Active Mindfulness and Wellbeing

Stewart Forsyth and Holly DixonFX Consultants June 2015

Prepared for the 2015 NZ Association for Positive Psychology Conference

Covering

• Why exercise + mindfulness?

• How does active mindfulness work?

• What impacts might be expected?

Exercise, like mindfulness, can be hard to get into and maintain

What helps?

• Social

• Goal-setting and contracting

• Personality – especially “conscientiousness”

Exercise, like mindfulness is likely

good for us• Even 15 min a day of walking improves longevity ( Wen et al, 2011)

• (Some proportion of) vigorous exercise best…(Gebel, 2015)

• More mindfulness practice appears to have more impact (Carmody and Baer, 2007), even short forms of mindfulness produce positive effects (Hutcherson, 2008)

• Practice of mindfulness enhances wellness – “d-effect” of .50 – Grossman et al. meta-analysis, (2004)

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/improve-your-life-7-reasons-and-5-ways-to-be-mindful/

Both Exercise and Mindfulness help us deal with stress

• Mindful individuals:– are less likely to appraise daily events as stressful (

Weinstein, N., Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M, 2009)

– have less heart rate reactivity in response to stress (Bullis et al., 2014)

• Mindfulness alters how we respond to daily experiences of stress (i.e. pain, interpersonal stress) (Garland et al., 2012; Davis et al., 2014; Barnes et al., 2007)

• Exercise has anxiolytic and antidepressant effects (for a review see: Salmon, (2001)

• Exercise reduces the stress response to psychosocial stressors (for a review see: Crews & Landers (1987))

What is “Active Mindfulness”?

• “Active” – warm up, alternating high(er) intensity and mild activity, stretching

• “Mindfulness” – focus on the breath – from at rest, extending to breathing between sets, and during walking; visualisation and loving kindness exercises

• Collecting measures – for motivation and evaluation

Measuring impacts? Before and after

Measured by:

“Active”:

• Heart rate – resting and maximum; a fitness indicator (eg, VO2)

“Mindfulness”:

• Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (before and after the programme)

• “momentary experience” (happiness) assessments (before and after sessions)

Where now?

• Open to further trials with organisations, community groups

• Stewart – stewart@fxc.co.nz

• Holly - hollyclairedixon@gmail.com

• The slides – and links to references are available:

https://www.facebook.com/ActiveMindfulness