anxiety amplifies the symptoms. This suggests that mindfulness or the lack thereof may be involved as mindfulness is known to be helpful in reducing the psychological and physical responses to stress and mindfulness is known to improve emotion regulation. In addition, contemplative practice has been shown to improve the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. So, it would make sense to further investigate the relationship of mindfulness to emotion regulation, stress, and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders.

 

In today’s Research News article “Difficulties in Emotion Regulation and Mindfulness in Psychological and Somatic Symptoms of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1178359818854609/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4733315/

Mazaheri investigated the relationships between gastrointestinal symptoms, emotions, emotion regulation, and mindfulness in patients diagnosed with Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. They found that the higher the levels of either depression, anxiety, or stress the greater the GI symptoms and that the lower the levels of emotion regulation the greater the symptoms. Significantly, they found that high levels of mindfulness were associated with lower levels of GI symptoms, depression, anxiety, and stress and with higher levels of emotion regulation.

 

The results support the contention that an inability to regulate emotions and stress are an important factor in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. In addition, they suggest that mindfulness is not only associated with lower levels of emotion and psychological stress but also with a greater ability to regulate these emotions. It should be noted that the results of this study are strictly observational and correlational and as such no conclusion about causation can be reached. But, the results give strong support to the need to perform a randomized controlled trial where mindfulness is trained and its effects on emotion regulation and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders are measured.

 

With the caveat that causation hasn’t been established, it can be speculated that mindfulness training may be a safe and effective method for both the prevention and treatment of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. Mindfulness’ ability to improve emotion regulation may help the individual to be able to better experience emotions but respond to them in an effective and adaptive manner, lessening their impact. It remains for future research to investigate this exciting possibility.

 

So, improve gastrointestinal disorders with mindfulness.

 

“patients with heightened GI-specific anxiety may benefit from participation in a mindfulness programme as an adjunct to their usual clinical care.” – D. J. Kearney

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Better Control Drinking with Mindfulness

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“mindfulness gives us the strength psychologically and neurologically to sit in discomfort, to lean into the void, as opposed to avoid it and jump to our addiction.” – Mindful Muscle

 

Inappropriate use of alcohol is a major societal problem. In fact, about 25% of US adults have engaged in binge drinking in the last month and 7% have what is termed an alcohol use disorder. Alcohol abuse is very dangerous and frequently fatal. Nearly 88,000 people in the US and 3.3 million globally die from alcohol-related causes annually, making it the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Drunk driving accounted for over 10,000 deaths; 31% of all driving fatalities. Excessive alcohol intake has been shown to contribute to over 200 diseases including alcohol dependence, liver cirrhosis, cancers, and injuries. It is estimated that over 5% of the burden of disease and injury worldwide is attributable to alcohol consumption.

 

Alcohol abuse often develops during adolescence and it on display with college students where about four out of five college students drink alcohol and about half of those consume alcohol through binge drinking. About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall. More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem.

 

Alcohol abuse can have dire consequences as 1,825 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use. But, drinking has widespread consequence to not only the students but also the college communities, and families. More than 690,000 students are assaulted by another student who has been drinking. More than 97,000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape. 599,000 students receive unintentional injuries while under the influence of alcohol.

 

These facts clearly highlight the need to explore methods to control excessive alcohol intake. One potential method is mindfulness as it has been shown to assist in the control of alcohol intake (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/alcoholism/) and in recovery from alcohol addiction (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/addiction/). So it would make sense to further explore the effects of mindfulness on alcohol intake in college students.

 

In today’s Research News article “How to think about your drink: Action-identification and the relation between mindfulness and dyscontrolled drinking”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1172645472759377/?type=3&theater

Schellhas and colleagues do exactly that, examining the relationships between mindfulness, alcohol intake, difficulty in controlling alcohol intake, and their identification with alcohol intake in college students. Interestingly, they did not find a relationship between mindfulness and weekly use of alcohol. But there was a relationship between mindfulness and the ability to control alcohol intake. In other words, mindful individuals drink as much as those with low mindfulness but they are better able to control their intake.

 

They also found that mindfulness also had an indirect effect on alcohol consumption. Mindfulness was negatively related to the use of alcohol to escape emotional problems. This escape use of alcohol intake was strongly related to the inability to control alcohol intake. In other words, students high in mindfulness were less likely to use alcohol to deal with their emotional problems and this in turn allowed the students to better control, their intake.

