Meditation and Mindfulness: Food for Body and Soul
Many people accept
mindfulness and meditation as a mental health intervention, but could it have
an impact on your physical health as well? One type of mindful meditation is open
monitoring meditation, explained in the paper titled Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation and in the talk
by Marcia Grabowecky “involves non-reactive monitoring of the content of
experience from moment to moment.” This means that as thoughts come into a
person’s mind they acknowledge their presence, but do not hold onto them.
This type of meditation has
been shown to have changes in mental and brain function. It has been shown to
improve the ability to detect the second target stimuli in a rapid stream of
distracters, because participants were less likely to get stuck on the first
target. Expert meditators have been found to have high-amplitude pattern of
gamma-synchrony brain activity while practicing an emotional version of open
monitoring meditation, suggesting that long-term, intense meditation changes
the brain’s default mode. There have also been studies that show increases in
cortical thickness in meditators. A recent study demonstrated the effect of
this type of meditation on telomeres.
Research done at the Tom
Baker Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary Department of Oncology
conducted a study with a total of 88 breast cancer survivors, averaging 55
years old, who all were experiencing significant levels of emotional distress.
These cancer survivors were places either in a mindfulness-based cancer
recovery group, a supportive expressive therapy group, or a control group that
attended a six-hour stress management seminar. All of the participants had
their blood analyzed and telomere length measured before and after the
interventions.
The participants in the
mindfulness-based cancer recovery group attended eight weekly, 90-minute group
sessions in which they practiced mindfulness meditation and gentle Hatha yoga.
They also practiced meditation and yoga at home for 45 minutes a day. The goal
of this was to “cultivate non-judgemental awareness of the present moment.” The
participants in the supportive expressive therapy group attended 90-minute
weekly sessions for a total of 12 weeks, in which they talked openly about
their concerns and feelings. The goal was to “build mutual support and to guide
women in expressing a wide range of both difficult and positive emotions.”
Results of the study showed that
these interventions had an effect on telomere length in comparison to the
control group. Shortened telomeres, which are protein complexes on the ends of
chromosomes, are associated with disease and aging. The longer telomeres of the
participants in intervention groups suggests that mindfulness meditation and
supportive expression not only had a positive impact psychologically on
participants well-being, but also had a clear positive physical effect.
All of this research probably makes
you want to give meditation try. Not only does meditation train you to be less
reactive to negative events and have the positive side effect of increased relaxation,
it could also have clear effects on your physical health. To get started, all
you need to do is find a quiet place to sit, sit up straight, focus your
attention on your breath, and when thoughts come into awareness accept them and
let them go.
Bibliography:
Alberta Health Services. (2014, November 3). Meditation, support
groups: Clear new evidence for mind-body connection demonstrated in study,
researchers show. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 2, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141103114132.htm
Lutz, A., Slagter, H., Dunne, J., & Davidson, R. (2008).
Attention Regulation And Monitoring In Meditation. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 12(4), 163-169.
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