Mindfully Improve Memory

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“Mindfulness registers experiences, but it does not compare them. It does not label them or categorize them. It just observes everything as if it was occurring for the first time. It is not analysis which is based on reflection and memory.” – Bhante Gunaratana

 

Humans have both an amazing capacity to remember and a tremendously limited capacity depending upon which phase of the memory process that is looked at. Our long-term store of information is virtually unlimited. We can recall in great detail events that occurred years ago or a few minutes ago. It not only includes events but things that were memorized by rote, music, places and their relationship to other places, faces, emotions, facts, definitions, etc. It’s really quite amazing. On the other hand, or very short-term memory is extremely limited. This is called our working memory and it can contain only about 5 to 9 pieces of information at a time. This fact of a limited working memory store shapes a great deal about how we think, summarize, and categorize our world.

 

Memory is not always accurate. We forget a great deal of information or have great difficulty retrieving it. We sometimes vividly recall things that really never happened to us, called false memories. Problems with memory are exacerbated by interference within memory where similar things tend to produce problems in our ability to recalling them. The problems with memory are well known in the legal system where the unreliability of eyewitness testimony is legendary. So, methods to improve memory and recall could be quite helpful, particularly to students who are required to recall information regularly.

 

Mindfulness has a mixed record in regards to its effects on memory. It has been shown to increase the likelihood of false memories and to impair memory for emotionally negative words but not positive words in adults (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/memory/). But mindfulness has also been shown to improve working memory capacity and Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores among college students (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23538911). So, mindfulness appears to be able to improve some forms of memory while impairing others. It is thus important to sort out what kinds of memories are affected by mindfulness, in what way, and with whom.

 

In today’s Research News article “A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Working Memory Capacity in Adolescents.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1143318002358791/?type=3&theater

http://ac.els-cdn.com/S1054139X15003808/1-s2.0-S1054139X15003808-main.pdf?_tid=79ab478a-9055-11e5-80cd-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1448113429_d94f3f38ebf8666c5d47d94b9f652dbb

Quach and colleagues investigated the effect of contemplative practices on working memory in 12 to 17 year-olds. They compared students receiving 4-weeks of the meditation component of a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program to students receiving 4-weeks of Hatha yoga training and to untreated students on a wait list. They found that over the 4 weeks the students receiving meditation training significantly improved their working memory capacity while neither the yoga training nor the wait list groups did.

 

Hence the results indicated that meditation training improved short-term memory in adolescents. This adds to the prior results that mindfulness improved working memory in college students and suggests that meditation practice may be an effective method to improve an important component of students’ memories, working memory. This should, in turn, improve cognitive abilities such as problem solving, mathematics, etc. and improve school performance in general. But, future research will be required to confirm this speculation.

 

Meditation training improves attentional ability and present moment awareness and reduces mind wandering. These effects of meditation may well account for the improved working memory. By simply being able to concentrate better on the material and stay on task more will be entered into memory and less lost. Also, meditation training has also been shown to increase the size of brain areas involved in memory. This structural change in the nervous system might also underlie the improved working memory. Regardless of the mechanism it appears clear that meditation practice can lead to improved working memory in high school and college students.

 

So, mindfully improve memory.

 

“Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.” — Tennessee Williams

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Mindfully Improve Thinking after Recovery from Cancer

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“You can be a victim of cancer, or a survivor of cancer. It’s a mindset.” – Dave Pelzer

 

Cancer diagnosis is not a death sentence. Over half of the people diagnosed with cancer are still alive 10 years later and this number is rapidly improving. With breast cancer about 80% survive at least 5 years and the earlier the diagnosis the better the survival rate. With colorectal cancer about 50% survive at least 5 years and again the earlier the diagnosis the better the survival rate.  It is estimated that 14,483,830 adults and children with a history of cancer alive in the United States today. So, there are a vast number of cancer survivors.