 

The results suggest that mindfulness may help students control alcohol intake. The study, however, did not actively change levels of mindfulness, but simply measured existing levels and their relations to alcohol consumption. As a result, it cannot be concluded that mindfulness was responsible for the better control of intake. It could be that individuals who are better at controlling behavior are more mindful or that some third factor such as emotional maturity was related to both. Future research is needed where mindfulness training is implemented to increase students’ mindfulness and observe its subsequent effect on intake and ability to control intake.

 

Regardless it is clear the mindfulness and control of alcohol intake are positively related. So, better control drinking with mindfulness.

 

“mindfulness is likely an effective tool in helping people with addiction because it’s a single, simple skill that a person can practice multiple times throughout their day, every day, regardless of the life challenges that arise. With so much opportunity for practice—rather than, say, only practicing when someone offers them a cigarette—people can learn that skill deeply.” – Sarah Bowen

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Help Kids Emotionally and Cognitively with Mindfulness

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“Mindfulness within schools makes a lot of sense. There is a growing body of evidence that supports the claims that mindfulness improves working memory, attention, academic skills, social skills, emotional balance and self-esteem.” – Joseph Pound

 

Childhood is a miraculous period during which the child is dynamically absorbing information from every aspect of its environment. This occurs almost without any intervention from the adults as the child appears to be programmed to learn. It is here that behaviors, knowledge, skills, and attitudes are developed that shape the individual. But, what is absorbed depends on the environment. If it is replete with speech, the child will learn speech, if it is replete with trauma, the child will learn fear, if it is replete with academic skills the child will learn these, and if it is replete with interactions with others the child will learn social skills. It is up to adults to structure the environment to be conducive to learning what is most important.

 

Elementary school is a wonderful time to structure the environment to develop knowledge, attitudes, and skills. This has been known for centuries. But, which ones are most important to the development of a high functioning adult? Elementary school environments stress academic skills. This is appropriate and necessary. But at times, particularly in the United States, the emphasis on academic skills, especially factual learning, is so great that other important learning is neglected. There is often little effort to develop the so called softer skills; emotional, mindfulness, creative, meta-cognitive, psychological, and social skills. This is unfortunate as these skills are important unto themselves’ and also turn out to be very important in developing academic skills. In addition, it’s been shown that these softer skills in childhood predict health, financial stability, and educational attainment into adulthood.

 

One method that has recently been employed to help develop these softer skills in school children is mindfulness training. This has occurred for good reason as mindfulness training has been shown to improve academic performance, social skills, emotions, and meta-cognitive skills in grammar school children (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/08/08/building-a-better-adult-with-elementary-school-mindfulness-training/) and even in preschool children (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/building-a-better-adult-preschool-mindfulness-training/). This is a potentially very important development and as such deserves far greater research scrutiny.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Training in Primary Schools Decreases Negative Affect and Increases Meta-Cognition in Children”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1172028366154421/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4709470/

Vickery and Dorjee delivered twelve ½-hour mindfulness lessons over approximately 3-weeks to 7-9-year old primary school children in the classroom in addition to the typical curriculum. A second group of children were provided the typical curriculum without the additional mindfulness training. Children were measured with objective and observational measures before and after training and 3-months later. They found that positive changes in mindfulness were associated with positive increases in emotional awareness in the mindfulness trained children. They also found that at follow-up the mindfulness training produced a significant increase in teacher rated meta-cognitive skills and also a significant decrease in negative emotions.

 

These are potentially important findings. Meta-cognitive skills include working memory, planning/organizing, organization of materials, initiating and monitoring activities. These are important skills that are generally predictive of academic performance and success later in life. Mindfulness, paying attention to the content of the present moment, may be a prerequisite for meta-cognition. One cannot initiate, plan, organize, remember, or monitor activities without paying attention to them as they are occurring. So, mindfulness skills may be seen as foundational for cognitive skills. It is exciting that this appears to be effective in young 7-9-year old children and makes a strong argument for the implementation of mindfulness programs in grammar schools.

