Reduce Anxiety and Depression in Hospice with Yoga

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“What yoga has to offer people who are dying is acceptance, not just of death, but also of all the difficult feelings that come with it.” – Molly Kenny

 

Depression is very common in the elderly. The elderly cope with increasing loss of friends and family, deteriorating health, as well as concerns regarding finances on fixed incomes. All of these are legitimate sources of worry. But, no matter how reasonable, the increased worry and anxiety add extra stress that can impact on the elderly’s already deteriorating physical and psychological health. For those nearing the endo of life, emotions become amplified. The knowledge that death is imminent—and the awareness that it is unavoidable—understandably brings intense anxiety and fear. For the elderly in hospice care these issues become amplified. So, clearly ameliorating the depression and anxiety could be highly beneficial to the well-being of the elderly in general and especially those in hospice care.

 

Yoga practice has been shown to have a myriad of psychological and physical health benefits. These include relief of anxiety and depression and yoga has been shown to be safe and effective when applied to the elderly. So, it would seem reasonable to assess the effectiveness of yoga practice for the anxiety and depression present in the elderly in hospice care. In today’s Research News article “Effect of a 12-week yoga therapy program on mental health status in elderly women inmates of a hospice.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1442506282439960/?type=3&theater

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

http://www.ijoy.org.in/article.asp?issn=0973-6131;year=2017;volume=10;issue=1;spage=24;epage=28;aulast=Ramanathan

Ramanathan and colleagues recruited elderly women in hospice care and randomly assigned them to either a wait-list control group or a yoga practice group. The yoga practice was especially designed for the frail elderly and was carried out in the hospice in a group for 60 min, twice weekly for a period of 12 weeks. The practice included a simple warm-up, breath-body movement coordination practices, static stretching postures, breathing techniques, and relaxation. Before and after the 12-week practice the patients completed self-report measures of anxiety, depression, and self-esteem.

 

They found that the yoga practice produced a significant improvement in the women’s well-being. In particular there was a significant decrease in psychological and somatic anxiety and depression and an increase in self-esteem in the yoga group in comparison to the control group. These are exciting results and indicate that yoga practice is a safe and effective treatment for the anxiety, depression, and self-esteem of women in hospice. This suggests that yoga practice reduces the psychological suffering near the end of life. The increases in self-esteem were particularly large and striking, suggesting that engaging in yoga markedly improved how the women felt about themselves.

 

It should be mentioned that there was not an active control group. So, there is no way of determining if any light exercise could produce similar improvements or if the benefits accrue solely to those engaged in yoga practice. Yoga practice has been shown to decrease aging and improve longevity in older people. An interesting question for future research is to determine if yoga practice might improve longevity in women in hospice. Regardless, reduce anxiety and depression in hospice with yoga.

 

“Yoga is about bringing peace of mind and acceptance through breath and movement. Hospice is about comfort and support at the end of life.  Even when a patient cannot stand or get out of bed, small movements and special breathing techniques can lead to deeper relaxation.” – Sara Culan

 

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

Ramanathan M, Bhavanani AB, Trakroo M. Effect of a 12-week yoga therapy program on mental health status in elderly women inmates of a hospice. Int J Yoga [serial online] 2017 [cited 2016 Nov 23];10:24-8. Available from: http://www.ijoy.org.in/text.asp?2017/10/1/24/186156

 

Aim and Objectives: This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of yoga on the mental health status of elderly women inmates residing in a hospice in Puducherry.
Materials and Methods: Forty elderly women were randomly divided into yoga and wait-listed control group. A yoga therapy program of 60 min was given twice a week for 12 weeks. This protocol was specially designed for senior citizens, keeping in mind their health status and physical limitations that included simple warm-up and breath-body movement coordination practices (jathis and kriyas), static stretching postures (asanas), breathing techniques (pranayamas), and relaxation. Hamilton anxiety scale for measuring anxiety, Hamilton rating scale for depression, and Rosenberg self-esteem scale to measure self-esteem were administered to both groups before and after the 12-week study period. Data were assessed for normality, and appropriate parametric and nonparametric statistical methods were applied for intra- and inter-group comparisons.
Results: Overall, intra- and inter-group comparison of prepost data showed statistically significant (P < 0.001) differences for all three parameters. There was an overall improvement in the scores indicating decreased levels of depression and anxiety coupled with an increase in the level of self-esteem after the yoga therapy program.
Discussion: The influence of yoga in the reduction of depression and anxiety scores and improvement in self-esteem scores in elderly women subjects is evident from this study. As reported in earlier studies, this may be attributed to changes in central neurotransmitters such as gamma-aminobutyric-acid coupled with increased parasympathetic tone and decreased sympatho-adrenal activity.
Conclusion: It is recommended that yoga should be a part of health-care facilities for elderly as it can enhance the quality of life by improving their overall mental health status. It could provide a healthy and positive alternative from depressing negative thoughts, and give them a sense of purpose and hope.

http://www.ijoy.org.in/article.asp?issn=0973-6131;year=2017;volume=10;issue=1;spage=24;epage=28;aulast=Ramanathan

Improve Seeing Others as Like the Self with Loving Kindness Meditation

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Loving-kindness meditation does far more than produce momentary good feelings. . . . this type of meditation increased people’s experiences of positive emotions. . . . it actually puts people on “trajectories of growth,” leaving them better able to ward off depression and “become ever more satisfied with life.”” – Christine Carter

 

Humans are social animals. This is a great asset for the species as the effort of the individual is amplified by cooperation. In primitive times, this cooperation was essential for survival. But in modern times it is also essential, not for survival but rather for making a living and for the happiness of the individual. This ability to cooperate is so essential to human flourishing that it is built deep into our DNA and is reflected in the structure of the human nervous system. Empathy and compassion are essential for appropriate social engagement and cooperation. In order for these abilities to emerge and strengthen, individuals must be able to see that other people are very much like themselves.

 

Unfortunately, there is very little understanding of the factors that lead to and improve empathy and compassion. One method that appears to be able to increase these capacities is Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM). It has been shown to amplify positive emotions, altruism, and compassion. This suggests that LKM may reduce the perceived difference between the self and other people. This is difficult to study, however, as these capacities are not easily measured and require length, indirect, paper and pencil, tests for assessment.