 

Surviving cancer carries with it a number of problems. “Physical, emotional, and financial hardships often persist for years after diagnosis and treatment. Cancer survivors are also at greater risk for developing second cancers and other health conditions.” National Cancer Survivors Day. Unfortunately, most of these residual problems go untreated. Psychologically, cancer survivors frequently suffer from anxiety, depression, mood disturbance, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sleep disturbance, fatigue, sexual dysfunction, loss of personal control, impaired quality of life, and psychiatric symptoms which have been found to persist even ten years after remission.

 

Less well known is that cancer survivors frequently suffer from residual cognitive impairments that affect the majority of survivors and can last for many years. These include problems with attention, including divided attention and multitasking, memory, including short and long-term memory and retrieval, and executive function. These impairments in the ability to think and the extra energy needed for routine cognitive activities can increase fatigue over the day.

 

Mindfulness has been shown to help with cancer recovery and help to alleviate many of the residual psychological symptoms (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cancer/) and it has been shown to improve cognitive function (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/cognition/).  So, it would seem reasonable to postulate that mindfulness might help in alleviating the cognitive impairments occurring in cancer survivors.

 

In today’s Research News article “Randomized controlled pilot trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction for breast and colorectal cancer survivors: effects on cancer-related cognitive impairment”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1142698709087387/?type=3&theater

Johns and colleagues examined the effect of an 8-week Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program on cognitive function in cancer survivors and compared it to an 8-week Education and Support (ES) program involving comparable amounts of time. They found that the MBSR group in comparison to the ES group showed greater improvements in overall attentional function, particularly with effective action and attentional lapses. The MBSR group also showed greater improvement in ability to cope with cognitive interference as measured by the classic Stroop test. These improvements were lasting as they were still present 6-months after the conclusion of treatment.

 

These are exciting results as they are in comparison to an active control condition and they suggest that MBSR is an effective treatment for the cognitive impairments in cancer recovery patients. There are a number of explanations for how MBSR might produce these improvements. MBSR targets stress and has been shown to effectively reduce psychological and physiological stress responses. This stress reduction could greatly help the survivors deal with their residual problems. MBSR also markedly improves attention, particularly present moment attention. This may fairly directly help improve cognitive function. MBSR also improves emotion regulation. This may make the survivors better able to cope with the emotional sequela of cancer recovery. Finally, MBSR has been shown to improve cognitive function in healthy individuals and may simply be improving overall cognitive function and not specifically treating the cognitive symptoms of cancer recovery.

 

Regardless of the explanation, it is clear that mindfulness training is effective in alleviating the cognitive problems following recovery from cancer.

 

So, improve thinking after recovery from cancer with mindfulness.

 

“Cancer can take away all of my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.” – Jim Valvano

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Repair the Damage with Mindfulness

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“In today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.” ~Eckhart Tolle

 

Mindfulness practices are known to improve people’s physical, mental, and even social well-being. But, why would mindfulness training, learning to pay attention to the experiences of the present moment without judging the experiences, be so good for people? It is surprising that such a simple training would be so beneficial. Why would we need to practice something as obvious as paying attention to what is going on right in front of our noses.

 

It is particularly puzzling, given that we are born mindful. A newborn infant is the epitome of mindfulness. Everything that is going on grabs their attention and they respond only to the present moment. There is no past as the memory systems have not yet developed and there is no future, as planning and foresight mechanisms have yet to develop. For them there is only now.  Even later in childhood, life is experienced in the present moment. There is a sense of wonder and awe at the world and the beings, human and otherwise, that populate it. Play is a joy unto itself, without goal or purpose.

 

So, if mindfulness is our primal state, why do we later in life need to try to recapture it? It must be that we somehow lost it, otherwise why would we need to practice it. Rather than lost, mindfulness is trained out of us. The training that puts mindfulness to the side is ubiquitous. It’s present in the home, in school, at work, in the media, and in friendship groups. It teaches us to strive for a “better” future, for a degree, for a career, to acquire things, to seek relationships, for a family, to look out to avoid difficult issues or people, to make money. It teaches us to be focused on the future, rather than now. It teaches us to see now, not as something to be savored but as a necessary evil to get to the promised future.

