This randomised trial compared the effects of Brain Wave Vibration (BWV) training, which involves rhythmic yoga-like meditative exercises, with Iyengar yoga and Mindfulness. Iyengar provided a contrast for the physical components and mindfulness for the "mental" components of BWV. 35 healthy adults completed 10 75-minute classes of BWV, Iyengar, or Mindfulness over five weeks. Participants were...
Pain can be modulated by several cognitive techniques, typically involving increased cognitive control and decreased sensory processing. Recently, it has been demonstrated that pain can also be attenuated by mindfulness. Here, we investigate the underlying brain mechanisms by which the state of mindfulness reduces pain. Mindfulness practitioners and controls received unpleasant electric stimuli...
Contemplative practices are believed to alleviate psychological problems, cultivate prosocial behavior and promote self-awareness. In addition, psychological science has developed tools and models for understanding the mind and promoting well-being. Additional effort is needed to combine frameworks and techniques from these traditions to improve emotional experience and socioemotional behavior....
The current study compared thought suppression, focused attention (mindfulness) and unfocused attention as strategies for managing spider fear. Spider fearful participants were exposed to a strategy induction before completing a Behavioural Approach Test (BAT). The BAT is a 10 step measurement of how close participants are willing to move towards a spider. Participants were instructed to use...
In this paper, we make the case that the purview of philosophizing in philosophy of education needs to extend beyond the rational discursive practices, such as, notably conceptual analysis and argumentation, and to include non-discursive practices that would yield epistemic and ontic fonns of knowledge that are of educational value to us. We base this case-making on the primacy of states of...
AbstractThe aim of this study was to explore the feasibility of implementing a new 8‐week mindfulness‐based programme, ‘Mindfulness‐Based Coping with University Life’ (MBCUL), specifically tailored to the needs and demand of students and to explore its impact in a pilot evaluation. Participants were drawn from the University of Northampton (MBCUL N = 10; control N = 6). A non‐randomized...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a MBSR program on physiological and psychological outcomes among early-stage breast cancer survivors. A quasi-experimental, pre-and posttest control group design was selected. The intervention group received the MBSR intervention. The control group received no MBSR intervention. ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to analyze data. The intervention...
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) are effective in reducing the subjective impact of negative ideation. In both treatments, patients are encouraged to engage in a dual-task (eye movements (EM) in the case of EMDR and attentional breathing (AB) in the case of MBCT) while they experience negative thoughts or images. Working memory...
The purpose of this pilot study was to explore whether co-meditation, shared or cross-breathing, could reduce anxiety and enhance relaxation in a nursing school setting. The specific outcomes to be assessed in the quantitative component were blood pressure, pulse, respirations, and anxiety, both state and trait. A qualitative component explored participants' experiences with co-meditation...
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is a secular behavioral medicine program that has roots in meditative spiritual practices. Thus, spirituality may partly explain Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction outcomes. Participants (N = 279; M (SD) age = 45(12); 75% women) completed an online survey before and after an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program. Structural equation modeling was...
Pain is the most distressing and incapacitating symptom experienced by cancer patients. While mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) interventions have been conducted with cancer patients, no study has explored psychological and pain- related factors in patients with cancer-related pain. The effects of an eight-week MBSR intervention were investigated on pre- post scores for pain...
We address 3 critiques raised by Grossman (2011) of self-report measures of mindfulness and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale—Adolescent (MAAS–A) in particular. Grossman questioned whether self-report measures actually assess mindfulness, whether the construct of mindfulness can be understood apart from mindfulness training, and whether there is...
Many philosophical and contemplative traditions teach that "living in the moment" increases happiness. However, the default mode of humans appears to be that of mind-wandering, which correlates with unhappiness, and with activation in a network of brain areas associated with self-referential processing. We investigated brain activity in experienced meditators and matched meditation-naive...
Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is widespread among older adults (≥ 65 years) and is often treated inadequately. With a rapidly growing aging population, CLBP will increase and so will the demand for treatment. We believe that mind-body therapies can help to meet this demand. We present the methodology of a randomized, controlled clinical trial of 300 individuals with CLBP aged 65 years or older....
This paper reports a qualitative, idiographic study employing Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the experiences of therapists who have a mindfulness practice, looking at how this is brought into their individual therapeutic work. Findings focus on mindfulness, conceptualized as a way of being, which emerges as a central theme in all accounts. Three "way of being" related...
The authors reflect on challenges encountered in taking forward a service development and factors considered important in facilitating change in practice.
In order to identify potential training to enhance comprehensive soldier fitness, this analysis searched MEDLINE via PubMed and elsewhere for 33 reasonably significant modalities, screening over 11,500 articles for relevance regarding soldier resilience. Evaluation of modalities that are exclusively educational or cognitive/behavioral in nature is deferred. Using the volume and quality of...
Psychological distress and elevated cortisol secretion promote abdominal fat, a feature of the Metabolic Syndrome. Effects of stress reduction interventions on abdominal fat are unknown. Forty-seven overweight/obese women (mean BMI =31.2) were randomly assigned to a 4-month intervention or waitlist group to explore effects of a mindfulness program for stress eating. We assessed mindfulness,...
AbstractBackground: Numerous studies have found Mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) to be useful for a wide range of problems including anxiety, pain and coping with a medical illness. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an 8‐week MBSR programme in relieving distress in a community based sample.Methods: Subjects (n = 14) were participants in the MBSR...
Bipolar disorder is associated with impairments in cognition, including difficulties in executive functioning, even when patients are euthymic (neither depressed nor manic). The purpose of this study was to assess changes in self-reported cognitive functioning in patients with bipolar disorder who participated in an open pilot trial of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Following MBCT,...