 

An alternative assessment technique is to measure the electrical response of the brain (electroencephalogram, EEG) as an indicator of empathy and compassion. This can be done by investigating differences in the brains processing of stimuli related to the self, relative to those related to other people. Upon presentation of these stimuli differences in the brain’s response can be seen called the evoked potential (ERP). The P300 response in the evoked potential (ERP) occurs between 3 to 6-tenths of a second following the stimulus presentation. It is a positive change that is maximally measured over the central frontal lobe. The P300 response has been associated with self-processing. It is larger in response to stimuli such as one’s own name, face, or information about the person’s history. So, the P300 response is often used as a measure of the processing of information about the self, with the larger the positive change the greater the self-processing.

 

In today’s Research News article “Decentering the self? Preliminary evidence for changes in self- vs. other related processing as a long-term outcome of loving-kindness meditation.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1441662135857708/?type=3&theater

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

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01785/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w48-2016

Trautwein and colleagues employ the P300 response in the evoked potential (ERP) in response to pictures of the self or a close friend to investigate the effectiveness of Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) to improve empathy and compassion in humans. They recruited adult long-term practitioners of LKM and a group of age, gender, handedness, and education matched non-meditators. The participants were asked to press a button every time a picture of either themselves of their friend was presented amid a series of other stimuli. This occurred on 20% of the time. They measured performed this task while wearing scalp electrodes to measure the EEG and the P300 response to these stimuli was recorded.

 

They found that, as expected, the LKM practitioners reported experiencing more compassionate love for strangers and all of humanity than control participants. They also found that, as expected, the P300 response in the parietal lobe of the brain was greater to the picture of the self than the friend. As a measure of the degree to which the participant viewed the self and other as similar, they measured the difference in the ERP response to the self vs. friend picture. They found that the smaller the difference between the self vs. friend P300 response the greater the levels of self-reported compassion. Importantly, they also found that the greater the amount of LKM practice the smaller the difference in the P300 response to self and friend.

 

These results are interesting and suggest that Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) improves empathy and compassion by altering the brain’s response to self vs. others. In this way, individuals perceive other people as more like themselves, making them more compassionate and empathetic. It should be noted, however, that there was not a comparison group of meditators who did not practice LKM. So, it cannot be concluded that the effects were due to LKM practice specifically. It could be that any form of meditation practice would have similar effects. But, it is clear that meditation alters the brain’s response to self vs. others.

 

So, improve seeing others as like the self with Loving Kindness Meditation.

 

“The practice of LKM led to shifts in people’s daily experiences of a wide range of positive emotions, including love, joy, gratitude, contentment, hope, pride, interest, amusement, and awe. These shifts in positive emotions took time to appear and were not large in magnitude, but over the course of 9 weeks, they were linked to increases in a variety of personal resources, including mindful attention, self-acceptance, positive relationships with others, and good physical health…They enabled people to become more satisfied with their lives and to experience fewer symptoms of depression.”  – Barbara Fredrickson

 

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

Fynn-Mathis Trautwein, José Raúl Naranjo, and Stefan Schmidt Decentering the self? Preliminary evidence for changes in self- vs. other related processing as a long-term outcome of loving-kindness meditation. Front. Psychol., 21 November 2016 | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01785

 

Research in social neuroscience provides increasing evidence that self and other are interconnected, both on a conceptual and on an affective representational level. Moreover, the ability to recognize the other as “like the self” is thought to be essential for social phenomena like empathy and compassion. Meditation practices such as loving-kindness meditation (LKM) have been found to enhance these capacities. Therefore, we investigated whether LKM is associated to an increased integration of self–other-representations. As an indicator, we assessed the P300 event-related potential elicited by oddball stimuli of the self-face and a close other’s face in 12 long-term practitioners of LKM and 12 matched controls. In line with previous studies, the self elicited larger P300 amplitudes than close other. This effect was reduced in the meditation sample at parietal but not frontal midline sites. Within this group, smaller differences between self- and other-related P300 were associated with increasing meditation practice. Across groups, smaller P300 differences correlated with self-reported compassion. In meditators, we also investigated the effect of a short LKM compared to a control priming procedure in order to test whether the state induction would additionally modulate self- vs. other-related P300. However, no effect of the priming conditions was observed. Overall, our findings provide preliminary evidence that prolonged meditation practice may modulate self- vs. other-related processing, accompanied by an increase in compassion. Further evidence is needed, however, to show if this is a direct outcome of loving-kindness meditation.

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01785/full?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Psychology-w48-2016

 

Meditation Improves Well-Being but How You Meditate Can Make a Difference

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“science confirms the experience of millions of practitioners: meditation will keep you healthy, help prevent multiple diseases, make you happier, and improve your performance in basically any task, physical or mental.” – Giovanni Dienstmann

 

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.

 

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.

 

These techniques have common properties of restful focused attention, but there are large differences. These differences are likely to produce different effects on the practitioner. In today’s Research News article “Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1440840735939848/?type=3&theater

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

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-016-0594-9

Kok and Singer examine the similarities and differences between the effects of body scan meditation, loving kindness meditation, focused attention meditation, and open monitoring meditation. They recruited normal adults aged between 20 to 55 and randomly assigned them to three different orders of conditions in a complex research design. Training in each meditation type was conducted for 13 weeks, including a 3-day retreat at the beginning. The participants reported daily on their feeling states, contents of thought, meta-cognition, and 2 minutes of free writing about their thoughts and feelings.

 

All four meditation practices contain a component of focused breathing meditation, so it’s effects can’t be separated from the other three types. They found that all four meditation practices, consistent with the published literature, produced significant increases in positive feelings, focus on the present moment, and body awareness and decreases in mind wandering.

 

There were also considerable differences in the effects of the meditation practices. Body scan meditation, not surprisingly, produced the greatest increase in body awareness and the greatest decrease in thoughts about past, future, and others, and negative thoughts, in other words less mind wandering. Loving kindness meditation produced the greatest increase in positive thoughts and warm feelings about self and others. Open monitoring meditation produced the greatest increase in thought awareness and decrease in distraction by thoughts. These outcomes are consistent with the targeted contents of the practices.

