Work Smarter with Meditation

psyjdc 2 Comments

It has become very trendy for business to incorporate meditation into the workday to help improve productivity. In fact, Google offers “Search Inside Yourself” classes to teach mindfulness at work. But, although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of meditation improving work performance, there is actually very little systematic research on its effectiveness.

In today’s Research News article “The Association between Meditation Practice and Job Performance: A Cross-Sectional Study”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1051648664859059/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449168/

Shiba and colleagues take an empirical look at whether meditation improves job performance. They found that meditation practice was associated with better job performance, job satisfaction, and work engagement.

It should be noted that the study was correlational and as such does not show a causal connection. A controlled trial with manipulation of meditation is needed. Regardless, this is an important first step and suggests that meditation practice is associated with improved performance at work. This raises the question as to what does meditation do to facilitate work performance.

The most obvious possible mechanism is stress reduction. In the modern business environment stress is ever present. Stress can impair performance by decreasing the ability to concentrate, by increasing fatigue and nervousness, and by reducing wellness. Under high levels of stress people are more emotional and less rational in their behavior. Meditation has been well established to significantly reduce stress by altering both physiological and psychological responses to stress. Meditation doesn’t change the external sources of stress. Rather it improves job performance by reducing our responses to stressors.

But meditation does much more that can positively affect work. It can reduce the individual’s responsivity to “sunk costs.” People have a tendency to respond not only too what is appropriate for the present conditions but also tend to overly consider how much they have already invested in the situation, “sunk costs.” This can lead to decisions that are overly reliant upon past history rather than what is right for the present situation. Meditation by focusing the individual on the present moment can thus produce better decisions.

Meditation has been shown to improve emotional intelligence. It makes us better at understanding and responding to emotions. In other words it makes us smarter regarding our emotions. This can be a great asset in a job making the individual less apt to make rash emotional decisions and more likely to factor in but not be overly influenced by emotions.

Meditation has been shown to increase creativity. Hence, in a work environment the individual is more likely to come up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems. The individual can look at more alternative solutions and evaluate which are most likely to work the best.

Finally, meditation has been shown to improve concentration. Meditation is a practice in controlling and focusing attention. This practice pays off in increased ability to concentrate on a problem. This can improve job productivity by keeping the individual more “on task.” The ability to concentrate also improves memory by excluding inappropriate intrusive memories. This can allow for better use of information from past decisions to inform current decisions.

Hence meditation produces multiple effects that can positively affect job performance.

So meditate and work smarter.

CMCS

Spirituality Improves End of Life

psyjdc 2 Comments

Death in inevitable, but that does not mean that it has to be awful. We don’t know how or when we will die, but we will die. It could be sudden or gradual or prolonged. We don’t know which it will be. But, regardless, how we approach it makes a huge difference.

Suzuki Roshi at the end of his life was in excruciating pain from cancer yet he told everyone around him “Don’t worry, It’s just Buddha suffering”. He passed with a smile on his face. Augustus Montague Toplady, the preacher author of the hymn “Rock of Ages” dying from tuberculosis said “”Oh, what delights! Who can fathom the joy of the third heaven? The sky is clear, there is no cloud; come Lord Jesus, come quickly!” These stories exemplify how our religiousness and spirituality can influence the quality of our passing.

In today’s Research News article “Religion, Senescence, and Mental Health: The End of Life Is Not the End of Hope”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1051111154912810/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4357420/

Van Ness & Larson showed that individuals with high levels of religiousness/spirituality had significantly higher levels of well-being and were less likely to be depressed or suicidal at the end of life.

Americans 65+ portray themselves as more religious than do their younger counterparts. Hence it would appear that people understand that religiousness/spirituality can help in confronting end of life. But, how exactly does religiousness/spirituality help when dealing with eminent death?

Religiousness/spirituality can function by providing hope that helps the individual overcome increasing disease, disability, and emotional difficulties. Indeed, it has been shown that people high in religiousness/spirituality are significantly lower in hopelessness. This hope may take the form of belief in a life after death, reincarnation, or rebirth. Such a hope may be interpretable as a symbol of personal integrity that survives the indignities of illness, disability, and dissolution. This can be a great comfort to the dying person improving well-being and decreasing depression.