 

We are trained to perfect ourselves, to be better at everything we do. This causes us to focus on the past and particularly things in the past that didn’t work, were troubling, embarrassing, or even terrifying. We try to look back at these events and work out what went wrong and how to avoid it in the future. We are trained to try to have a healthy “self-concept.” This notion unto itself in unmindful as there really isn’t anything there, other than an accumulation of labels, thoughts, stories, and experiences that are summarized as the self. Again this causes us to focus on the past and future in the continuous striving to perfect ourselves.

 

By the time we’re adults severe damage has been done to our appreciation of our existence. Our society and culture not only allows it, but encourages it. Messages in the media and in ads constantly hammer home the notion of perfecting oneself and one’s life situation. We become so focused on these unattainable goals that our lives become a treadmill of unsatisfactoriness leading to more analysis and striving, leading to more unsatisfactoriness, leading to …..  It leads to unhappiness that we delude ourselves will be fixed sometime in the future when we accomplish some objective or acquire some object.

 

The damage that has been done is severe. It makes us constantly dissatisfied and unhappy. There isn’t a magical solution. But, going back toward our primal state of mindfulness will help immensely. But, our minds are so trained to focus on the past and future that we literally need to be retrained. We’ve been trained out of it, so we need to be trained back into it. That is where mindfulness practices come in.

 

Mindfulness practices work to undo the damage that’s been done to us by our society and culture throughout our lives. They work to return us to that happy state of appreciation of the present moment, to return, if only occasionally, to the wonder and awe at this miraculous thing we call life, to the appreciation of the other people that surround us. These practices work to teach us to really listen to one another and become compassionate, and to become active contributors to the overall group happiness.

 

It’s no wonder that mindfulness training is so beneficial to us physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and socially. It repairs the years of damage that so blinds us and makes us so dissatisfied. In a different society, with a different culture and values, mindfulness practice may not be so valuable. But, in our modern western culture, mindfulness practice is almost mandatory to ever truly be healthy and happy.

 

So, practice mindfulness, repair the damage, and thrive.

 

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” – Lao Tzu

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

Distress Produces Less Stress with Mindfulness

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“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ― Amit Ray

 

Psychological distress is related to an increase in physiological stress responses. That is, when the individual is anxious, ruminating, or having negative emotions, the physiology including the hormonal system reacts. The increased activity can be measured in heightened stress hormones in the blood and increased heart rate, blood pressure etc. These physiological stress responses on the short-term are adaptive and help to fight off infection, toxins, injury, etc. But when these stress responses are long lasting (chronic) they can themselves be a source of disease.

 

Chronic stress can produce a myriad of physical problems including mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders; cardiovascular disease, including heart disease, high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, heart attacks, and stroke; obesity and other eating disorders; menstrual problems; sexual dysfunction, such as impotence and premature ejaculation in men and loss of sexual desire in both men and women; skin and hair problems, such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema, and permanent hair loss; and gastrointestinal problems, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), gastritis, ulcerative colitis, and irritable colon. Needless to say, chronic stress can be very harmful.

 

Unfortunately, psychological distress is often persistent and chronic and resulting in chronic stress which in turn can produce disease. Many of the symptoms of psychological distress have been shown to be related to a lack of mindfulness. Anxiety is often rooted in a persistent dread of future negative events while rumination is rooted in the past, with persistent replaying of negative past events. Since mindfulness is firmly rooted in the present it is antagonistic toward anything rooted in the past or future. Hence, high levels of mindfulness cannot coexist with anxiety and rumination. This has been repeatedly demonstrated (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/anxiety/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/worry/). In addition, high mindfulness has been shown to be related to high levels of emotion regulation and positive emotions (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/emotions/). So, mindfulness would appear to be an antidote to psychological distress.