 

It appears that all meditation types have very positive consequences for the practitioner and at the same time each has its own strengths. These strengths then can be taken advantage of to affect targeted issues for the practitioner. If the problem with the individual is a lack of body awareness then body scan meditation is called for, if it’s negative feelings about self and others, then loving kindness meditation would be best, while if it’s with meta-cognition such as awareness of thoughts, then open monitoring meditation should be the choice. In this way meditation practice, can have even greater benefit for the individual.

 

Regardless, improve well-being with meditation.

 

“If you have a few minutes in the morning or evening (or both), rather than turning on your phone or going online, see what happens if you try quieting down your mind, or at least paying attention to your thoughts and letting them go without reacting to them. If the research is right, just a few minutes of meditation may make a big difference.” – Alice Walton

 

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

Kok, B.E. & Singer, T. Phenomenological Fingerprints of Four Meditations: Differential State Changes in Affect, Mind-Wandering, Meta-Cognition, and Interoception Before and After Daily Practice Across 9 Months of Training. Mindfulness (2016). doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0594-9

 

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in the effects of mental training practices such as meditation, there is much ambiguity regarding whether and to what extent the various types of mental practice have differential effects on psychological change. To address this gap, we compare the effects of four common meditation practices on measures of state change in affect, mind-wandering, meta-cognition, and interoception. In the context of a 9-month mental training program called the ReSource Project, 229 mid-life adults (mean age 41) provided daily reports before and after meditation practice. Participants received training in the following three successive modules: the first module (presence) included breathing meditation and body scan, the second (affect) included loving-kindness meditation, and the third (perspective) included observing-thought meditation. Using multilevel modeling, we found that body scan led to the greatest state increase in interoceptive awareness and the greatest decrease in thought content, loving-kindness meditation led to the greatest increase in feelings of warmth and positive thoughts about others, and observing-thought meditation led to the greatest increase in meta-cognitive awareness. All practices, including breathing meditation, increased positivity of affect, energy, and present focus and decreased thought distraction. Complementary network analysis of intervariate relationships revealed distinct phenomenological clusters of psychological change congruent with the content of each practice. These findings together suggest that although different meditation practices may have common beneficial effects, each practice can also be characterized by a distinct short-term psychological fingerprint, the latter having important implications for the use of meditative practices in different intervention contexts and with different populations.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-016-0594-9

 

Improve Circulation with Tai Chi

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Tai chi is often described as “meditation in motion,” but it might well be called “medication in motion.” There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. And you can get started even if you aren’t in top shape or the best of health.” – Harvard Women’s Health Watch

 

Arthritis is a chronic disease that most commonly affects the joints. Depending on the type of arthritis, symptoms may include pain, stiffness, swelling, redness, and decreased range of motion. It affects an estimated 52.5 million adults in the United States. It is associated with aging as arthritis occurs in only 7% of adults ages 18–44, while 30% adults ages 45–64 are affected, and 50% of adults ages 65 or older. Due to complications associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the lifespan for people with RA may be shortened by 10 years. This is due to a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, with the risk more than double that of non-RA individuals.

 

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer, claiming more lives than all forms of cancer combined. “Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack” (Centers for Disease Control). Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with high levels of inflammation and inflammation damages blood vessels. It can lead to hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis) which in turn leads to cardiovascular disease. So, there is a need for treatments to reduce inflammation and hardening of the arteries in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

 

Contemplative practices have been shown to be helpful for heart health particularly those that are also exercises such as tai chi and yoga. Tai chi is an ancient contemplative practice involving slow motion smooth mindful movement. The reason that it has continued to be practiced by millions for centuries is that it has major mental and physical benefits including a reduction in the inflammatory response. Modern research is verifying these benefits. Mindful movement practice has been shown to improve balance, self-concept, and attention span, reduce falls, boost the immune system and helps to relieve symptoms of arthritis, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, insomnia, even improve cancer recovery, and improve recovery from heart failure. So, it makes sense to further explore the effectiveness of Tai Chi practice for hardening of the arteries in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

 

In today’s Research News article “The beneficial effects of Tai Chi exercise on endothelial function and arterial stiffness in elderly women with rheumatoid arthritis.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1440063292684259/?type=3&theater

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

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718020/

Shin and colleagues recruited female rheumatoid arthritis patients (average 64 years old) and randomly assigned them to either receive 3 months of Tai Chi training or education about rheumatoid arthritis, its effects and methods of control. At the end of training they found that, in comparison to the education group, the Tai Chi group had a significant (32%) improvements in the ability of the blood vessels to dilatate in response to blood flows, (6%) reduction in arterial stiffness, and a significant decrease in total cholesterol. They found that the effectiveness of Tai Chi to improve the blood vessels was independent of its effects on cholesterol.

 

These results are impressive and important. Tai Chi exercise was effective in reducing the hardening of the arteries and blood cholesterol levels that normally are problematic with rheumatoid arthritis. This suggests that Tai Chi practice may reduce the cardiovascular disease which is a potentially fatal consequence of rheumatoid arthritis. Importantly, since rheumatoid arthritis impairs movement, Tai Chi is a very gentle practice, it is safe for a wide range of individuals, including the elderly and patients compromised by other illnesses including rheumatoid arthritis. So, tai chi is an excellent light exercise program that can improve hardening of the arteries and cholesterol levels and potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and death in rheumatoid arthritis patients.

 

So, improve circulation with Tai Chi.

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

“Qi gong and tai chi are relaxing ways to improve your flexibility and balance. Both are great ways to stay active and vital. The gentle, flowing movements are easy on the joints.” – Melinda Ratini

 

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

 

Study Summary

Shin, J.-H., Lee, Y., Kim, S. G., Choi, B. Y., Lee, H.-S., & Bang, S.-Y. (2015). The beneficial effects of Tai Chi exercise on endothelial function and arterial stiffness in elderly women with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 17, 380. http://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-015-0893-x

 

Abstract

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been known to be associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of Tai Chi exercise on CVD risk in elderly women with RA.

Method: In total, 56 female patients with RA were assigned to either a Tai Chi exercise group (29 patients) receiving a 3-month exercise intervention once a week or a control group (27 patients) receiving general information about the benefits of exercise. All participants were assessed at baseline and at 3 months for RA disease activity (Disease Activity Score 28 and Routine Assessment of Patient Index Data 3), functional disability (Health Assessment Questionnaire), CVD risk factors (blood pressure, lipids profile, body composition, and smoking), and three atherosclerotic measurements: carotid intima-media thickness, flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV).