Religiousness/spirituality in older individuals is associated with a higher sense of well-being. This in turn can help the individual cope with the afflictions and challenges they face as death approaches. It can also help to bring families and communities to the dying process. It is often these connections that are the most important to the dying.

When approaching death, religiousness/spirituality can provide the structure to grapple with the basic questions of existence. Without it the person may experience spiritual distress. “When our bodies are under assault from disease or illness and our minds are reeling from the threat of disability or death, our spirit is there to hold it all together.” (Rev. Dr. Walter J. Smith).

So, practice religiousness/spirituality to be better prepared for death.

CMCS

Age Healthily – Protect the Brain with Yoga

psyjdc 4 Comments

The aging process involves a progressive deterioration of the body including the brain. It actually begins in the late 20s and continues throughout the lifespan. It cannot be stopped or reversed. But, the deterioration can be slowed and to some extent counteracted. This is true for both physical and mental deterioration including degeneration and shrinkage of the nervous system.

Aging healthily to a large extent involves strategies to slow down the deterioration. Meditation has been shown to slow down the deterioration of the nervous system with aging. It acts by increasing the amount of grey matter in the brain through a process referred to as neuroplasticity. Brain areas that are heavily used tend to grow larger while those that are underutilized tend to grow smaller.

In a previous post we described how yoga slowed or reversed age related decline in muscle strength and flexibility (See below). In today’s Research News article “Neuroprotective effects of yoga practice: age-, experience-, and frequency-dependent plasticity”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1050712994952626/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428135/

Villemure and colleagues demonstrate for the first time that yoga practice also protects the nervous system from deterioration. They showed that with age there was a decline on brain grey matter volume in healthy physically active people, but there was no decline in experienced yoga practitioners.

Interestingly, the more yoga practice the better the protection, the higher the grey matter volume. Yoga consists of postures, breath practice and meditation. It appears that the combination of postures and meditation are the most significant aspects of yoga practice for neuroprotection. It was already known that meditation helped to protect against age related brain deterioration. These results suggest that yoga adds another neuroprotective element in practicing postures.

Yoga practitioners had larger sensory cortex areas than non-practitioners. This is probably because of yoga’s emphasis on paying attention to sensations and visualization techniques used during practice. Also, the largest effects of yoga were seen in the left hemisphere. There is strong evidence that the left hemisphere is responsible for positive emotions. This then suggests that yoga promotes happiness by increasing the size of the left hemisphere. In addition, enlargement was seen in areas responsible for stress management. This provides a potential mechanism for yoga’s ability to relieve stress.

These are exciting findings. The results could provide credence for the long rumored ability of yoga to increase lifespan. They also suggest that the meditative aspects of yoga are very important and that using yoga simply for exercise may be ignoring  very important aspect of yoga for the protection of the brain.

So, practice yoga and age healthily.

CMCS

Previous Post

Age Healthily – Yoga

The aging process involves a progressive deterioration of the body. This cannot be stopped or reversed. But, the deterioration can be slowed and to some extent counteracted. This is true for both physical and mental deterioration. But, today’s article, “Age related differences of selected Hatha yoga practices on anthropometric characteristics, muscular strength and flexibility of healthy individuals.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278134/?report=printable

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1015482441809015/?type=1&theater

is focused on the physical deterioration in aging.

As we age we increase body fat and loose muscles mass and strength. The bones become less dense and weaker and thereby more prone to breaking. Cartilage that lines the joints tend to thin leading to arthritis and the ligaments that hold the muscles and joints together tend to harden making us less flexible and prone to injury. Inactivity in aging can exacerbate all of these musculoskeletal changes.

Yoga practice appears to help to slow or reverse these changes. Today’s article demonstrates that the increase in fat mass with aging and the consequent increase in body weight are slowed by daily Hatha yoga practice. The decreased muscle strength as well as the decreased flexibility is also slowed in yoga practitioners. Hence, yoga is an excellent practice for maintaining the individual’s strength, flexibility, and body composition all of which are important for healthy aging.

In addition to the direct benefits there are also a plethora of indirect benefits. The individual looks and feels better. This can lead to improved self-image and even higher levels of activity. These in turn can lead to more frequent and better social interactions. This in addition to the social interactions inherent in group yoga practice. The loss of these social interactions are a major contributor to loneliness and depression in aging. Hence, indirectly, yoga practice can lead to improved social and psychological health.