 

In today’s Research News article “It’s Not What You Think, It’s How You Relate to It: Dispositional Mindfulness Moderates the Relationship Between Psychological Distress and the Cortisol Awakening Response”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1141553695868555/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4503930/

Daubenmier and colleagues investigated whether mindfulness could blunt the stress hormone response to psychological distress. They measured the cortisol awakening response. Cortisol is a stress hormone whose levels are very low during sleep. Upon awakening they increase. How much they increase is related to the level of chronic stress the individual is under. So, the increase in cortisol shortly after awakening is a good measure of the individual’s level of chronic physiological stress.

 

They found that, as expected, that the magnitude of the cortisol awakening response was positively related to the individuals’ levels of psychological distress. But, high levels of mindfulness were related to a smaller cortisol awakening responses to psychological distress. In particular, two facets of mindfulness, the ability to describe and the ability to accept thoughts and emotions were negatively related to the cortisol awakening response. This suggests that the ability to consciously label or accept negative thoughts and emotions may buffer their impact on stress hormone activation. In other words, if thoughts and emotions are experienced with mindful awareness they have a less stressful impact.

 

Mindfulness by focusing the individual’s awareness on the present moment, improving their ability to experience, label, and accept their responses to stress, while interfering with rumination rooted in the past and anxiety rooted in the future, provides a greater tolerance for psychological stress. This would predict that mindful individuals would have less illness as a result of psychological stress. Future research will be needed to verify this prediction.

 

So, be mindful and be less stressed by psychological distress.

 

“All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Meditate Effortlessly with Practice.

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“Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time and you can be aware of them all.” – Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

When a meditation practice is first begun, this simple activity can seem devilishly difficult; requiring a great deal of effort to be expended to maintain focus. Yet the effort doesn’t seem to make it any easier. Rather, it seems to get more and more difficult to keep the mind from wandering away. This is an important lesson unto itself. It becomes clear that the mind is not under the control that was imagined. In fact, the mind appears to be an unruly beast that is extraordinarily difficult to tame. That is why many teachers refer to it as the monkey mind. This revelation is often startling to the beginner and is itself a great insight.

 

Over time, however, without really understanding how, meditation gets more and more focused with less and less effort. That’s not to say that the mind doesn’t wander, it does and frequently. But, it does so less often for shorter periods of time and the mind wandering doesn’t evoke the same anger and frustration that it used to. The whole process becomes much more relaxing. The focus of meditation doesn’t seem to require the level of effort that it once did. Relaxed enjoyment of just being becomes more frequent and enduring as the meditator stops fighting the mind and instead becomes an awake detached observer.

 

What changes with practice? How does meditation become so much easier and relaxed? One possibility is that as practice develops, it changes the brain. Indeed, contemplative practice is known to produce alterations in the structure, connectivity, and activity of brain areas (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/neuroplasticity/ and http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/brain-electrical-activity/). These changes occur in a number of neural areas and systems. But, the changes frequently involve the frontal lobes (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/?s=frontal). This is particularly important as the frontal lobes are thought to be very important for high level cognitive processes sometimes labelled as executive function. Among these frontal lobe functions is attentional ability. It is important to focusing and maintaining attention.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effortless Attention as a Biomarker for Experienced Mindfulness Practitioners”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1141006622589929/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4601770/

Tanaka and colleagues investigated the electrical activity of the frontal lobes during a 40 minute session of open monitoring meditation (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/25/beginning-meditation-getting-started-4-open-monitoring-meditation/). They recorded Beta band frequencies (13-30 hertz) of frontal EEG activity and compared it between first time meditators and long-term experienced meditators with over 5 years of consistent meditation practice. The Beta band was selected as it has been shown to be associated with attention, vigilance and processing information.

 

The power of Beta band activity did not differ between groups during the rest period prior to meditation. During meditation Beta band power was significantly higher for the first time meditators than the experienced meditators. Since increased power in the Beta band is associated with attention, the observations suggest that the first time meditators are investing more effort into maintaining attention while the experienced meditators are using minimal effort to maintain attention. These results are in line with what is reported to occur in long-term meditators with maintaining attention described as effortless. These results also suggest the possibility that changes in the frontal lobe may underlie the effortless effort of experienced meditators.

 

So, regularly practice meditation letting it become effortless.