Results: FMD, representative of endothelial function, significantly increased in the Tai Chi exercise group (initial 5.85 ± 2.05 versus 3 months 7.75 ± 2.53 %) compared with the control group (initial 6.31 ± 2.12 versus 3 months 5.78 ± 2.13 %) (P = 1.76 × 10−3). Moreover, baPWV, representative of arterial stiffness, significantly decreased in the Tai Chi exercise group (initial 1693.7 ± 348.3 versus 3 months 1600.1 ± 291.0 cm/s) compared with the control group (initial 1740.3 ± 185.3 versus 3 months 1792.8 ± 326.1 cm/s) (P = 1.57 × 10−2). In addition, total cholesterol decreased significantly in the Tai Chi exercise group compared with the control group (−7.8 ± 15.5 versus 2.9 ± 12.2 mg/dl, P = 2.72 × 10−2); other changes in RA-related characteristics were not significantly different between the two groups. Tai Chi exercise remained significantly associated with improved endothelial function (FMD; P = 4.32 × 10−3) and arterial stiffness (baPWV; P = 2.22 × 10−2) after adjustment for improvement in total cholesterol level.

Conclusion: Tai Chi exercise improved endothelial dysfunction and arterial stiffness in elderly women with RA, suggesting that it can be a useful behavioral strategy for CVD prevention in patients with RA.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718020/

 

Happy New Year with Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.”  ~G.K. Chesterton

 

At the stroke of midnight on December 31st all over the world revelers ring in the new calendar year with a hearty celebration. It’s a celebration of a relatively arbitrary day that has been designated as the first day of a new calendar year. The celebration of the solstice, 10 days before, at least has astrological meaning as the shortest day of the year. But, January 1 has no such physical meaning. January 1 was designated as the start of the year by Julius Caesar in 45 BC. That date was chosen to honor the Roman God Janus, the god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. That symbolism has stuck as the new year’s celebration involves a reflection about the year past and hope for the year to come.

 

Don’t Look Back

 

To some extent this looking back into the past and forward into the future is the antithesis of mindfulness which emphasizes the present moment. Our recollection of the past is, in fact, an illusion. When we look at the past we view it with the distorted lens of memory and the delusions that we have about the self. The memories of what happened during the last year bare only a fleeting resemblance to what actually happened. Recollections tend to be dominated by hazy and distorted memories of emotionally charged events and neglects everyday times of calm and contentment. When we look back we primarily remember the highs and the lows and believe that if we could simply keep repeating the highs and eliminate the lows then we’d be truly happy. This is the trap sometimes known as the hedonic treadmill. We keep seeking the highs and are unhappy when we can’t reproduce them or if we are successful are unhappy to find that we can’t maintain them. Unfortunately, our New Year’s celebration and our resolutions reinforce and amplify these ideas propelling us to even greater unhappiness in the new year.

 

Our view of the past is additionally distorted by the beliefs that we have about ourselves. These self-concepts are mainly incorrect and terribly distorted. Western culture, by its adoration of extraordinary and unrealistic models of perfection, produces and reinforces rampant self-dislike. We can never really attain the societal norm of perfection and this makes us feel horribly deficient. As a result, most westerners don’t like what they are and want to be different. As a consequence, people look back on the events of the year and interpret them through the lens of self-dislike.

 

We remember primarily those events that conform to our beliefs about what we should be, but cannot achieve. This creates a vicious cycle where the low self-esteem and self-worth causes us to remember events that exemplify this self-concept, creating even greater self-dislike. Those rare events that reveal us to be adequate are quickly forgotten. The events of the past year, then, are perceived as evidence to support our harsh view of ourselves. Rather than accurately remembering what actually happened during the year, our recollections are dominated by this distorted reality. So, don’t look back at the past year, rather look carefully and mindfully at yourself. You need to develop self-acceptance, before you can ever hope to have an honest idea of what the past contained.

 

Don’t Look to the Future

 

These distortions also color our thoughts about the upcoming year. We resolve to change ourselves to better conform to our unrealistic beliefs about what we should be. The New year’s resolutions that are such a common part of our new year’s celebration are a direct outgrowth of our self-dislike. The problem with these new year’s resolutions is that they are a declaration that we’re not happy with ourselves or the way things are. We want to be different. That’s not bad unto itself. Striving to better oneself is a good thing. The problem is that what we desire for ourselves is usually totally unrealistic as it’s based on a distorted reality. But, we strongly believe that this is what we need to be happy. It’s all a delusion that’s doomed to failure. In fact, research has suggested that only 8% of these resolutions are ever achieved.

 

Better New Year’s Resolutions

 

We need to craft a new set of resolutions, based upon self-acceptance, and a realistic view about what needs to be and can be achieved. The resolutions should be to better see things, including ourselves as they really are. To look at the world and ourselves mindfully without judgment, just as we are. These are the kinds of resolutions that can really work towards, not making us happy, but letting us be happy in the coming year; to simply experience the happiness that has been within us all along.

 

There are some rules of thumb about these resolutions. Don’t be too grandiose. Don’t set goals of perfection. Small steps with a recognition that you won’t always be successful are recommended. Make a resolution to practice mindfulness. Pick a practice that you not only can do, but that you can comfortably sustain. The only one perfect right practice is the one that you’ll do and keep doing. It may be meditation, yoga, body scan, tai chi or qigong, contemplative prayer, or another of the many available practices or some combination of practices. The only thing that matters is that you’re drawn to it, comfortable doing it, and you’ll stick with it. Once you start, don’t try too hard. Remember the Buddha recommended the middle way, with right effort, not too much and not too little. Practice nonjudgmentally. Don’t judge whether you’re doing it right or wrong, whether the particular practice was good or bad, or whether you’re making progress or not. Just practice. Just relax and let the practice do you. You don’t need to do it.

 

Focus on Now

 

All of these various practices promote nonjudgmental attention to what is occurring in the present moment, the now. Slowly you come to realize that the now is the only time available where you can be satisfied and happy. The past are only nows that are gone and the future are only nows that have yet to happen. So, focus on the present moment. It’s where life happens. If you can learn to be happy right now, then you’ll be able to happy in the future when it becomes now. As you look calmly, nonjudgmentally, and deeply at what is happening right now you begin to see the beauty and wonder that is there all of the time. You just need to stop ruminating about the past and worrying about the future. Learn to enjoy the moment.