 

The decrease in negative emotions is also important. They can lead to anxiety and depression. It has been shown that mindfulness training in adults and adolescents is effective for the reduction of anxiety and depression. It is exciting to observe that mindfulness training may have similar effects in 7-9-year old children. This suggests that the mindfulness training may develop resilience and psychological well-being in the children. It is possible that mindfulness training may be an effective early intervention for the prevention of later psychological problems and act to promote the development of psychological health.

 

It should be noted that Vickery and Dorjee did not find significant changes in measures of mindfulness, positive emotions, emotional awareness and expressive reluctance, and positive well-being. It is possible that a the total of 6-hurs of training is simply insufficient to impact these domains. Further research is needed to clarify this issue. Regardless, the positive findings that were reported are exciting and potentially important and support the further development and research on the use of mindfulness training in grammar school curricula.

 

So, help kids emotionally and cognitively with mindfulness.

 

“People are stepping back on that full focus on reading and math scores and are looking more holistically at all the skills that really matter. Social-emotional learning is not only crucial to academic success, but also career success and lifelong being.” – Sara Bartolino Krachman

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Fertility with Mindfulness

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“Using your mind to improve your fertility? Not as strange as you might think! If you have ever blushed, you’ll understand what I mean. That embarrassment you felt, visible to the world. Research shows emotions influence all body functions, especially fertility hormones. Fertility Mindfulness tips the odds of conceiving in your favor. Re-align your mindset and prepare for conception success, no matter what you have experienced.” – Helena Tubridy

 

Infertility is primarily a medical condition due to physiological problems. It is quite common. It is estimated that in the U.S. 6.7 million women, about 10% of the population of women 15-44, have an impaired ability to get pregnant or carry a baby to term and about 6% are infertile.

 

Infertility can be more than just a medical issue. It can be an emotional crisis for many couples, especially for the women. Couples attending a fertility clinic reported that infertility was the most upsetting experience of their lives. Women with infertility reported feeling as anxious or depressed as those diagnosed with cancer, hypertension, or recovering from a heart attack. Men’s reactions are more complicated. If the reason for the infertility is due to an issue with the woman, then men aren’t as distressed as the women. But if they are the ones who are infertile, they experience the same levels of low self-esteem, stigma, and depression as infertile women do. In addition, infertility can markedly impact the couple’s relationship, straining their emotional connection and interactions and the prescribed treatments can take the spontaneity and joy from lovemaking making it strained and mechanical.

 

The stress of infertility and engaging in infertility treatments may exacerbate the problem. The anxiety and stress may actually make it more difficult to conceive. In fact, recent studies found that higher rates of infertility treatment success in people who were undergoing a mind–body interventions. So, reducing stress and anxiety may be beneficial for conception. Since mindfulness training has been shown to reduce anxiety (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/anxiety/) and stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/) it is reasonable to believe that mindfulness training may be helpful for conception in women with fertility issues.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on fertility quality of life and pregnancy rates among women subjected to first in vitro fertilization treatment”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1162617577095500/?type=3&theater

Li and colleagues conducted a 6-week mindfulness training with women undergoing in-vitro fertilization treatment. In comparison to a treatment as usual control group, they found that the mindfulness training produced significant improvements in mindfulness, self-compassion, emotion regulation, improved coping responses and fertility quality of life. There was also a decrease in the influence of infertility on physical health, cognition, and behavior. Importantly, the treatment resulted in significantly higher proportion of the participants who had a viable pregnancy by virtue of in vitro fertilization.  Hence it appears that mindfulness treatment improves the women’s psychological and physical well-being and this in turn improves their ability to have a successful outcome to in vitro fertilization, becoming pregnant.

 

These are wonderful and encouraging findings that mindfulness can have such significant positive benefits for women with infertility. The fact that mindfulness is known to reduce the physical and psychological responses to stress, reduce anxiety, and improve emotion regulation is likely responsible for these benefits. This allows the women to better cope with the difficulties of infertility and its treatment.

 

Mindfulness training is a safe and effective treatment with many benefits for virtually everyone and for many psychological and medical issues. The results from this study add infertility treatment to the usefulness and positive effects of mindfulness training. This can be of great benefit to large numbers of women who struggle with infertility.

 

So, improve fertility with mindfulness.

