Abstract Contemplative practices (including meditation and yoga) are increasingly popular worldwide, especially as alternatives and/or complements to mental health treatment. However, nationally representative samples that allow for accurate estimates of prevalence and relation to mental health are scarce. We conducted a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey in Australia and New...
Despite the growing popularity of mindfulness, mindfulness-based programs (MBPs), and meditation, potential harms have largely been overlooked. Recent studies reveal that 25-87 % of those who engage in meditation report adverse effects (AEs), with 3-37 % experiencing functional impairment (e.g., inability to work). It remains unclear to what extent AEs reflect transitory discomfort vs. lasting...
Introduction: Contemplative practices (including meditation and yoga) are increasingly popular worldwide, especially as alternatives and/or complements to mental health treatment. However, nationally representative samples that allow for accurate estimates of prevalence and relation to mental health are scarce. Methods: We conducted a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey in...
Abstract Objectives Meditation encompasses a variety of techniques, but little is known on how and for whom they work. This study explored potential mechanisms of four different meditation techniques in beginners and which technique might be suited for whom. Method Using an experimental single-case design, we compared the longitudinal effects of concentrative, humming, observing-thoughts, and...
Chronic pain is a growing worldwide health problem and complementary and integrative therapy options are becoming increasingly important. Multi-component yoga interventions represent such an integrative therapy approach with a promising body of evidence. The present study employed an experimental single-case multiple-baseline design. It investigated the effects of an 8-week yoga-based mind-body...
Yoga is an embodied contemplative practice considered as a path toward long-term well-being, which fosters an integrated processing of bodily and emotional stimuli. However, little is known about how the different components of yoga contribute to these processes. This was the aim of this single-case multiple-baseline study. Herein, we explored how different yoga components affect body...
Mind-Body Medicine (MBM) includes a broad range of interventions with proven preventive and clinical value, such as yoga and meditation. However, people differ in their preferences and response to different MBM treatments and it remains unclear who benefits most from what type of practice. Thus, finding moderators of treatment outcome seems to be a promising approach. This was the aim of the...
Meditation-Based Lifestyle Modification (MBLM) is a complex eight-week mind-body intervention based on the traditional eight-fold path of classical yoga. MBLM was developed for mental health care, and it combines ethical living, physical yoga, and meditation. In this qualitative study, the subjectively perceived efficacy of MBLM was compared to the perceived efficacy of an individually...
Yoga is an embodied contemplative practice entailing multiple components, such as ethical teachings, postures, breathing practices, and meditation. Little is known to date how these different components affect aspects of embodied cognition. This single-case multiple-baseline study explored the differential and incremental effects of four different combinations of yoga components on body...
Background: Meditation-Based Lifestyle Modification (MBLM) is a new mind–body intervention that is based on classical yoga; it implements virtue-based ethical living, physical yoga, and meditation in a therapeutic context. This qualitative study aimed at understanding better how depressive patients who received MBLM as a treatment experience intra- and interpersonal outcomes of their practice....
Traditionally, yoga is a multicomponent practice consisting of postures, breathing techniques, meditation, mantras, and ethics. To date, only a few studies have tried to dismantle the effects of each of these components and their combinations. To fill this gap, we examined the incremental effects of ethical education and physical Hatha yoga on mantra meditation using a single-case...
Meditation is an umbrella term for a vast range of contemplative practices. Former proposals have struggled to do justice to this variety. To our knowledge, there is to date no comprehensive overview of meditation techniques spanning all major traditions. The present studies aimed at providing such a comprehensive list of meditation techniques. In a qualitative study, we compiled a collection...
Meditation is an umbrella term, which subsumes a huge number of diverse practices. It is still unclear how these practices can be classified in a reasonable way. Earlier proposals have struggled to do justice to the diversity of meditation techniques. To help in solving this issue, we used a novel bottom-up procedure to develop a comprehensive classification system for meditation techniques. In...
Traditionally, yoga is a multicomponent practice consisting of postures, breathing techniques, meditation, and ethics. To date, only a few studies have tried to dismantle the effects of each of these components and their combinations. To fill this gap, we examined the incremental effects of ethical education and physical yoga on mantra meditation using a single-case multiple-baseline design....