 

Focusing on the present moment the impermanence of all things becomes evident. In the present we can observe things rising up and then falling away. Change is constant. If things are bad at the moment, you can be sure that it’ll change. So, be patient. On the other hand, if things are good, know also that this will change too. Don’t try to hang onto what is present. Learn to enjoy the moment as it is. These observations reveal that every moment is new. It has never happened before and it will never happen again. Every moment is a new opportunity. Don’t worry about it passing. The next moment will again provide a new opportunity. Make the most of it. If you can learn to do this, you’ll enjoy life to its fullest, as the dynamically changing perpetual now.

 

Renewal

 

In the new year, we need to not think about a “happy new year.” Rather think about a “happy new day.” In fact, it’s best to think about each “happy new moment.” Focus on the present moment and wish yourself and everyone else a “happy new moment.” Every moment is a unique opportunity to experience life as it is, appreciate its wonder, and enjoy it while it’s here, in the present moment. Each moment is an opportunity for renewal. If we’re not happy in the moment, we can be in the next. We have a new opportunity every new moment. If we pay attention to them, we can use the opportunity to create happiness.

 

So, have a “happy new moment” with mindfulness.

 

“Empty your glass and feel your way through this New Year. If it feeds your soul, do it. If it makes you want to get out of bed in the morning with a smile, carry on. Be present and let your energy synchronise with the earth and give you the clarity to move forward and be comfortable and contented with who you are. Let your intuition guide you through a wonderful year and attract an abundance of positive opportunity.” – Alfred James

 

“Many of us are thinking about new year’s resolutions and taking stock at this time, but how many of those typical resolutions are just ‘self’ improvement projects (which means we’re trying to get more, be more or have more) rather than ways to actually embrace the life we already have right here and now?” – Mrs. Mindfulness

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

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Reduce Pelvic Pain in Women with Yoga

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“women need to start a relationship with their pelvis, looking at the outside of it, touching the inside of it, talking and listening to it, and loving it. If you are having problems with your pelvic floor, it’s telling you, “Hey, I am here and you’ve been ignoring me and something has to change.” – Leslie Howard

 

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is focused in the area below the naval and between the hips and lasts six months or longer. CPP can have multiple causes; a symptom of another disease, or it can be a condition in its own right. Millions of men and women suffer from pelvic floor dysfunction every year. In fact, over 4 million American women under the age of 40 are diagnosed with pelvic pain or incontinence. Despite this staggering figure, people often feel alone, ashamed, and frustrated with the process of being properly diagnosed and treated. There are two strategies to treating chronic pelvic pain (CPP), either treating the symptoms or the underlying cause. Typically, it is treated with drugs and/or hormones, including pain relievers, antibiotics, antidepressants, and birth control pills, with physical or psychological therapy, or even with surgery.

 

Yoga practice has been shown to have a myriad of health benefits. These include relief of chronic pain. So, it makes sense to explore the effectiveness of yoga therapy for CPP in combination with treatment as usual. In today’s Research News article “Effects of yogic intervention on pain scores and quality of life in females with chronic pelvic pain.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1438108362879752/?type=3&theater

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

http://www.ijoy.org.in/article.asp?issn=0973-6131;year=2017;volume=10;issue=1;spage=9;epage=15;aulast=Saxena

Saxena and colleagues recruited patients with chronic pelvic pain (CPP) and randomly assigned them to receive either treatment as usual or treatment as usual in combination with yoga therapy. The women were measured for pain levels and quality of life both before and after the 8-weeks of treatment. Yoga therapy occurred 5 times per week for 8 weeks and included deep breathing, chanting, postures, regulated breathing and relaxation, etc.

 

They found that the two groups had equivalent levels of pain before treatment, but after treatment the pain levels of the yoga therapy group were reduced virtually in half while the treatment as usual group was unchanged. In addition, yoga therapy produced significant improvements in the quality of life by about a third for the patients, with increases in the physical, psychological, and social domains of quality of life, and a significant but smaller increase in the environmental domain.

 

These are excellent results that indicate that yoga therapy can produce clinically significant improvements in pain levels and quality of life in patients with chronic pelvic pain (CPP). Since yoga practice is known to strengthen the abdominal muscles, this may be the reason for the improvements. In addition, the contemplative components of yoga therapy are known to improve the individual’s ability to cope with chronic pain and this may also be responsible for the improvements. Regardless, it is clear that yoga therapy is a safe and effective treatment that complements treatment as usual and produces clinically significant improvements in CPP.

 

So, reduce pelvic pain in women with yoga.

 

“The physical postures of yoga can help relieve pain in a number of ways. The most obvious is the ability of a well-rounded yoga practice to lower stress levels. Stress makes muscles more likely to go into spasm, and muscle spasms are an underappreciated contributor to both acute and chronic pain. . . The practice of asana, beyond its ability to induce relaxation, can be an effective way to relieve muscle tightness. In contrast to many other forms of exercise, yoga promotes both strength and flexibility in muscles.” – Timothy McCall

 

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

Saxena R, Gupta M, Shankar N, Jain S, Saxena A. Effects of yogic intervention on pain scores and quality of life in females with chronic pelvic pain. Int J Yoga [serial online] 2017 [cited 2016 Nov 23];10:9-15. Available from: http://www.ijoy.org.in/text.asp?2017/10/1/9/186155

 

Abstract

Context: Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a common condition of women of the reproductive age group. It has a negative impact on a woman’s personal health and quality of life (QOL). Practicing yoga has shown numerous benefits in various chronic painful conditions.
Aim: To study the effects of yogic intervention on pain scores and quality of life in females of reproductive age group with CPP, on conventional therapy.
Settings and Design: It is a follow-up, randomized case-control study done in a tertiary care hospital.
Subjects and Methods: Sixty female patients of CPP in the age group of 18-45 years were randomly divided into Group I (n = 30) and Group II (n = 30). Group I received only conventional therapy in the form of NSAIDS and Group II received yoga therapy in the form of asanas, pranayama, and relaxation along with the conventional therapy for 8 weeks. They were assessed twice (pre- and post-treatment) for pain scores through visual analog scale (VAS) score and QOL by the World Health Organization quality of life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire.
Statistical Analysis Used: Repeated measure ANOVA followed by Tukey’s test. P < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: After 8 weeks of yogic intervention, Group II patients showed a significant decrease in intensity of pain seen by a decrease in VAS score (P < 0.001) and improvement in the quality of life with a significant increase (P < 0.001) in physical, psychological, social, and environmental domain scores of WHOQOL-BREF.
Conclusions: The practice of yoga causes a reduction in the pain intensity and improves the quality of life in patients with chronic pelvic pain.