So, age healthily by practicing yoga!

CMCS

Destress with Mindfulness

psyjdc 3 Comments

 

Stress is a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or mental equilibrium. Given this definition, it seems that in the modern world most components of our life are stressors. Some stress (acute stress) is positive and actually strengthens the body, it can be exciting, and it keeps us on our toes. But stress that persists for a long period of time (chronic stress) it wears our resources down and can become detrimental to our health.

Chronic stress can produce a condition called distress which can lead to headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and problems sleeping and can make other diseases worse. Stress is epidemic in that United States. It has been found that over two thirds of Americans experienced symptoms of stress such as fatigue, irritability or anger, or changes in sleeping habits. Forty-three percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress. 75% to 90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints.

Clearly, stress is a major problem. Stress is not always under our control as it originates most often from external sources. Since in modern American life stress appears to be unavoidable, it is important to identify treatments to mitigate or prevent the symptoms of stress.

In today’s Research News article “Physical Activity, Mindfulness Meditation, or Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback for Stress Reduction: A Randomized Controlled Trial.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1049927135031212/?type=1&theater

van der Zwan and associates demonstrate that meditation, physical exercise, and biofeedback are equally effective in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, and improve sleep quality and psychological well-being.

These findings are noteworthy as it is important to be able to have a variety of treatment options. The patient then can choose a treatment that seems best suited to themselves and their life style and life conditions. It is significant, though, that van der Zwan and colleagues found that most participants preferred mindfulness meditation (52 %, compared to 24 % for both physical exercise, and biofeedback). Hence mindfulness meditation is the option preferred by most patients.

A good reason for the popularity of meditation may be that meditation is restful, relaxing, and pleasant and does not require specific equipment or visit to a specialist’s clinic or a gym. It also is known to improve happiness, creativity, relationship quality, and even help ward off infection. It reduces the physiological changes induced by stress by reducing sympathetic activation and the levels of stress hormones. Furthermore, it helps us to better understand ourselves and others and improves our ability to control our lives. It would seem to be an ideal for stress management.

So, practice mindful meditation and destress.

CMCS

Yoga for Trauma in Children

psyjdc 4 Comments

“Yoga’s ability to touch us on every level of our being—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—makes it a powerful and effective means for trauma victims to reinhabit their bodies safely, calm their minds, experience emotions directly, and begin to feel a sense of strength and control.” – van der Kolk

Trauma comes in many forms, from abuse to warfare, from children to the elderly, from natural and man-made causes, and from the rich to the poor. But, regardless of the cause or the characteristics of the individuals, it leaves in its wake a syndrome of posttraumatic symptoms which can haunt the victims for the rest of their lives. These include persistent recurrent re-experiencing of the traumatic event, including flashbacks and nightmares, loss of interest in life, detachment from other people, increased anxiety and emotional arousal, including outbursts of anger, difficulty concentration, and jumpiness, startling easily.

There have been many treatments employed each with varying but limited success. Mostly these treatments have been used with adults. But, children who are victims of trauma have been the focus of very few studies of therapeutic interventions. The lack of focus is surprising as it’s been estimated that of adolescents, 8% had been exposed to sexual assault, 17% physical assault, and 39% had witnessed violence. It is estimated that 15% of children show symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Mindfulness training and yoga practice have been found to be effective for trauma in adults, particularly from the middle and upper classes. It has yet to be shown if they can be employed effectively with children and with individuals from low socioeconomic categories. In today’s Research News article “Yoga to Reduce Trauma-Related Distress and Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties Among Children Living in Orphanages in Haiti: A Pilot Study”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1049082531782339/?type=1&theater

Culver and colleagues begin to address this issue by employing yoga training to treat traumatized orphans in Haiti. They found that yoga reduced the symptoms of trauma in these children and showed a trend toward a reduction in behavioral difficulties.

These findings are very encouraging. Trauma affects both the mind and the body. Yoga works with both, but is particularly targeted to the body. The relaxation produced by yoga practice is a soothing antidote to the hyperaroused state that is so characteristic of trauma victims. Yoga appears to reduce activity in the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight system. Hence, yoga appears to produce both muscular and physiological relaxation, directly addressing a symptom of trauma.