 

“In the beginning you will fall into the gaps in between thoughts – after practicing for years, you become the gap”. – J. Kleykamp

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Mind-body Practices Promote Health and Well-being by Changing Gene Expression

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“We can’t any longer have the conventional understanding of genetics which everybody peddles because it is increasingly obvious that epigenetics – actually things which influence the genome’s function – are much more important than we realised.” – Robert Winston

 

There is an accumulating volume of research findings to demonstrate that Mind-body therapies have highly beneficial effects on the health and well-being of humans. These include meditation, yoga, tai chi, qigong, biofeedback, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, hypnosis, and deep breathing exercises. Because of their proven benefits the application of these practices to relieving human suffering has skyrocketed.

 

It is clear that Mind-body therapies affect the physiology. In other words, the mind can alter the body. In turn, the genes can affect our minds. In fact, the genes have been shown to affect an individual’s inherent level of mindfulness (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/genetics/). These interactions are well documented. The mechanisms by which they occur, however, are not well understood. It has been shown that contemplative practices help create balance in the inflammatory response (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/inflammatory-response/) which is very beneficial for health. But, the mechanism through which contemplative practices affect the immune system is not known.

 

The genes dictate all of the chemical processes in our bodies including immune and inflammatory responses. So, it would seem reasonable to investigate whether alterations in gene expressions might be the intermediary between mind-body therapies and health. In today’s Research News article “Functional Genomics in the Study of Mind-Body Therapies”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1140382739318984/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4295747/

Niles and colleagues review the literature on the effects of mind-body therapies on the functional expression of the genes. Out of the vast number of genomic pathways that can be affected, they found one which appears to be altered by mind-body therapies in general. This was a reduction in activity (downregulation) of the expression of genes that elicit the inflammatory response. In other words mindfulness practices reduce inflammation by reducing the activity of the genes that produce it.

 

This finding is extremely important as an overactive inflammatory system underlies many chronic diseases. Inflammation is a normal response of the body to outside threats like stress, infection, injury, and toxic chemicals. It is designed to protect the body and ward off these threats. It works quite well for short-term infections and injuries and as such is an important defense mechanism for the body. But when inflammation is protracted and becomes chronic, it can itself become a threat to health. Chronic inflammation can produce autoimmune diseases such as colitis, Chron’s disease, arthritis, heart disease, increased cancer risk, lung disease, sleep disruption, gum disease, decreased bone health, psoriasis, and depression. Needless to say chronic inflammation can create major health problems. Indeed, the presence of chronic inflammation is associated with reduced longevity. So, it is important for health to control the inflammatory response, allowing it to do its job in fighting off infection but then reducing its activity when no external threat is apparent. Mind-body therapies appear to do just that by reducing the expression of the genes that produce inflammation.

 

Niles and colleagues also found that a number of mind-body therapies increase the activity of telomerase, an enzyme that protects the genes from deterioration, particularly during aging. Hence, mind-body therapies appear to have anti-aging properties by increasing the activity of genes the reduce age related deterioration (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/2015/07/17/aging-healthily-yoga-and-cellular-aging/).

 

All of these results suggest that mind-body therapies promote health and well-being by altering gene expression. This is interesting and important. The next question is what are the mechanisms by which these practices affect gene expressions? It will be up to future research to investigate this link in the causal chain from mind-body therapies to the promotion of health and well-being.

 

So engage in mind-body practices, change gene expression and promote health and well-being.

 

“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and …. the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression.” – Richard Davidson

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

 

 

Ease Caregiver Problems with Mindfulness

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“Many of us follow the commandment ‘Love One Another.’ When it relates to caregiving, we must love one another with boundaries. We must acknowledge that we are included in the ‘Love One Another.” ― Peggi Speers

 

Providing needed care for others, particularly loved ones can be very satisfying and rewarding. It may be an opportunity to provide care for someone who provided care for you. It may be an opportunity to express your love for another in a tangible way. It can be a joyful experience. But, particularly over time, caregiving can wear the caregiver out and the stress and sacrifices required begin to take their toll. As a result caregivers experience high levels of anxiety and depression, sleeplessness, physical exhaustion, weakening of the immune system can occur, opening the caregiver up to diseases, burnout, and feelings of hopelessness. All of which leads to an increase in the mortality rate of caregivers.