http://www.ijoy.org.in/article.asp?issn=0973-6131;year=2017;volume=10;issue=1;spage=9;epage=15;aulast=Saxena

 

Writing About Trauma or Daily Activities does not Improve Mindfulness

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“The very act of putting [words] down—getting them out of the beehive of the head and onto the objective reality of paper—is a form of clarification.” — Pico Iyer

 

People have used writing as therapy for psychological issues spontaneously throughout history. They’ve used logs, journals, diaries, essays, etc. to help cope with stresses and traumas. Research has verified the benefits of expressive writing, demonstrating that writing has beneficial psychological and even physical effects from improving mood, to relieving stress, to strengthening the immune system, to decreasing depression. It appears that the nature of the writing makes a difference, with writing about problems and traumatic events having greater benefits than simply writing about everyday events.

 

It is not known exactly how writing has such beneficial effects. It has been pointed out that writing about one’s problems or traumatic events is very similar to the process of psychotherapy. In addition, it’s been noted that expressive writing is a focused attention task much like mindfulness training. Indeed, mindfulness training has similar beneficial effects as expressive writing; improving emotion regulation, lowering depression, strengthening the immune system, and relieving stress. Hence, the beneficial effects of expressive writing may occur, in part, by improving mindfulness.

 

Although there have been a number of studies of the effects of mindfulness on writing, there have been none on the effects of writing on mindfulness. In today’s Research News article “Linguistic Predictors of Mindfulness in Written Self-Disclosure Narratives.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1437213796302542/?type=3&theater

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

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847735/

Moore and Brody examine the effects of writing on mindfulness. They recruited college students and randomly assigned them to write essays on either traumatic events in their lives or about how they spent their day and planned to spend the rest of the day. The students wrote for 20 minutes on three consecutive days. The students’ writings were analyzed for linguistic characteristics including positive emotions, negative emotions, cognitive processing words, self-references, and temporal categories of past present and future. Before writing and 4 and 8 weeks later, the students’ mindfulness was measured.

 

They found that mindfulness overall was not increased in either the traumatic events or daily activities writing conditions. They found that the linguistic content made a small difference, with high levels of use of cognitive processing words or present tense words associated with high levels of overall mindfulness and mindfulness subcomponents of nonjudgmental awareness and describing. They also found that high use of self-reference words was associated with low levels of the mindfulness component of observing internal and external stimuli.

 

These results indicate that writing in general regardless of whether it was about traumatic events or everyday occurrences did not affect overall mindfulness. This suggests that mindfulness is not the intermediary between writing and improved psychological and physical health. The results further suggest that writing thoughtfully especially about the present may slightly improve mindfulness. This makes sense as mindfulness is present moment awareness. Finally, the results suggest that writing a lot about the self tends to slightly interfere with being observant of the contents of the present moment. This again makes sense as thinking about the self involves past and future and not present experiences.

 

The results to some extent are disappointing as they did not clarify the mechanism by which writing improves mental and physical health. But, they do help to clarify how focusing thinking on the present and not the self affects components of mindfulness. Given that writing and mindfulness both have positive psychological and physical effects and appear to do so independently, it is possible that combining mindfulness training with expressive writing may have greater benefits than either alone.

 

“Poet Robert Bly once said, “If we want to create art we have to stitch together the inner world and the outer world.” Mindfulness, which is defined as paying attention to our moment-to-moment experience with nonjudgmental awareness, can do just that.” – Omega Institute

 

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

Moore, S. D., & Brody, L. R. (2009). Linguistic Predictors of Mindfulness in Written Self-Disclosure Narratives. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28(3), 281–296. http://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X09335264

 

Abstract

This study investigated whether relative changes in cognitive, emotion, temporal, and self-reference word frequencies in repeated narratives predicted improvements in mindfulness skills (i.e., nonjudgmental acceptance of present-moment experiences, observing and describing present stimuli, and acting with awareness) subsequent to narrative self-disclosure. Participants wrote repeated narratives of traumatic or daily events over 3 days. Mindfulness was assessed at baseline and 4 to 8 weeks posttask. Results indicated that relative increases in cognitive processing words (among traumatic events participants and women in both conditions) and present tense words (among all participants) significantly predicted increases in nonjudgmental acceptance, describing, or overall mindfulness. Increases in present tense words appeared to partially mediate the higher mindfulness outcomes of participants writing about daily events when compared with those writing about trauma. The findings suggest that linguistic changes in self-disclosure narratives are associated with improvements in specific mindfulness skills.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4847735/

 

Lower Blood Fat with Tai Chi

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Tai Chi is a gentle, graceful, inspiring exercise that has been found to reduce blood pressure, improve balance and reduce falls. It also increases overall toning, improves posture and circulation, increases flexibility and strength.” – Nabi Su

 

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer, claiming more lives than all forms of cancer combined. “Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Every year about 735,000 Americans have a heart attack” (Centers for Disease Control). High blood fat levels are an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. They increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke three-fold. The good news is that in general, diet, exercise, and weight loss can reduce the levels of fat circulating in the blood.

 

Contemplative practices have also been shown to be helpful for heart health particularly those that are also exercises such as tai chi and yoga. Tai chi is an ancient contemplative practice involving slow motion smooth mindful movement. The reason that it has continued to be practiced by millions for centuries is that it has major mental and physical benefits. Modern research is verifying these benefits. Mindful movement practice has been shown to improve balance, self-concept, and attention span, reduce falls, boost the immune system and helps to relieve symptoms of arthritis, asthma, Parkinson’s disease, insomnia, even improve cancer recovery, and improve recovery from heart failure. So, it makes sense to further explore the effectiveness of Tai Chi practice for the control of blood fat levels.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effect of Tai Chi exercise on blood lipid profiles: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1436358716388050/?type=3&theater

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

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4980442/

Pan and colleagues summarized the published research literature on the effects of tai chi practice on the levels of fats in the blood of Chinese adults. They found six randomized controlled trials, containing a control condition. Tai chi training ranged from 12 weeks to 12 months, with most between 12-14 weeks of practice. They reported that the literature found that tai chi practice produced a statistically significant decrease in blood fat levels overall and a trend toward a significant reduction in total blood cholesterol levels. But, there were no significant differences for either low-density or high-density lipoproteins.