The practice of focusing attention that is so central to yoga training addresses the difficulties with concentration that are characteristic of trauma victims. The focus of attention in yoga is on the sensations from the body. This can directly address the numbing of sensation that is frequently reported by trauma victim. In addition, getting in touch with bodily sensations helps trauma victims get more in touch with their emotions allowing them to better work with them.

So, yoga appears to be an excellent treatment for trauma alone but preferably in combination with other treatment modalities.

CMCS

Mindfulness Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease

psyjdc Leave a comment

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) has received public attention because of its occurrence in a number of celebrities such as Mohammed Ali, Michael J Fox, and Linda Ronstadt. PD is a disease of the central nervous system that attacks the dopamine neurotransmitter system in the brain. There are around one million people in the U.S. living with PD and about 60,000 people are diagnosed with PD every year. PD is associated with aging as the vast majority of patients are diagnosed after age 50.

PD is a progressive degenerative disease. Its symptoms include resting tremor, slow movements, muscle rigidity, problems with posture and balance, loss of automatic movements, and slurring of speech. PD itself is not fatal but is often associated with related complications can reduce life expectancy, such as falls, choking, and cardiovascular problems.

Because PD is exclusively a physiological disorder it is surprising that mindfulness practice can help improve the symptoms. But it can as shown in today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Training among Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease: Neurobehavioral Effects.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1048400695183856/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4460233/

Pickut and colleagues demonstrate that mindfulness training improves motor performance and quality of life but increases pain in PD patients.

These are exciting and remarkable findings that a simple practice like mindfulness training could relieve the symptoms that result from degeneration of a neural system. But this just goes to illustrate that the separation of mind and body is far less than we assume. What are the mechanisms by which mindfulness training might improve PD symptoms?

A key mechanism might be via stress reduction that is so emblematic of mindfulness training. There is a clear relationship between stress and PD symptoms. When PD sufferers experience stress their symptoms get worse and when stress is lowered the symptoms improve. So, the stress reduction produced by mindfulness may well be responsible for the improvements.

Mindfulness training is known to produce significant changes directly in the nervous system. It has been shown that mindfulness training in PD patients increases grey matter density in the hippocampus and the amygdala. The same thing was found in areas of the right and left caudate nucleus, left occipital lobe, and left thalamus. These areas are known to be damaged in PD. So mindfulness training may act by improving brain areas that deteriorate in PD thus reducing symptoms.

Remarkably, mindfulness training has not been shown to produce improvements in the cerebellum, a structure responsible for motor coordination. The cerebellum increases in size by the usual care for PD. This may suggest that mindfulness training acts in a different way than directly working on the motor systems, perhaps by accentuating the activity of structures that take over and compensate for lost abilities.

One rather surprising finding was that mindfulness training actually increased pain perception in PD patients. This is exactly the opposite of its normally pain reducing properties. Pickut and colleagues, however, observed a marked increase in mindful observing in the trained PD patients. Buy becoming better at observing their bodies these patients may be becoming better at noting their pain levels.

So, mindfulness should be employed to help patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

CMCS

Stop worrying

psyjdc 1 Comment

“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it’s not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

Humans worry a lot. It is built into our DNA. Being concerned about what might happen in the future from an evolutionary perspective is a very good thing. It can help us anticipate or prevent problems from happening. It can help us avoid harmful occurrences. Worry about what another driver in front of us might do is useful in preventing accidents. So, worrying can help us survive.

Worry involves cognitive processes (thoughts) that help us to project into the future and anticipate potentially harmful events. But, worry itself can become a problem. Worrying is an unpleasant state. It can produce fear and anxiety. It produces unpleasant feelings. So, we can even worry about the bad internal feelings that worrying produces and end up worrying about worrying. It can become a vicious cycle and can make us miserable. “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy” (Leo Buscaglia).

Worry can be useful but if we worry about every possible negative outcome or event it becomes rumination and produces more trouble than it prevents. As Mark Twain quipped “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them have never happened.” So, we need to use worry in constructive ways while not letting it get out of hand and wreak havoc with our emotions.

