In our extremely fast-paced society, it’s difficult to exist in any state other than “action mode.” Even if you think you’re resting, are you really resting?
Think about it: when was the last time you made time in your day to put down your to-do list or your phone, turn off the TV, and just be with yourself in the present moment?
It’s not easy, but more and more people are trying to achieve this by practicing techniques such as meditation. According to Statista, the global meditation app market is expected to reach $7.09 billion by 2028. A 2017 survey in the United States found that 20% of adults who practice some form of meditation are meditation It tripled between 2012 and 2017.
There are many different ways to meditate, and it can be difficult to define what meditation is. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health “The word ‘meditation’ refers to a variety of practices that focus on the integration of the mind and body and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being.” Meditation has inspired many people. Scientific Research Over the past few decades, researchers have become increasingly intent on determining whether and how these ancient technologies can bring such benefits to modern life.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the latest research on meditation, the brain, and happiness.
Can meditation help humans thrive in later life?
The world’s population is ageing and societies are facing a variety of challenges and complexities, all of which can take a toll on our physical and mental health. Could a long-term meditation practice help?
That was the question that prompted a recent randomized controlled clinical trial. study Co-led by scientists from University College London (UCL), the trial lasted 18 months, making it the longest randomized meditation training study ever conducted.
“It is becoming increasingly important to understand how we can help older adults maintain and deepen their psychological well-being.” Said Dr. Marco SchlosserHonorary Research Fellow in the UCL Department of Psychiatry and lead author of the study, said: “We tested whether long-term meditation training can enhance important aspects of well-being. Our findings suggest that meditation is a promising non-pharmacological approach to supporting human flourishing later in life.”
One hundred and thirty-seven healthy people aged 65-84 years living in Caen, France, were assigned to either an 18-month meditation training program, an English language training program of the same length, or a passive control group that received no training.
The meditation program consisted of a nine-month mindfulness module followed by a nine-month loving-kindness and compassion module.Mindfulness meditation is often used interchangeably and refers to a type of meditation that encourages practitioners to experience a state of mindfulness, or being present in the present moment without judgment.
These modules were delivered in a variety of formats, including weekly 2-hour group sessions, retreat days, and daily 20-minute home practice sessions. All participants were assessed at the baseline visit, 9 months mid-intervention, and 18 months post-intervention.
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In their study, Schlosser and her colleagues collected self-report data on several measures of well-being, including the Psychological Well-Being Scale and the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL)-BREF assessment, as well as data on participants’ experiences of awareness, connection, and insight.
In the context of this study, awareness refers to paying attention to our thoughts, feelings and surroundings without distraction, connection refers to feelings of respect, gratitude and closeness, and insight refers to self-awareness and understanding of how our thoughts and feelings influence and shape our perceptions.
“Eighteen months of meditation training was superior to English language training in changes in awareness, connectedness, insight, and global scores (including awareness, connectedness, and insight), and was superior to no intervention in changes in awareness and global scores only,” the authors wrote. Said.
Although long-term meditation training produced changes in awareness, connection, and insight, it did not result in higher scores on psychological well-being measures or WHOQOL-BREF assessments compared with the English-trained group or the control group, leading the researchers to question whether these measures accurately capture the “depth” of human flourishing that long-term meditation training brings.
Like many studies in the field of psychological well-being, this study is limited by its reliance on self-reported data, which can be subject to bias. The team also emphasized that the sample was made up of well-educated, healthy participants from a specific geographic location, and is not necessarily representative of the general population.
“Meditation training may have stronger effects in certain groups, so we hope that future studies will clarify who may benefit most from it. Now that we have evidence that meditation training can benefit older adults, we hope that collaborating with colleagues in other research fields to further refine the program may make it even more beneficial.” Dr. Natalie Merchantis an associate professor at the University of London and a co-author of the study. Said.
Can mindfulness improve emotional control and sleep quality?
Mindfulness has been linked to improved sleep, but how and why remains unclear.
Researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) sought to explore this further, focusing on employee well-being, with a theory called emotion regulation. A simple definition of emotion regulation is: explanation The ability to influence what emotions an individual feels and when. This study Health Psychology.
Guided by Dr. Claire SmithA research group led by Dr Jonathan Myers, assistant professor of psychology at the University of South Florida, followed two separate cohorts of nurses (144 in total) over a two-week period in the US. Nurses were chosen as the study population because they are prone to disrupted sleep patterns and are often exposed to high-stress environments.
“We know that good sleep is physically and mentally restorative and makes people happier, safer and more ethical at work, so we wanted to explore which aspects of sleep are affected by mindfulness and why,” Smith said. Said.
Participants were asked to complete questionnaires three times daily that assessed state and trait mindfulness and the time they spent preoccupied with negative thoughts. Sleep quality data were recorded via self-report and next-morning actigraphy.
Findings suggest that mindfulness helped nurses reduce negative emotions and spend less time dwelling on things. “For example, if you receive a bad performance review at work, you might choose to shift your focus from negative thoughts about how you failed and are incompetent to positive thoughts about how well you did and how you can improve,” Smith says. Said.
This translates to better sleep quality. “Our study suggests that daily mindfulness may help people regulate their emotions in ways that enhance sleep quality. In particular, for people in high-stress occupations, such as the health care workers studied here, mindfulness may help them maintain their emotional well-being and sleep health on a daily basis,” the authors write. Said.
Smith and his colleagues hope that future research on mindfulness will look not only at “big picture” outcomes like sleep and productivity, but also at how people handle their emotions.
“Mindfulness is a hot topic, but we need to understand why it works,” Smith says. Said“Our research is about going back to basics to understand the reasons behind the benefits of mindfulness in the workplace.”
A single mindfulness and compassion session reduces anxiety and depression but not loneliness
Research suggests Mindfulness-Based Interventions MBIs are effective in managing anxiety and depression symptoms. However, a major barrier to MBI research and clinical implementation is time. Completing an MBI typically requires several weeks of commitment from participants.
Professor Michael J. Telch Recently, Terch and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin have designed a mindfulness-based single-session intervention (SSI) that aims to overcome this barrier and improve the accessibility of MBIs. Terch and colleagues recently recruited 91 participants to conduct a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the impact of this intervention on self-perceptions of loneliness, stress, depression, and anxiety.
“Preliminary findings suggest that SSIs may reduce anxiety and stress and improve mental health in a non-clinical sample,” the authors write. Said“Furthermore, research suggests that single-session mindfulness-based interventions may reduce negative emotions (e.g., depression, rumination, anxiety, and stress).”
So far, only one clinical trial has evaluated the effectiveness of SSIs for loneliness, which has become increasingly prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the study was conducted.
Ninety-one participants (60.44% female) were randomly assigned to receive either a 1-hour mindfulness-only telephone intervention or a 1-hour randomized mindfulness intervention. and They were either placed on a one-week waiting list to receive the compassion intervention or to form a control group.
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“Those who received the mindfulness-compassion intervention were taught a third skill related to compassion. […] “Participants were instructed to think of a person, place, object, or spiritual or religious figure that consistently evoked feelings of warmth, love, kindness, or compassion. Participants were encouraged to focus their attention on any sensations that arose after evoking this emotion,” the authors write. Said.
A range of scales were used to assess perceived levels of loneliness, stress, anxiety and depression at the one-week follow-up. Data analysis revealed that, as the authors state, including a compassion component in the SSI “significantly” reduced perceived levels of stress, anxiety and depression after one week, compared with a wait-list control group.
“Contrary to expectations, we found no significant effects of either intervention on loneliness compared with the wait list at the 1-week follow-up, and no between-group differences between the active intervention conditions at either the 1- or 2-week follow-up. However, by the 2-week follow-up, we found a moderate reduction in loneliness in both conditions,” Terci and colleagues wrote.
The researchers believe the SSI offers an approach that can be easily adopted in a wide range of settings, but further research is needed to assess whether changes in self-reported symptoms are maintained over time.