 

These are promising results. It should be noted, however, that the majority of studies employed a wait-list control condition that did not contain a systematic exercise program. So, it cannot be determined if the effects on blood fat levels were due to tai chi practice specifically or would have been produced by any exercise program. But, since tai chi is a very gentle practice, it is safe for a wide range of individuals, including the elderly and patients compromised by other illnesses. So, tai chi is an excellent light exercise program that can improve blood fat levels and potentially reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

 

So, lower blood fat with tai chi.

 

“So, it’s unclear what mechanism of action is responsible for the reduction in blood pressure, cholesterol and depressive symptoms among these folks, but it’s unlikely to be from Chinese exercise alone.  A more probable explanation is that these patients adopted other health enhancing behaviors in addition to Chinese exercise such as improving their diet and/or engaging in physical exercises with a comparatively higher cardiac demand.” – American Council on Science and Health

 

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

Pan, X., Mahemuti, A., Zhang, X., Wang, Y., Hu, P., Jiang, J., … Wang, J. (2016). Effect of Tai Chi exercise on blood lipid profiles: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B, 17(8), 640–648. http://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1600052

 

ABSTRACT

Objective: Studies have demonstrated that Tai Chi exercise improves blood lipid level with inconsistent results. A meta-analysis was conducted to quantify the effects of Tai Chi on blood lipid profiles in humans. Methods: We screened the databases of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library (Central), Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang data, and Clinicaltrials.gov for randomized controlled trials with Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) score more than 3 points up to June 2015. Six studies involving 445 subjects were included. Most trials applied 12-week Tai Chi intervention courses. Results: In comparison with the control group, blood triglyceride (TG) level difference between follow-up and baseline was statistically significantly lower in the Tai Chi practicing group (weighted mean difference (WMD) −16.81 mg/dl; 95% confidence intervals (CI) −31.27 to −2.35 mg/dl; P=0.02). A trend to improving total cholesterol (TC) reduction was found with Tai Chi (WMD −7.96 mg/dl; 95% CI −17.30 to 1.39 mg/dl; P=0.10). However, no difference was found in blood low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Conclusions: Tai Chi exercise lowered blood TG level with a trend to decrease blood TC level. Our data suggest that Tai Chi has the potential to implement meaningful blood lipid modification and serve as an adjunctive exercise modality. The relationship between Tai Chi exercise regimen and lipid profile change might have a scientific priority for future investigation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4980442/

 

Improve PTSD with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindful self-compassion is the foundation of emotional healing—being aware in the present moment when we’re struggling with feelings of inadequacy, despair, confusion, and other forms of stress. Mindful self-compassion also means holding difficult emotions—fear, anger, sadness, shame and self-doubt—and ourselves, in loving awareness, leading to greater ease and well-being in our daily lives.” – David Germer

 

Experiencing trauma is quite common. It has been estimated that 60% of men and 50% of women will experience a significant traumatic event during their lifetime. But, only a fraction will develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). But this still results in a frightening number of people with 7%-8% of the population developing PTSD at some point in their life. For military personnel, it’s much more likely for PTSD to develop with about 11%-20% of those who have served in a war zone developing PTSD.

 

PTSD involves a number of troubling symptoms including reliving the event with the same fear and horror in nightmares or with a flashback. PTSD sufferers avoid situations that remind them of the event this may include crowds, driving, movies, etc. and may avoid seeking help because it keeps them from having to think or talk about the event. They often experience negative changes in beliefs and feelings including difficulty experiencing positive or loving feelings toward other people, avoiding relationships, memory difficulties, or see the world as dangerous and no one can be trusted. Sufferers may feel hyperarousal, feeling keyed up and jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger. They may experience sudden anger or irritability, may have a hard time sleeping or concentrating, may be startled by a loud noise or surprise.

 

Obviously, these are troubling symptoms that need to be addressed. There are a number of therapies that have been developed to treat PTSD. One of which, mindfulness training has been found to be particularly effective. Another potential contributor to successful treatment of PTSD is self-compassion. It “refers to how one relates to oneself when the present moment is painful. . . Self-compassion involves acknowledging the difficulty of the experience, responding inward with kindness and support, and remembering that suffering is part of the shared human experience.” (Dahm et al., 2016). Obviously, having self-compassion would tend to assist a PTSD sufferer in coping with the aftermath of their traumatic experiences.

 

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, and Functional Disability in U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1435535836470338/?type=3&theater

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

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5032647/

Dahm and colleagues study the relationships of mindfulness and self-compassion in coping with the symptoms of PTSD. They recruited war veterans who had experienced one or more traumatic events during their military service. The veterans then completed measures of PTSD symptom severity, functional disability, mindfulness, and self-compassion. They found strong negative relationships between mindfulness and self-compassion and the severity of PTSD symptoms and the amount of functional disability they produced, such that when either or both mindfulness and self-compassion were high PTSD symptom severity and functional disability were low.

 

These results suggest that the impact of traumatic events on the individual may be mitigated by both mindfulness and self-compassion. It appears that being able to view these events mindfully markedly reduces the emotional reactions to the experiences. Indeed, mindfulness if known to improve the individual’s ability to regulate emotions, to lower anger, anxiety, worry, and depression, and to decrease the individual’s physical and psychological responses to stress. In addition, being able to have compassion for oneself appear to produce an additional, additive, reduction in PTSD symptoms and disability. Being able to have kindness and understanding toward oneself appears to be also important in dealing with the aftermath of intense trauma.

 

So, improve PTSD with mindfulness and self-compassion.

