Ecopsychology
September 17, 2026
Sarah E. Ahmadi, Camille L Garnsey, Erika K Osherow et al.
Yoga and meditation are increasingly used to promote mental health and well-being. Exposure to nature has also demonstrated effects on mental health, leading to the development of nature-based interventions. Combining yoga or meditation with nature exposure may have cumulative or synergistic effects. This systematic review aimed to examine the effects of outdoor yoga and meditation...
Journal of child sexual abuse
July 28, 2026
Camille L Garnsey, Mariel Emrich, Katherine E Gnall et al.
Childhood abuse is associated with adverse psychological outcomes, including spiritual struggle. As such, it is important to identify factors that modify the link between childhood abuse and spiritual struggle. The aim of this study is to test whether regular yoga or meditation practice buffers the impact of childhood abuse (sexual, physical, and emotional) on spiritual struggle in adulthood...
Psychology of Consciousness Theory Research and Practice
June 15, 2023
Lauren M Carney, Crystal L Park, Pooja Hingorany
While many systematic reviews have focused on relationships between mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) and myriad outcomes, no systematic review has examined the mechanisms through which MBIs affect outcomes in the context of cancer. A systematic review was conducted of experimental or quasi-experimental studies that longitudinally examined potential mechanisms of the effects of either...
Health psychology and behavioral medicine
November 19, 2021
Tosca D Braun, Kristen E Riley, Zachary J Kunicki et al.
Purpose: Internalized weight stigma (IWS) is common in the United States of America across body weight categories, and is implicated in the development of distress and unhealthy eating behaviors (e.g. overeating, disordered eating) that can foster poor cardiometabolic health. While emerging intervention research shows early promise in reducing IWS, long-term efficacy is unclear and novel...
Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being
November 2, 2020
Rebecca L. Acabchuk, Julie M. Brisson, Crystal L Park et al.
BACKGROUND Chronic symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) vary greatly and are difficult to treat; we investigate the impact of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness-based interventions on this treatment group. METHOD Search included four databases, allowing studies of any design containing pre/post outcomes for meditation, yoga, or mindfulness-based interventions in people suffering from...
Complementary Therapies in Medicine
March 1, 2020
Crystal L Park, Lucy Finkelstein-Fox, Erik J Groessl et al.
54 citations
Yoga demonstrates beneficial effects in many populations, yet our understanding of how yoga brings about these effects is quite limited. Among the proposed mechanisms of yoga are increasing psychological resources (mindfulness, body consciousness, self-transcendence, spiritual peace, and social connectedness) that may bring about salutary effects on emotional wellbeing. Further, yoga is a...
International Journal of Yoga Therapy
November 1, 2018
Crystal L Park, A Rani Elwy, Meghan Maiya et al.
Yoga interventions are heterogeneous and vary along multiple dimensions. These dimensions may affect mental and physical health outcomes in different ways or through different mechanisms. However, most studies of the effects of yoga on health do not adequately describe or quantify the components of the interventions being implemented. This lack of detail prevents researchers from making...
Anxiety, Stress, and Coping
September 6, 2018
Lucy Finkelstein-Fox, Crystal L Park, Kristen E Riley
Background and objectives: Managing stress is very important for first-year college students adjusting to undergraduate life. Aspects of emotion regulation, including mindfulness and the ability to regulate distressing emotion adaptively, often correlate positively with well-being. However, little research has examined overlapping and/or distinct effects of these constructs in predicting...
Emotion
August 23, 2018
Lucy Finkelstein-Fox, Crystal L Park, Kristen E Riley
Dispositional mindfulness is often linked to higher positive affect and lower negative affect, and coping with stress has been hypothesized to mediate these links. However, few studies have explicitly tested the ways in which stress appraisals, coping strategies, or coping flexibility (i.e., fit of coping to controllability appraisals) uniquely relate to mindfulness and well-being. Drawing on a...
Journal of Psychosomatic Research
July 27, 2017
Holger Cramer, David Sibbritt, Crystal L Park et al.
Objectives: To examine the relationship between yoga/meditation practice and health behavior in Australian women. Methods: Women aged 19-25years, 31-36years, and 62-67years from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (ALSWH) were surveyed regarding smoking, alcohol or drug use, physical activity and dietary behavior; and whether they practiced yoga/meditation on a regular basis....
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
2014
Tim Gard, Jessica J Noggle, Crystal L Park et al.
Research suggesting the beneficial effects of yoga on myriad aspects of psychological health has proliferated in recent years, yet there is currently no overarching framework by which to understand yoga's potential beneficial effects. Here we provide a theoretical framework and systems-based network model of yoga that focuses on integration of top-down and bottom-up forms of self-regulation. We...