 

“My bottom line is that if mindfulness and meditation are things that you would be interested in anyway, then using them as a strategy to help cope with fertility treatment sounds logical and beneficial.” – Erin Stronach

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Meditate to Respond More Effectively to Self-Praise and Criticism

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 “If you’ve ever felt too depressed to solve a problem, it might be because your brain is having a hard time regulating your emotions. One solution? Mindfulness training.” – Ruth Buczynsk

 

Meditation is known to improve the physical and mental health of practitioners. To some extent, it does so by improving emotion regulation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/emotions/). This improvement involves fully experiencing emotions, not suppressing them, and responding to them in a rational and adaptive fashion. In other words, meditators appear to be able to feel and work with their emotions responsibly, non-judgmentally, and with acceptance, and not react in ways that are harmful to themselves and others.

 

Emotion regulation is in part improved in meditators by helping them to take things less personally. Meditation tends to reduce self-referential thinking (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/self/). Mindfulness tends to reduce self-critical thinking and their emotional aftermaths and improve self-esteem. As a result, meditation tends to reduce responses to self-related thoughts, ideas, and stimuli. This improved emotion regulation contributes to many facets of the individual’s mental health.

 

Meditation is also known to alter the nervous system. Actions that are repeated often tend to produce changes in the nervous system in a process called neuroplasticity and meditation is no exception. It tends to increase the size, activity, and connectivity of structures in the nervous system that are involved in attention and emotion regulation, frontal cortex regions, and decrease the size, activity, and connectivity of structures involved in mind wandering, self-referential thinking, and stress, the so called default mode network  (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/neuroplasticity/).

 

In today’s Research News article “Altered processing of self-related emotional stimuli in mindfulness meditators”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1155866777770580/?type=3&theater

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811915008794

Lutz and colleagues investigate emotional regulation responses in the nervous system of long term meditators (> a year of regular practice) in comparison to meditation naïve participants. As expected the meditators were higher in mindfulness especially in observing and non-reacting, self-compassion, and emotional awareness. The participants were then presented with personality descriptor adjectives that were either positive (attractive, handsome, funny) or negative (unattractive, unsightly, ugly) and recorded the responses of the nervous system to the stimuli.

 

Self-relevant items either positive or negative, but particularly positive, produced greater activation of the Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex in the meditators. The mindfulness component of non-reacting was positively correlated with activation of the Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex in the meditators but not the naïve participants. Finally, they found lower functional connectivity to posterior midline and parietal regions in the meditators compared to the naïve participants during both types of self-relevant items.

 

The meditators stronger activations of the frontal regions suggest that they have stronger self-awareness and focus on inner feelings. It also suggests that they have greater emotion regulation with non-reactive attitudes towards these experiences. Since the posterior structures of the default mode network in the nervous system are associated with self-referential thinking, the decreased connectivity to these regions in the meditators suggest that they have lesser self-focus than meditation naïve participants.

 

In sum, these results indicate that meditation produces changes in the brain that allows for greater emotion regulation and less thinking about self. These neural changes may in part account for the improved mental health in meditators. They are better able to cope with emotions and respond to them constructively and take everything less personally. So, meditation appears to change the brain making it better able to respond more constructively and less personally to emption laden events.

 

So, meditate to respond more effectively to self-praise and criticism.

 

“mindful attention does not inhibit initial evaluations insomuch as it limits the automatic expansion of initial evaluative reactions into activation of a broader set of implications about the self and the world.” – Norman Farb
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Reduce Discrimination Produced Depression with Mindfulness

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“The stigmatized individual is asked to act so as to imply neither that his burden is heavy nor that bearing it has made him different from us; … he is advised to reciprocate naturally with an acceptance of himself and us, an acceptance of him that we have not quite extended to him in the first place. A PHANTOM ACCEPTANCE is thus allowed to provide the base for a PHANTOM NORMALCY.” ― Erving Goffman

 

Discrimination based upon race, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, etc. has been going on since the beginning of recorded history. Even though quite common it can have considerable negative impact for all who are involved but especially for the subject of the discrimination. General well-being, self-esteem, self-worth, and social relations can be severely impacted as a result of discrimination. This can, in turn, result in depression.