 

“treating ourselves kindly can be quite a foreign concept. Giving ourselves some slack can be viewed as making excuses for ourselves, or encouraging self pity. Our critical thoughts judge our weaknesses and struggles in ways that we would never express toward a friend. We say things to ourselves that are quite shocking. Self hostility, just like abuse from others, impacts our ability to manage stress and is associated with a host of mental health problem.” – Kristin Neff

 

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

Dahm, K., Meyer, E. C., Neff, K., Kimbrel, N. A., Gulliver, S. B., & Morissette, S. B. (2015). Mindfulness, Self-Compassion, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms, and Functional Disability in U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 28(5), 460–464. http://doi.org/10.1002/jts.22045

 

Abstract

Mindfulness and self-compassion are overlapping but distinct constructs that characterize how people relate to emotional distress. Both are associated with PTSD and may be related to functional disability. While self-compassion includes mindful awareness of emotional distress, it is a broader construct that also includes being kind and supportive to oneself and viewing suffering as part of the shared human experience – a powerful way of dealing with distressing situations. We examined the associations of mindfulness and self-compassion with PTSD symptom severity and functional disability in 115 trauma-exposed Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans. Mindfulness and self-compassion were each uniquely, negatively associated with PTSD symptom severity. After accounting for mindfulness, self-compassion accounted for unique variance in PTSD symptom severity (f2 = .25; medium ES). After accounting for PTSD symptom severity, mindfulness and self-compassion were each uniquely negatively associated with functional disability. The combined association of mindfulness and self-compassion with disability over and above PTSD was large (f2 = .41). After accounting for mindfulness, self-compassion accounted for unique variance in disability (f2 = .13; small ES). These findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing mindfulness and self-compassion could potentially decrease functional disability in returning veterans with PTSD symptoms.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5032647/

 

Lessen Cognitive Problems Following Breast Cancer with Yoga

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By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

““If you or your relatives are trying to improve your memory or offset the risk for developing memory loss or dementia, a regular practice of yoga and meditation could be a simple, safe and low-cost solution to improving your brain fitness,” – Helen Lavretsky

 

About 12.5% of women in the U.S. develop invasive breast cancer over their lifetimes and every year about 40,000 women die. Indeed, more women in the U.S. die from breast cancer than from any other cancer, besides lung cancer. Breast cancer diagnosis, however, is not a death sentence. It is encouraging that the death rates have been decreasing for decades from improved detection and treatment of breast cancer. Five-year survival rates are now at around 95%.

 

Unfortunately, even after successful treatment residual physical, psychological, and cognitive problems still persist and most of these residual problems go untreated. So, safe and effective treatments for these residual symptoms in breast cancer survivors are needed. Mindfulness training in general has been shown to help with cancer recovery and help to alleviate many of the residual psychological symptoms and improve cognitive function. The mindfulness practice of Yoga has also been shown to be helpful with the residual symptoms. In today’s Research News article Yoga and Self-Reported Cognitive Problems in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Trial “.” See:

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1434567009900554/?type=3&theater

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

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4405403/

Derry and colleagues investigate the effectiveness of yoga practice on relieving the residual cognitive symptoms of breast cancer survivors.

 

They recruited women who had completed breast cancer treatment from 2-months to 3 years previously and randomly assigned them to either a wait-list control condition or to receive a 12-week Hatha yoga training. They received training twice a week for 90 minutes. Yoga participants were encouraged to continue yoga practice after training but no further classes or instruction were provided. The participants were measured before and after the 12-week treatment and 3 months later for cognitive symptoms (forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, and being easily distracted), depression, anxiety, sleep quality, fatigue, inflammation, and general activity.

 

They found that the yoga treatment produced a significant decrease in anxiety, depression, fatigue and inflammation and improved sleep quality. Importantly, they found that the yoga practice produced a significant reduction in cognitive complaints (forgetfulness, difficulty concentrating, and being easily distracted), in comparison to the wait-list group, 3 months after completion of training but not immediately after training. This improvement was still present and significant even after taking into consideration the improvements in psychological distress, fatigue, and sleep quality. Hence, Yoga practice improved the physical, psychological, and cognitive residual symptoms in breast cancer survivors.

 

These results are interesting and important. They suggest that yoga practice is a safe and effective treatment for the residual symptoms that remain after successful treatment for breast cancer. Yoga practice has been shown to have a wide array of positive benefits for healthy and unhealthy practitioners. The present study adds to the list of patients who are helped by practicing yoga. It should be noted that yoga is a gentle exercise and there was no comparison to other exercises. So, it cannot be determined if it was the exercise in general or yoga in particular that produces the benefits.

 

So, lessen cognitive problems following breast cancer with yoga.

 

“The breathing and meditative exercises aim at calming the mind and body and keeping distracting thoughts away while you focus on your body, posture or breath. Maybe these processes translate beyond yoga practice when you try to perform mental tasks or day-to-day activities. . . meditation and breathing exercises are known to reduce anxiety and stress, which in turn can improve scores on some cognitive tests,” – Neha Gothe.

 

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

Derry, H. M., Jaremka, L. M., Bennett, J. M., Peng, J., Andridge, R., Shapiro, C., … Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2015). Yoga and Self-Reported Cognitive Problems in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Psycho-Oncology, 24(8), 958–966. http://doi.org/10.1002/pon.3707

 

Abstract

Objectives: Cancer survivors often report cognitive problems. Furthermore, decreases in physical activity typically occur over the course of cancer treatment. Although physical activity benefits cognitive function in non-cancer populations, evidence linking physical activity to cognitive function in cancer survivors is limited. In our recent randomized controlled trial, breast cancer survivors who received a yoga intervention had lower fatigue and inflammation following the trial compared to a wait-list control group. This secondary analysis of the parent trial addressed yoga’s impact on cognitive complaints.

Methods: Post-treatment stage 0 – IIIA breast cancer survivors (N = 200) were randomized to a 12-week twice-weekly Hatha yoga intervention or a wait-list control group. Participants reported cognitive complaints using the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (BCPT) Cognitive Problems scale at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and 3-month follow-up.

Results: Cognitive complaints did not differ significantly between groups immediately post-intervention (p = .250). However, at the 3-month follow-up, yoga participants’ BCPT Cognitive Problems scores were an average of 23% lower than wait-list participants’ scores (p = .003). These group differences in cognitive complaints remained after controlling for psychological distress, fatigue, and sleep quality. Consistent with the primary results, those who practiced yoga more frequently reported significantly fewer cognitive problems at the 3-month follow-up than those who practiced less frequently (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that yoga can effectively reduce breast cancer survivors’ cognitive complaints, and prompt further research on mind-body and physical activity interventions for improving cancer-related cognitive problems.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4405403/