The amygdala has been repeatedly implicated in emotional processing of both positive and negative-valence stimuli. Previous studies suggest that the amygdala response to emotional stimuli is lower when the subject is in a meditative state of mindful-attention, both in beginner meditators after an 8-week meditation intervention and in expert meditators. However, the longitudinal effects of...
Mind‐body interventions to manage stress‐related health problems are of widespread interest. One of the best known methods is mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR), and MBSR courses are now offered by health services, as well as in social and welfare settings. In this systematic review, we report on the effects of MBSR interventions on health, quality of life, and social functioning. From...
Mindfulness-based meditation practices involve various attentional skills, including the ability to sustain and focus ones attention. During a simple mindful breathing practice, sustained attention is required to maintain focus on the breath while cognitive control is required to detect mind wandering. We thus hypothesized that regular, brief mindfulness training would result in improvements in...
Mindfulness-as a state, trait, process, type of meditation, and intervention has proven to be beneficial across a diverse group of psychological disorders as well as for general stress reduction. Yet, there remains a lack of clarity in the operationalization of this construct, and underlying mechanisms. Here, we provide an integrative theoretical framework and systems-based neurobiological...
The capacity to focus one's attention for an extended period of time can be increased through training in contemplative practices. However, the cognitive processes engaged during meditation that support trait changes in cognition are not well characterized. We conducted a longitudinal wait-list controlled study of intensive meditation training. Retreat participants practiced focused attention...
Bipolar depression is often refractory to treatment and is frequently associated with anxiety symptoms and elevated suicide risk. There is a great need for adjunctive psychotherapeutic interventions. Treatments with effectiveness for depressive and anxiety symptoms as well as suicide-related thoughts and behaviors would be particularly beneficial. Mindfulness-based interventions hold promise,...
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...
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...