Contemplative practices have been shown to decrease worry and rumination. The mindfulness training appears to be an antidote to being overly worried. In today’s Research News article “Dissociation between the cognitive and interoceptive components of mindfulness in the treatment of chronic worry”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1047670165256909/?type=1&theater

Delgado-Pastor and colleagues demonstrated that mindfulness training reduces worry, depression, and anxiety in overly worried female students. They took it, however, one step further and found that a mindfulness practice that involved particularly paying attention to the internal feelings associated with worry was more effective in reducing worry than a practice focused on the thoughts surrounding worry. In other words, it appeared that focusing on feeling rather than thoughts was the best strategy for dealing with excessive worry but both strategies were helpful.

What does mindfulness do to help regulate worry? For one thing it helps us focus on the present and experience it in preference for the past or the future. Since worry involves concerns about future occurrences to some extent based upon past experiences, the more one can focus on the present the less opportunity there is for worries to arise. Mindfulness training also involves learning to view events non-judgmentally. It trains the individual to accept the worry, experience it, and then move on. This reduces the impact of the worry and prevents the development of worrying about worrying.

Particularly by learning to mindfully pay attention to the feelings arising with worry the individual can learn to experience the unpleasant feelings associated with the anxiety produced with non-judgmental awareness. This undercuts the power of the worries. Learning to mindfully pay attention to the thought process involved in worry, the individual can learn to rationally evaluate the thoughts and sort out which anticipated future events are likely and should be avoided and which are too unlikely to be concerned about, eliminating many worries altogether.

So, be mindful, follow the Dalai Lama’s advice and stop worrying.

CMCS

Does spirituality account for mindfulness’ anti-depressive effects.

psyjdc 1 Comment

Mindfulness training has physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual components. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is even more complex as it contains yoga and body scan in addition to meditation. Because of the complexity and the variety of effects of these practices it is difficult to know which components are effective in promoting well-being and which are not.

In today’s Research News article “Decreased Symptoms of Depression After Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction: Potential Moderating Effects of Religiosity, Spirituality, Trait Mindfulness, Sex, and Age.”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1046335465390379/?type=1&theater

It is well established that MBSR is quite effective in treating and preventing depression. But it is not clear who benefits the most and what characteristics of the individual might be related to MBSR effectiveness. Greeson and colleagues investigate this question, particularly whether spirituality and religiosity or other demographic characteristics might be important for MBSR effects on depression. They demonstrate that MBSR acts independent of these other characteristics; it works regardless of level of spirituality or religiousness.

These results should not be surprising as chronic depression, as opposed to reactive depression, appears to be primarily physiologically based. It appears to be a problem with neurotransmitter balance in the central nervous system and is highly related to genetic inheritance. So, it is not surprising that behavioral and psychological characteristics such as  spirituality and religiousness would not be associated with effective treatment.

MBSR, like all contemplative practices, has marked physiological effects. It is known to change the nervous system, increasing the size of some areas, decreasing others, and altering connectivity. It also changes hormonal balances and activity in the peripheral nervous system producing greater calm and lower arousal. It is likely that these physiological effects of MBSR are responsible for its effectiveness in treating depression.

This is not to discount the importance of spirituality and religiousness. They can be very helpful with a number of conditions. Had Greeson and colleagues investigated MBSR effects on more experientially based psychological problems, such as eating disorders or panic disorder, they might have seen a large impact of spirituality and religiousness.

It is clear though that depression can be treated effectively with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

CMCS

Heart Healthy Yoga

psyjdc 11 Comments

Metabolic Syndrome is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It generally results from overweight and abdominal obesity and includes high blood pressure, insulin resistance and elevation of plasma cholesterol and triglycerides. It is an important risk factor as it increases the risk of developing type-2 diabetes five-fold and heart attack or stroke three-fold.

Metabolic Syndrome incidence has been rising rapidly approaching epidemic proportions. It is estimated that it currently affects 34% of US adults. Needless to say this is a major health problem. The good news is that timely treatment can prevent or reverse the risk. The simplest treatment is simply exercise and weight loss.

Yoga has been used to promote health and well-being for thousands of years. In today’s Research News article “Effects of 1-year yoga on cardiovascular risk factors in middle-aged and older adults with metabolic syndrome: a randomized trial”

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1045854842105108/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4440276/

Siu and colleagues examine whether yoga is an effective treatment for metabolic syndrome. They found that a 1-year yoga program reduced waist circumference, blood pressure, and resting heart rate and increased activity levels. This suggests that yoga is effective in reducing the symptoms of the Metabolic Syndrome.