 

Dementia is a progressive loss of mental function produced by degenerative diseases of the brain. Dementia patients require caregiving particularly in the later stages of the disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia and accounts for 50 to 70 percent of dementia cases. Other types of dementia include vascular dementia, mixed dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. For Alzheimer’s disease alone, in 2008 there were an estimated 9.9 million caregivers providing 8.5 billion hours of care at a value of $94 Billion dollars.

 

Caring for an individual with dementia can be particularly challenging. Over time dementia will lead to loss of memory, loss of reasoning and judgment, personality and behavioral changes, physical decline, and death.  If this isn’t bad enough, a little appreciated consequence is that few insurance programs cover dementia care outside of the hospital. So, medical expenses can produce extra financial strain on top of the loss of income for the caregiver.

 

Dementia is particularly difficult for caregivers and can produce higher levels of stress than other forms of caregiving. The memory and personality changes in the patient may take away all those characteristics that make the loved one identifiable, unique, and endearing, producing psychological stress in the caregiver. The feelings of hopelessness can be overwhelming regarding the future of a patient with an irreversible terminal degenerative illness. In addition, caregivers often experience an anticipatory grief associated with a feeling of impending loss of their loved one.

 

Obviously, there is a need to care for caregivers, for all types of caregiving but particularly for dementia caregivers. They play an essential and often irreplaceable role. So, finding ways to ease the burden is extremely important. Mindfulness practice for caregivers has been shown to help them cope with the physical and psychological demands of caregiving (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/caregiving/). In today’s Research News article “Feasibility of Central Meditation and Imagery Therapy for Dementia Caregivers”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1139767462713845/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106977/

Jain and colleagues provided an 8-week meditation and guided imagery mindfulness program to caregivers for family members with dementia. The practice resulted in significant reductions in the caregiver’s levels of anxiety and depression. It reduced levels of insomnia and increased mindfulness. These improvements were still evident three months later. On a more subtle level the caregivers reported qualitative shifts in their relationships with the dementia patients, including greater understanding and compassion, improved ability to manage their day-to-day caregiving, and reduced arguing.

 

Mindfulness practice focuses the individual on the present moment. This reduces worries about the future and ruminations about problems in the past. This is very helpful for dementia caregivers making them better able to attend to what is needed now and to spend less time catastrophizing, feeling remorse, or experiencing anticipatory grief. Mindfulness practice is also known to reduce the psychological and physical responses to stress. This would obviously be helpful for the caregiver. Finally, mindfulness practice is known to improve emotion regulation so that the caregiver can allow themselves to feel and experience their emotions but at the same time respond to them in a constructive and productive way. This has to be very helpful in dealing with the sometimes overwhelming emotions consequent upon dementia caregiving.

 

The Jain and colleagues study was a pilot program and as such had only a small group of participants and no control group. The results are exciting enough that it is certainly justified to launch a major randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of mindfulness training to ameliorate the negative consequences of dementia caregiving.

 

So, ease caregiver problems with mindfulness.

 

“Many caregivers share that they often feel alone, isolated, and unappreciated. Mindfulness can offer renewed hope for finding support and value for your role as a caregiver…It is an approach that everyone can use. It can help slow you down some so you can make the best possible decisions for your care recipient. It also helps bring more balance and ease while navigating the caregiving journey.”  ― Nancy L. Kriseman

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Calm the Police with Yoga

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“Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety.” – Baxter Bell

 

Policing is a very stressful occupation. Stress in police can result from role conflicts between serving the public, enforcing the law, and upholding ethical standards and personal responsibilities as spouse, parent, and friend. Stress also results from, threats to health and safety, boredom, responsibility for protecting the lives of others, continual exposure to people in pain or distress, the need to control emotions even when provoked, the presence of a gun, even during off-duty hours, and the fragmented nature of police work, with only rare opportunities to follow cases to conclusion or even to obtain feedback or follow-up information.

