Abstract Cultivating empathy is a presumed benefit of mindfulness, but this possibility has rarely been investigated experimentally. We examined whether a five-minute mindfulness exercise would cultivate empathy relative to two equally brief control exercises: relaxation and mind-wandering. We further examined whether mindfulness would be especially beneficial for people with autistic or...
This qualitative study explored and compared the subjective experiences of 102 veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 arms: ( a) body scan, ( b) mindful breathing, ( c) slow breathing, or ( d) sitting quietly. Qualitative data were obtained via semistructured interviews following the intervention and analyzed using conventional content analysis....
Abstract This Article recounts my unique adventures in higher education, including being a Princeton University freshman mathematics major at age 14, Harvard University applied mathematics graduate student at age 17, economics and finance faculty at multiple schools, first-year law student at the University of Chicago, second- and third-year law student at Stanford University, and law faculty...
Contemplative/mindful education focuses on practices that enable class participants to develop awareness of the events that transpire in the moment in the classroom. Breathing meditation, radical listening, awareness of own and others’ emotions, compassion for self and others, reflection and conversation, are practices used as interventions to manage and ameliorate diverse emotions that often...
It has been suggested that as a cognitive exercise, mindfulness meditation has the ability to significantly affect attention in its practitioners. This may help explain why mindfulness meditation has found success in clinical practices. This thesis sought to extend this line of research by investigating the influence of mindfulness meditation on attentional preference. In the context of this...
Mindfulness meditation (MM) has been shown to improve emotional regulation (Teper, Segal, & Inzlicht, 2013) and therefore may reduce negative emotional states experienced in response to a counter-attitudinal persuasive message. Loving kindness meditation (LKM) has been shown to increase positive emotions (Stell & Farside, 2015) and therefore may counteract negative emotions produced by these...
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a potential treatment for chronic insomnia. We evaluated the efficacy of MBCT for insomnia (MBCT-I) by comparing it with a sleep psycho-education with exercise control (PEEC) group. Adults with chronic primary insomnia (n = 216) were randomly allocated to the MBCT-I or PEEC group. The MBCT-I included mindfulness and psycho-education with cognitive...
In this paper, the effect of meditation on the seven load arithmetic tasks using Electroencephalogram (EEG) is investigated. The focused attention on breathing is taught to 11 healthy subjects as a simple meditation technique. EEG signals have been recorded at the beginning of meditation and after four weeks of regular meditation (daily 20 minutes) using EMOTIV device. The higher order...
Competitive examinations, particularly in mathematics, have made emotional stress a major problem for preuniversity students, emotions like aggression toward fellow students and teachers increase. Mindfulness is a quality that reduces both emotional stress and aggression, so increasing mindfulness should be helpful. To study the effects of Yoga Pranayama (YP) and Vedic Mathematics (VM) on...
This paper is in part a reflection on the personal illness which led the author to discover mindfulness and compassion training that supported and helped the author in her rehabilitation after having suffered a cardiac arrest. It explores the origins of mindfulness training and how a more explicit teaching of compassion skills has been found to be highly beneficial in the health and wellbeing,...