Probably the most important finding was a 3.5% reduction in waist circumference. Most of the Symptoms of the Metabolic Syndrome result from a high level of abdominal fat. This produces the insulin resistance which in turn increases diabetes risk and raises cholesterol and triglycerides which increases cardiovascular risk. Hence, a key to treatment is to reduce this belly fat and yoga appears to be effective at doing just that.

Yoga is in part an exercise and this by itself could be responsible for the improvement. Indeed yoga practice increased activity levels which promotes the conversion of fat to muscle. So, even if there is no change in weight there is a reduction in abdominal fat, the primary culprit in Metabolic Syndrome.

Yoga, however, produces other beneficial effects that could be responsible for the improvement in Metabolic Syndrome. Yoga practice reduces the physiological symptoms of stress. It reduces the levels of stress hormones and it relaxes the sympathetic nervous system, the fight or flight system. Stress exacerbates the symptoms of Metabolic Syndrome. By reducing the physiological mechanisms by which stress affects Metabolic Syndrome, yoga can markedly improve the symptoms. In addition, by reducing stress, yoga can improve immune system response, increasing the individual’s ability to fight off diseases.

So practice yoga and reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease or diabetes.

CMCS

Mindfully “Get a Grip”

psyjdc 1 Comment

Strong emotions often produce behaviors that can be damaging and are regretted later. We overreact to a perceived slight and hurt the ones we care about most. We overreact to a driving incident doing something dangerous in response. We overreact to attractive potential romantic partners, making fools of ourselves. We overreact to restrictions with rebellion. We overreact to a drop in stock prices and unnecessarily sell at a loss. The examples are almost endless.

It is obvious that we need to better control our emotions and our responses to these emotions. Mindfulness can potentially help. It has been well established that mindfulness is associated with improved emotion regulation. Mindfulness does not simply lead to less emotionality, or that mindful people experience less emotion, but rather through a present-moment awareness and acceptance of emotional experience.

Emotions are also important to our happiness. A blunting of emotionality is actually characteristic of depression. The good thing about mindfulness is that emotions aren’t blocked. They are felt and experienced. It just makes us better able to effectively work with them. This allows mindful individuals to detect emotions early on and stop them from spiraling out of control.

In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness and emotion regulation—an fMRI study“

https://www.facebook.com/ContemplativeStudiesCenter/photos/a.628903887133541.1073741828.627681673922429/1045341555489770/?type=1&theater

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4040090/

Lutz and colleagues demonstrate a neural changes underlying the improved emotion regulation. They demonstrate that when dealing with negative emotions, mindful individuals have increased activity of the prefrontal regions of the brain. They also found that activity was reduced in the amygdala, and parahippocampal gyrus.

The prefrontal area is associated with self-awareness and cognitive control, indicating that mindfulness increases our ability to be aware of the emotions and to exert control over them. Although mindfulness increased the activity in this area it was also found that the higher the level of mindfulness the less the activation. This seemingly paradoxical finding indicates that as people become more mindful they require less energy and effort to effectively regulate the emotion. In other words they get more efficient.

The amygdala, and parahippocampal gyrus are involved in the processing of emotions. So, the reduced activity associated with mindfulness suggests that mindful individuals are less reactive to the emotion. It has been shown that mindfulness reduces the response of the sympathetic nervous system which is involved in producing the physical sensations in emotions. By holding down the emotion’s intensity both centrally and peripherally mindful people are less likely to be overwhelmed by and overreact to their emotions.

Mindfulness actually expands awareness of the emotion even though it tamps down its intensity. Mindful people are very aware of what they’re feeling. This allows the storm of emotions to take its course, feeling it completely, not suppressing or denying it. This allows the individual to effectively process it with reason and understanding and thus deal with it more effectively.

Mindfulness has also been shown to decrease rumination where we try to think our way out of the problem. Rumination is also called fixating, or obsessing and leads to repetitive thoughts such as “Why do I feel this way? What could I have done differently? I’m no good. I’m letting people down. What’s wrong with me?” These tend to amplify the emotion making it more difficult to control it. Being more attuned to the present moment can reduce this tendency making emotion less problematic.

The research findings clearly suggest that mindfulness better equips the individual to regulate their emotions. To experience them fully and process them fully, but react efficiently and effectively and then move on.

So, practice mindfulness and “get a grip” on your emotions.

CMCS