 

This stress can have serious consequences for the individual and in turn for society. Police officers have one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, possibly the highest. They have a high divorce rate, about second in the nation. They are problem drinkers about twice as often as the general population. This is a major problem as stress and the resultant complications can impact job performance, which sometimes involve life or death situations.

 

Given the difficulties with stress and the critical nature of their roles in society, it is imperative that methods be found to not just reduce the stressors of the job but also to assist the officers in stress management. Contemplative practices including yoga practice have been shown to be effective in the management of stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/n). They’ve been shown to reduce both the physiological and the psychological responses to stress. Hence, contemplative practice may be an effective method to reduce stress in police.

 

In today’s Research News article “Evaluation of the benefits of a Kripalu yoga program for police academy trainees: a pilot study”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1139276302762961/?type=3&theater

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/256478725_Evaluation_of_the_benefits_of_a_kripalu_yoga_program_for_police_academy_trainees_a_pilot_study

Jeter and colleagues examined the effectiveness of yoga practice for reducing stress in police academy trainees. They administered six 75-minute classes during the 20-week police academy training and found that there was a significant reduction in perceived stress in the trainees. In addition, they found that the yoga training significantly reduced tension and fatigue.

 

Yoga practice has been shown previously to reduce not only perceived stress but also the hormonal and cardiovascular responses to stress. Unfortunately, these physiological indicators were not measured in the study by Jeter and colleagues. But, the reduction in the psychological perception of stress is normally linked to changes in the physiological response. So, it is likely that these were also present in the trainees.

 

The reduction in fatigue is very significant. Fatigue is a major problem with police. Rotating shift work, lack of sleep, financial pressures to take on extra work or second jobs induce fatigue which can, in turn, affect performance. It has been demonstrated that fatigue impairs judgment and eye-hand coordination, increases excessive use of force, severe mood swings, anxiety or depression, substance-abuse, back pain and frequent headaches, PTSD, gastrointestinal problems, and risk of serious health problems. So, the ability of yoga practice to reduce fatigue in the trainees is very important.

 

These results in trainees need to be reproduced in a more highly controlled trial and the effectiveness of yoga practice to reduce stress in police officers in the field needs to be established. But, these preliminary results certainly justify further research. The problem is too important to be left untreated and yoga practice definitely shows promise.

 

So, calm the police with yoga.

 

“Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self realization. Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day to day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.” – B.K.S. Iyenga

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Improve Inflammatory Bowel Disease with Mindfulness

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MBCT inflammatory bowel disease - Schoultz2

“I don’t think anybody would argue that fact that we know inflammation in the body, which comes from a lot of different sources, is the basis for a lot of chronic health problems, so by controlling that, we would expect to see increased life expectancy … but if we’re not changing those things and just taking ibuprofen, I don’t know if we’re really going to make any headway in that, I feel like there are probably a lot of factors that we could change without medicating with risk.” –  Josie Znidarsic

“Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a broad term that describes conditions with chronic or recurring immune response and inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The two most common inflammatory bowel diseases are ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Inflammation affects the entire digestive tract in Crohn’s disease and only the large intestine in ulcerative colitis. Both illnesses are characterized by an abnormal response to the body’s immune system.” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

 

Inflammatory Bowel Disease affects about 1 –1.3 million in the United States and its incidence appears to be increasing worldwide. IBD is a relapsing disorder with symptoms appearing, disappearing, and reoccurring repeatedly. It is characterized by diarrhea, fever and fatigue, abdominal pain and cramping, blood in the stool, reduced appetite, and unintended weight loss. IBD sufferers may lose weight and even become malnourished because they cannot properly digest and absorb food. The cause of IBD is unknown, and until we understand more, prevention or a cure will not be possible. It is most frequently treated with drugs, particularly anti-inflammatory drugs and immune system suppressors. These treatments, however, have considerable troubling side effects and patients frequently do not comply with the regimen.

