A telephone-based Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (tMBSR) program, replacing most in-person sessions, improved general health, decreased stress, and reduced work burnout among 36 nurses in a large health care organization. Improvements were sustained four months later, and nurses who continued MBSR practice after the program showed better outcomes than those who did not. The findings suggest tMBSR is a low-cost, feasible, and scalable intervention that can benefit employees unable to attend traditional on-site programs.
A randomized controlled trial compared immediate versus deferred Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) over 21 days in an online health community for people facing cancer. Participants who started LKM immediately showed medium-sized improvements in stress, self-compassion, and social connectedness relative to those who waited. Larger improvements in stress and self-compassion occurred with more frequent practice. The study had differential retention and relied on self-reported engagement, which may bias results.
Training in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) improves brain-computer interface (BCI) performance by reducing mind wandering and enhancing self-awareness. In a longitudinal intervention study, participants who completed MBSR showed significantly better BCI control compared to controls. This improvement was accompanied by increased frontolimbic alpha activity (9-15 Hz) and decreased alpha connectivity among the limbic network, frontoparietal network, and default-mode network. The changes in frontolimbic alpha activity correlated positively with meditation experience duration and the extent of BCI performance improvement. The findings suggest that mindfulness enables participants to modulate frontolimbic alpha power, thereby improving sensorimotor rhythm-based BCI control.