Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a structured group program that uses mindfulness meditation to improve well-being and alleviate suffering. This article reviews the impact of MBSR for people with chronic diseases. The review includes original research that was published in English and peer-reviewed and reported outcomes for adults with chronic diseases who had participated in an...
The focus of the thesis is on i) theoretically investigating how meditation and education can work together, and ii) empirically studying the educational and cognitive effects of meditation on adult subject, with special regard to the subjective experience description. In concrete, it is my intention here to assess the value of mindfulness meditation in terms of changes in the so-called...
To better understand the relationship between mindfulness and depression, we studied normal young adults (n = 27) who completed measures of dispositional mindfulness and depressive symptomatology, which were then correlated with (a) rest: resting neural activity during passive viewing of a fixation cross, relative to a simple goal-directed task (shape-matching); and (b) reactivity: neural...
Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a class-based programme designed for use in the prevention of relapse of major depression. Its aim is to teach participants to disengage from those cognitive processes that may render them vulnerable to future episodes. These same cognitive processes are also known to maintain depression once established, hence a clinical audit was conducted to...
In Indian scriptures the sacred syllable Om is the primordial sound from which all other sounds and creation emerge which signifies the Supreme Power. To explore the significance of the syllable OM from ancient texts and effects of OM meditation in contemporary science. DESCRIPTIONS FROM ANCIENT TEXTS: The descriptions of Om have been taken from four Upanisads (Mundaka, Mandukya, Svetasvatara,...
The present proliferation of alternative and non-western practices challenges the way how modern selves are enacted, the distinction between ancient and contemporary, and obliges us to rethink the ways our bodies and minds are produced. By mingling the care of the self and self knowledge, some technologies of the self offer interesting paths to redefine and change our selves, questioning the...
Vipassana meditation (VM) is one of the most ancient and diffused types of meditative practices belonging to the pole of mindfulness. Despite the growing interest toward the neurobiological and clinical correlates of many meditative practices, no review has specifically focused on current evidence on neuro-imaging and clinical evidence about VM. A literature search was undertaken using...
Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience that can be regulated by many different cognitive mechanisms. We compared the regulatory qualities of two different meditation practices during noxious thermal stimuli: Focused Attention, directed at a fixation cross away from the stimulation, which could regulate negative affect through a sensory gating mechanism; and Open Monitoring,...
The neural mechanisms underlying lucid dreaming have recently been investigated using brain imaging techniques such as electroencephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging, which produce insightful but merely correlative results. We propose that research on the neurophysiology of lucid dreaming, for instance concerning the exact relationship between the dorsolateral prefrontal...
Mindfulness is a natural human mental state of moment-to-moment awareness of present experience. It is a skill that can be trained using meditation techniques that sustain focus on the present moment with a nonjudgmental attitude. Mindfulness training has been shown to be effective in relieving the suffering of numerous medical and psychological conditions while enhancing well-being. In...
Figure 1 (a) Model architecture for a single site (adapted from [1]).(b) Model estimated (in red) and experimental (in blue) spectra for a sample channel and subject.(c) Topographic map of the intrathalamic gain parameter before and after training.Reduction in intrathalamic gain has been linked to increase in alertness [2].Thus, the model not only fits experimental data but also provides a...