 

There is a need for effective treatments for IBD that are safe and have few if any side effects. Since contemplative practices have been shown to reduce inflammatory responses (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/inflammatory-response/), and irritable bowel syndrome (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/ibs/) and have very few if any adverse side effects, they would seem to be appropriate potential treatments for IBD.  In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for inflammatory bowel disease patients: findings from an exploratory pilot randomised controlled trial”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1138739702816621/?type=3&theaterhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4549082/

Schoultz and colleagues perform a pilot test of the effectiveness of an 8-week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program for Inflammatory Bowel Disease compared to a standard care control group. They found that MBCT produced significant reductions in depression and

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1138739702816621/?type=3&theatersizes studied there were trends toward improvements in Chron’s disease and ulcerative colitis activity. All of these effects were sustained at a 6-month follow-up.

 

This study was a pilot study that had only a small number of patients. This makes it difficult to detect statistically significant results. So, it is impressive that reductions in depression and anxiety were significant and attest to the robustness of these effects. This, however, should not be a surprise as MBCT was developed specifically with the treatment of depression and anxiety in mind and there is an impressive array of scientific studies verifying its effectiveness (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/contemplative-practice/mbct/).

 

The study is potentially very important in that there were large non-significant trends toward effectiveness in reducing IBD activity in the patients. These possible effects of mindfulness may be due to its ability to reduce inflammation and also to its ability to reduce the physiological and psychological effects of stress (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/research-news/stress/) since stress has been shown to be a trigger for flares in IBD symptoms. These results strongly suggest that a much larger controlled study is called for investigating this potentially useful treatment for IBD.

 

So, improve inflammatory bowel disease with mindfulness.

 

“All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

Religion-Spirituality Improve Mental Health

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Spirituality Mental Health Goncalves2

 

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” – Denis Waitley

 

Religion and spirituality have been promulgated as solutions to the challenges of life both in a transcendent sense and in a practical sense. On a transcendent level western religions promise a better life in an afterlife while eastern practices promise an escape from suffering and the cycle of birth and death. On a more mundane level western religions promise feelings of self-control, compassion, and fulfillment while eastern practices promise greater happiness and mindfulness.

 

What evidence is there that these claims are in fact true? The transcendent claims are untestable with the scientific method. But, the practical claims are amenable to scientific analysis. There have been a number of studies of the influence of religiosity and spirituality on the physical and psychological well-being of practitioners (see http://contemplative-studies.org/wp/index.php/category/spirituality/religiosity/) mostly showing positive benefits. In today’s Research News article “Religious and spiritual interventions in mental health care: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1138180826205842/?type=3&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4595860/

Gonçalves and colleagues review the published literature on the effects of randomized controlled trials of religious and spiritual practices on psychological health. In these studies the spiritual practices involved ”themes such as moral values, belief in a ‘high power’, coping and transcendence, and others in the form of therapeutic models, audiovisual resources and meditation. Religious approaches explored the beliefs and specific traditions of Catholics, Jews and Muslims, conducted in pastoral services and therapeutic models.” The studies compared the results of the interventions to the results of secular therapy, disease education, or wait list controls.

 

They found that religious or spiritual interventions produced significant improvements in psychological health, particularly in anxiety levels. The interventions that included meditation or psychotherapy were especially effective. These results, summarizing the literature on active interventions that were either religious or spiritual in orientation, clearly show that these practices have mental health benefits in comparison to secular interventions. It is important to note that in these studies groups were randomly assigned and active interventions employed. It is thus reasonable to conclude that the religious or spiritual practices were the cause of improved mental health. Hence, scientific analysis was able to confirm some practical psychological benefits of religious and spiritual practices.

 

So, engage in religious and/or spiritual practices to improve mental health.

 

“The world sometimes feels like an insane asylum. You can decide whether you want to be an inmate or pick up your visitor’s badge. You can be in the world but not engage in the melodrama of it; you can become a spiritual being having a human experience thoroughly and fully.” – Deepak Chopra

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies