Mindfulness
May 1, 2024
Rotem Leshem, Or Catz, Ayelet Nave
Trait mindfulness is negatively correlated with dysfunctional impulsivity and positively correlated with functional impulsivity. Meditation experience predicts trait mindfulness but has only a limited moderating effect on the relationship between impulsivity and mindfulness. The findings highlight that impulsivity is not a single construct and that individual differences shape how impulsivity and mindfulness relate.
Mindfulness
February 1, 2024
Jelle Lubbers, Philip Spinhoven, Mira B. Cladder-Micus et al.
In patients with current or remitted major depressive disorder, four distinct mindfulness profiles were identified using latent profile analysis on questionnaire data from 754 individuals. Three profiles matched those found in previous depressed samples (very low mindfulness, high mindfulness, non-judgmentally aware), and one matched a profile from non-clinical populations (judgmentally observing). Those with high mindfulness had the best mental health—fewer depressive symptoms, less worry, less functional impairment, and more self-compassion—while those with very low mindfulness had the worst. However, mindfulness profiles did not predict how much mental health changed after Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, suggesting profiles are linked to current mental health but not to treatment response.
Mindfulness
February 1, 2024
Amy Cawley, Ricardo Tejeiro
A single 10-minute session of virtual reality (VR) mindfulness improved well-being and reduced stress more than audio mindfulness or colouring in university students at high risk of stress. VR mindfulness was the only intervention that significantly increased well-being, and both VR and colouring significantly reduced stress. VR produced the largest reduction in heart rate, though this change was not statistically significant. All three conditions were rated as highly engaging, with VR mindfulness scoring highest and audio mindfulness lowest. The findings suggest brief VR mindfulness sessions could be a useful tool for university mental health services, but longer-term effects need further study.
Mindfulness
January 13, 2024
Diana Zhang, David S. Black
People in a residential addiction treatment program who took part in a mindfulness-based intervention practiced meditation about once a day outside of scheduled sessions, with walking meditation being the longest practice (average 20 minutes during the program and 25 minutes at 7-month follow-up). The frequency and duration of meditation during the program predicted continued meditation 7 months later, suggesting that these learned behaviors persist during addiction recovery.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2024
Alexandra Elissavet Bakou, Lorna Hardy, Ruichong Shuai et al.
Brief breath counting training reduced the increase in alcohol motivation caused by negative mood in hazardous community drinkers. In two online studies (n=122 and n=111) and one in-person pub study (n=62), participants were randomized to a 6-minute breath counting exercise or a control audio. Breath counting eliminated the negative mood-induced rise in alcohol craving (Study 2) and the stress-induced increase in choosing alcohol over food pictures in a pub setting (Study 3). Study 1 found reduced craving but could not demonstrate reversal of a mood-induced increase because the mood induction did not raise craving. Breath counting appears a practical method for reducing emotional triggers of alcohol motivation.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2023
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier
Body awareness, decentering, and emotion regulation improved reliably and continuously over time for all four meditation techniques—concentrative, humming, observing-thoughts, and walking—suggesting these processes are common mechanisms for novice meditators. Walking meditation produced the smallest improvements in decentering and mind-wandering but the largest in body awareness and emotion regulation. Classic techniques (concentration, observing-thoughts) led to more consistently positive response patterns and better outcomes for participants high in neuroticism, while those high in extraversion benefited more from humming and walking meditation. Motivation and personality also interacted with technique effectiveness.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2023
Eleanor Miles, Faith Matcham, Clara Strauss et al.
Viewing mindfulness meditation as a health behavior, rather than only a technique, can help people develop and sustain a long-term practice. The Sussex Mindfulness MEDitation (SuMMed) model synthesizes health behavior theories with research on mindfulness to describe the stages people go through as they build a meditation habit and the processes that help them move from one stage to the next. The model highlights the need to support individuals to continue practicing after formal instruction ends and suggests how maintaining a meditation habit can be facilitated, offering a roadmap for future research and practical suggestions tailored to different stages of behavior change.
Mindfulness
October 16, 2023
Susanna Feruglio, M. S. Panasiti, Cristiano Crescentini et al.
An 8-week mindfulness meditation training reduced self-serving dishonest behavior in a card game where participants were tempted to lie for money. Trained participants deceived significantly less after training, while a waitlisted control group showed no change. Self-report measures showed increases in attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and non-reactivity to inner experience among trained participants. The amount of weekly meditation practice predicted moral behavior change, especially in those with the highest ability to regulate attention toward internal bodily signals. The results suggest that mindfulness meditation decreases dishonesty and heightens awareness of bodily and emotional states.
Mindfulness
October 1, 2023
Christine D Wilson-Mendenhall, John D. Dunne, Richard J. Davidson
Imagining compassionate scenarios during contemplative practices may train the brain to act compassionately in daily life. Mental imagery activates the same sensorimotor patterns as real experiences, so vividly simulating compassion could prime prosocial behavior. The authors review evidence from psychology on mental imagery and prosocial episodic simulation, then identify specific contemplative exercises that might construct such simulations. They conclude by suggesting future research on how compassion-based interventions influence perception and action outside of practice sessions.
Mindfulness
October 1, 2023
Bhikkhu Anālayo
An examination of early Buddhist texts reveals that the concept of 'skill in means' is closely tied to mindfulness practice, with the shared goal of cultivating wholesome mental states and preventing unwholesome ones. However, a story about the Buddha's half-brother Nanda grappling with sensual desire shows early signs of a different understanding of skill in means, which the author suggests could be seen as an early form of proto-tantra.
Mindfulness
September 1, 2023
Larisa Gavrilova, Matthew J. Zawadzki
An 8-week app-based mindfulness intervention (Headspace) produced rapid and sustained improvements in acceptance-attention and nonreactivity, with marginal effects for decentering, among 132 university employees. Changes in these mindfulness mechanisms were detectable from the second week onward and increased steadily over the intervention period. The study used ecological momentary assessment five times daily for four days at baseline and during weeks 2, 5, and 8, yielding 6,327 assessments. Results suggest that app-based mindfulness can quickly enhance key mechanisms such as acceptance and nonreactivity.
Mindfulness
July 1, 2023
Mariola Paruzel-Czachura, Dagna Kocur
People who meditate more often are less willing to accept harming one person to save many others (instrumental harm), but an 8-week mindfulness course reduced concern for maximizing overall welfare (impartial beneficence). In a survey of 316 participants, more frequent meditation correlated with lower endorsement of instrumental harm. In a separate 8-week mindfulness course with 41 participants, scores on impartial beneficence decreased after the course. The findings suggest meditation and mindfulness practices may shape moral judgments, reducing acceptance of direct harm while also potentially diminishing a utilitarian commitment to helping the greatest number.
Mindfulness
May 24, 2023
E. Garland, Bhanuteja Gullapalli, Kort C. Prince et al.
A randomized controlled pilot trial compared Zoom-based Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement plus Just-in-Time Adaptive Intervention prompts triggered by wearable sensors (MORE+JITAI) to a Zoom-based supportive group psychotherapy control among 63 opioid-treated chronic pain patients. Ecological momentary assessments over 90 days showed that MORE+JITAI produced significantly greater reductions in craving, pain, and stress, and greater increases in positive affect over time than the control. JITAI-initiated mindfulness practice was associated with improvements in these outcomes and increases in heart rate variability. Machine learning predicted the effectiveness of JITAI-initiated mindfulness practice with reasonable accuracy. The intervention shows preliminary efficacy for reducing factors implicated in opioid misuse.
Mindfulness
April 12, 2023
Guy W. Fincham, Kenneth I. Mavor, B. Dritschel
Over two weeks, daily mindfulness meditation—whether brief (10 minutes) or longer (30 minutes), and whether sitting or movement-based—improved well-being and mindfulness and reduced psychological distress in a healthy community sample. However, there were no meaningful differences in these benefits between any of the four conditions, suggesting that neither the dose nor the type of meditation mattered for the outcomes. Movement meditations had a higher dropout rate than sitting meditations, regardless of duration, indicating they may be harder to sustain in self-guided programs.
Mindfulness
April 1, 2023
Stella Kümmerle, Thomas Heidenreich, Meike Müller-Engelmann
Mindfulness measured by a brief breathing exercise (MBE) and by a questionnaire (FFMQ) showed positive correlations in healthy controls and people with depression, but not in those with PTSD. The breathing exercise predicted lower hyperarousal and fewer intrusive thoughts in the PTSD group, while the questionnaire predicted fewer depressive symptoms in the depression and control groups. Both clinical groups scored lower on the questionnaire than controls, and showed a trend toward lower scores on the breathing exercise. Findings suggest the breathing exercise adds unique predictive value for PTSD symptoms beyond what questionnaires capture.
Mindfulness
January 30, 2023
A. Zanesco, Brandon G King, Quinn A Conklin et al.
Experienced meditators who attended a month-long insight meditation retreat reported more profound insights, powerful emotional experiences, and non-ordinary sensory or perceptual events compared to similarly experienced meditators who continued daily life. Retreat participants also scored higher on dimensions of mystical experience, including internal unity, transcendence, sacredness, noetic quality, and deeply felt positive affect. The findings suggest that intensive meditation training is associated with a range of profound and mystical-type experiences, which may contribute to psychological or spiritual development, though long-term consequences remain to be understood.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2023
Barnaby D. Dunn, Hanna Wiedemann, Merle Kock et al.
Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (MBCT-D) appears to repair deficits in positive affect in people with residual depression by training them to attend to external sensory experiences. Secondary analyses of two randomized controlled trials found that increased external sensory observing mediated the superiority of MBCT-D over a waitlist control in one study and over maintenance antidepressants in a second study. The findings suggest that enhancing attention to external sensory input may be a key mechanism through which MBCT-D improves positive affect in this population.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2023
Franziska Anna Schroter, Markus Siebertz, Petra Jansen
A brief body-focused meditation did not directly alter the sense of body ownership as measured by the rubber hand illusion, but it did interact with interoceptive awareness. Participants with high interoceptive awareness—the correspondence between actual heartbeat detection and self-reported confidence—experienced a weaker rubber hand illusion after the meditation. Across all participants, mood improved and interoceptive accuracy and sensibility increased over time, regardless of whether they meditated or listened to an audiobook. The findings suggest that meta-awareness of internal bodily signals may help protect against manipulations of body boundaries.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2023
Sabrina Fagioli, Susanna Pallini, Stefano Mastandrea et al.
A brief online mindfulness-based intervention in an online university course improved attention, academic self-efficacy, and sense of belonging to a community. Four-hundred and eighty-six participants (average age 22.88) were assigned to either an experimental group that received the intervention or a control group that did not. The intervention included breathing meditation, sharing experiences, mini-lectures on mindfulness, and daily practice over 28 consecutive days. Compared to controls, the experimental group showed significant increases in influencing course activities, self-regulation of attention, academic self-efficacy, and self-efficacy in regulating learning. Adherence to practice partially explained the effectiveness.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2023
Sin U Lam, Kevin M. Riordan, Otto Simonsson et al.
Almost half of a U.S. population-based sample (49.3%) had meditated at least once, and 35.0% had practiced in the past year. Persistence was measured as lifetime number of sessions and current practice frequency. Factors linked to greater persistence included having spoken with a meditation teacher, higher perceived effectiveness, positive social norms about meditation, lower perceived barriers, higher conscientiousness, a wellbeing growth mindset, and retreat experience. Factors linked to less persistence included first exposure through technology and having a mental health motivation. First exposure through a smartphone app or through friends and family showed no association with persistence.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2022
José Ignacio Pérez-Fernández, Karmele Salaberria, Álvaro Ruiz de Ocenda
A mindfulness-based pain management (MBPM) program produced moderate to large improvements in pain management, pain acceptance, use of analgesics, psychopathological symptoms, negative thoughts, self-blame, mental-health-related quality of life, and resilience among chronic pain patients. Non-fibromyalgia chronic pain patients benefited significantly more than those with fibromyalgia. The study randomized 90 chronic pain patients to either an MBPM group (50 patients) or a wait-list control group (40 patients) and assessed them before and after treatment. The findings suggest MBPM is effective for chronic pain, and adding cognitive behavioral therapy components might address sleep, rumination, and need for control.
Mindfulness
November 1, 2022
Bhikkhu Anālayo, Christiane Steffens-Dhaussy, Fred Gallo et al.
Mindfulness and insight meditation can affect the body's energy system, sometimes causing hypersensitivity. Energy psychology, supported by research, offers techniques to address this hypersensitivity and meditation hindrances.
Mindfulness
October 21, 2022
Nathaniel P. Priebe, B. Kurtz-Costes
Test anxiety affects about one-fifth of college students and is linked to worse exam performance and retention. In a randomized trial, 71 undergraduates were assigned to a six-week mindfulness condition, a three-week mindfulness condition, or a six-week sham mindfulness active control. All groups completed weekly meditations and written reflections. Increases in mindfulness correlated with decreased test anxiety (r = -.48). Self-reported mindfulness increased and test anxiety decreased across all conditions, but changes did not differ by group, offering no support for greater efficacy of the longer intervention. Even the sham control showed benefits, raising questions about what effects are specific to mindfulness. Online interventions appear effective for reducing test anxiety, but further research is needed on intervention length and content.
Mindfulness
October 1, 2022
Aleksandra E. Isham, Adriana Del Palacio-Gonzalez, Barbara Dritschel
An 8-week online mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, compared to a waitlist control, increased non-reactivity to both involuntary and voluntary autobiographical memories in students with remitted depression. Participants in the MBSR group also showed increased use of cognitive reappraisal when responding to involuntary memories. Additional benefits appeared for trait mindfulness, trait cognitive reappraisal, depression symptoms, and trait thought suppression. The results suggest that online MBSR may help improve emotion regulation during memory retrieval in depression remission.
Mindfulness
October 1, 2022
Itamar Shapira, Joshua Richman, Thaddeus W W Pace et al.
In veterans with PTSD, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and present-centered group therapy both increased morning cortisol levels from baseline to 9 weeks, but the increase was significantly smaller with MBSR (mean difference 1.69 ± 0.8 SE). Changes in interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein did not differ between groups. Greater self-reported mindfulness was linked to higher cortisol and to reduced PTSD and depression severity. Higher IL-6 and CRP were associated with less severe PTSD but not depression. Pooled results confirmed MBSR outperformed the active control for clinical improvement. Increased mindfulness may recalibrate cortisol levels, suggesting a therapeutic response.