 

In the U.S. discrimination against African Americans is very common. In a recent poll, 51% of Americans expressed anti-black sentiments which was increased from four years ago, African-Americans comprise only 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of the monthly drug users, but are 37% of the people arrested for drug-related offenses in America, and African Americans receive 10% longer sentences than whites for the same crimes. Discrimination against women is also common. Women on average earn 22.5% less than men, have to work for more years before receiving promotion, the greater the education level the greater the disparity, and minority women fare even worse. In addition, women are 10 times more likely to be exposed to high levels of domestic violence and are nearly 4 times more likely to be exposed to sexual harassment than men. As a society we should do everything in our power to fight against discrimination in any form. But, we also need to deal with the consequences of discrimination when it occurs.

 

Mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce prejudice (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/prejudice/). It has also been shown to reduce depression (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/depression/). Mindfulness has also is known to enhance positive emotions (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/emotions/) and positive emotions reduce the negative effects of discrimination. So perhaps mindfulness is related to the impact of discrimination on the individual. In today’s Research News article “Discrimination hurts, but mindfulness may help: Trait mindfulness moderates the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1154756897881568/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3862075/

Brown-Iannuzzi and colleagues analyzed responses on an on-line questionnaire of perceived racism, mindfulness, depression, and positive emotions completed by community participants.

 

They found that “the most common source of discrimination was gender (19.7%), followed by race or ethnicity (17%), body weight (14.4%) and age (14.3%).” They also found that high levels of discrimination were accompanied by high levels of depression while high levels of positive emotions and mindfulness were accompanied by low levels of depression. In addition, high levels of mindfulness were found to mitigate the effects of discrimination on depression. Participants high in mindfulness showed less of an increase in depression when exposed to discrimination.

 

Mindfulness has been repeatedly demonstrated to reduce the psychological and physiological responses to stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/). So, mindfulness may reduce the negative impact of the stress produced by the discrimination thereby reducing depression. Mindfulness may also act by focusing the individual more in the present moment. Rumination about past discrimination and worries regarding future discrimination may well amplify discrimination’s impact on depression. Focusing on the present moment may make it easier to cope with the discrimination, isolating it and thereby decreasing its effects.

 

Regardless of its mechanism of action, it is clear the mindfulness is associated with lower depression and a lessened effect of discrimination on depression. So, reduce discrimination produced depression with mindfulness.

 

“One of the best ways you can fight discrimination is by taking good care of yourself. Your survival is not just important; it’s an act of revolution.” ― DaShanne Stokes
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Feel Better Emotionally with Loving-Kindness Meditation

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“Metta is the priceless treasure that enlivens us and brings us into intimacy with ourselves and others. It is the force of love that will lead beyond fragmentation, loneliness and fear. The late Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba often said, “Don’t throw anyone out of your heart.” One of the most powerful healings (and greatest adventures) of our lifetime can come about as we learn to live by this dictum.” – Sharon Salzberg

 

In the past Psychology focused on negative states and emotions, such as mental illness and depression, anxiety, hate, anger etc. Although this resulted in greater understanding and better treatments for people who were suffering, it also resulted in a neglect of positive states and emotions such as happiness, love, compassion, joy, etc. But, in the last couple of decades it has dawned on the field that perhaps positive states may be important to cultivate. They could serve not only as antidotes and treatments for the negative states and emotions, but also could improve the existence of the mentally healthy. This new movement has been labelled Positive Psychology. It is dedicated to discovering ways to promote and enhance human flourishing; to develop better and happier lives.

 

An ancient practice of “metta” meditation has been promoted as a possible method to develop positive states and emotions. “Metta” meditation is also known as Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM). It is a deceptively simple practice (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/26/meditation-techniques-loving-kindness-meditation/) that is aimed at developing kindness and positive regard for the self and others. But, as simple as it may be, it has profound effects (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/loving-kindness/). LKM has been shown to improve positive mood, improve social interactions. and the complex understanding of others. It has also been shown to decrease negative emotions and to be an effective treatment for depression. This suggests that LKM may be an important practice for not only the treatment of negative states and emotions, but also for the promotion of human flourishing and happiness.

 

In today’s Research News article “The effect of loving-kindness meditation on positive emotions: a meta-analytic review”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1150546504969274/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4630307/

Zeng and colleagues review the literature on the effects of Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) on positive emotions and well-being. The reviewed literature showed that LKM produced significant positive effects on the practitioners’ immediate and overall daily positive emotions with moderate effect sizes. These effects were seen both with short-term and long-tern LKM practice. LKM mainly cultivated peaceful or prosocial positive emotions. Thus, the published literature supports the use of Loving Kindness Meditation for enhancing positive emotional states.

 

There is a need to investigate the mechanisms by which LKM may be having its effects. One possibility that is supported in the research literature is that LKM improves emotion regulation. This allows the individual to fully experience the emotion yet respond to it adaptively and constructively. Hence, in part LKM may enhance positive states by allowing the individual to better deal with negative emotional states. It has also been shown that LKM reduces the psychological and physiological responses to stress. By feeling less stressed LKM practitioners may experience more positive emotions. Another possibility is that LKM enhances self-regard, allowing the individual to feel good about themselves as well as others. Regardless of the mechanism, it appears clear that Loving Kindness Meditation can be recommended as a practice to enhance positive emotions and states.

 

So, feel better emotionally with loving-kindness meditation.

 

For one who mindfully develops
Boundless loving-kindness
Seeing the destruction of clinging,
The fetters are worn away.

  • Buddha

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Improve MS Quality of Life with Mindfulness

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“Multiple sclerosis (MS) can be an overwhelming challenge. One day you can feel strong and resilient, but the next day you can feel helpless and isolated. On these days, getting an extra push or boost from others just like you can make all the difference. ‘A positive attitude is the best medicine.’” – MS patient Lorri Lowe Peterson

“Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most widespread disabling neurological condition of young adults around the world. more than 400,000 people in the United States and about 2.5 million people around the world have MS. About 200 new cases are diagnosed each week in the United States. The most common early symptoms of MS are: fatigue vision problems tingling and numbness vertigo and dizziness muscle weakness and spasms problems with balance and coordination.” – Healthline http://www.healthline.com/health/multiple-sclerosis/facts-statistics-infographic.

 

MS is most commonly diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 and 50 years with an average age between 30 and 35 years.  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. 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. There is a thus a critical need for safe and effective methods to help relieve the symptoms of MS and improve quality of life.

 

Quality of life with MS is affected by fatigue, cognitive decrements, physical impairment, depression, and poor sleep quality. But, depressive symptoms are the most problematic with clinically significant depression present in 50% of MS sufferers. Since mindfulness has been previously shown to improve depression (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/depression/) sleep quality (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/mindfulness-is-a-snooze/), cognitive impairments (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cognition/), and emotion regulation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/emotions/, it would seem likely that mindfulness would affect the quality of life in MS patients.

 

In today’s Research News article “Examining trait mindfulness, emotion dysregulation, and quality of life in multiple sclerosis”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1148798548477403/?type=3&theater

Schirda and colleagues investigated the relationship of trait mindfulness with the quality of life and its associated symptoms in MS patients. They found that the higher the levels of trait mindfulness the lower the levels of depression and emotion dysregulation and the higher the quality of life in the patients. They also found that the reduction in emotion dysregulation was partially responsible for the positive relationship between mindfulness and quality of life. In addition, the higher the depression level the larger the impact of mindfulness’ association with emotion dysregulation on quality of life.

 

So, as predicted, mindfulness played an important role in mitigating the effects of MS on quality of life and its associated symptoms. These relationships in MS patients parallel the effects of mindfulness on healthy individuals and so would seem to be universal regardless of the disease state. That emotion regulation appears to be central is very interesting. Mindfulness is known to allow the individual to fully experience emotions but to respond to them in a positive and constructive way. The results of the study then suggest that this may be the critical effect of mindfulness for the patient to experience a high quality of life

 

It should be kept in mind that Schirda and colleagues’ study did not manipulate mindfulness, rather simply looking at existing levels of trait mindfulness and their relationships with quality of life. Hence, it can’t be concluded that mindfulness causes quality of life improvements in MS. For example, it could be that people who have a high quality of life with MS become more mindful. It will take future manipulative research to establish mindfulness’ effectiveness in treating MS patients.

 

But, we can tentatively recommend to improve MS quality of life with mindfulness.

 

“I want America to know that you can still have a full, exciting and productive life even if you or your loved one is battling a debilitating, chronic disease such as MS.” – Michaele Salahi

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies