Managing Stress Through Mind Fullness Meditation

8/6/2019 Managing Stress Through Mind Fullness Meditation

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Managing Stress through

Mindfulness Meditation

Linda Nguyen, BScFaculty of Nursing, University of [email protected]

Tony Toneatto, PhD

Centre for Addiction and Mental [email protected]


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What Is Mindfulness

Meditation?

Distinction between mindfulness and

mindfulness meditation (MM)

Mindfulness is paying attention to the

present moment

MM also includes a direct, experiential

understanding/ insight into the nature of

mental activity and mental events


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Although present in all spiritual traditions,

MM as it is being taught in the West draws

its inspiration and technique from

Buddhism

MM was taught as a powerful, gradual

method of self-knowledge and self-masterythrough disciplined observation of mental

processes


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MM includes two main components: tranquility

meditation (TM) and insight meditation (IM)

TM: calming the mind, usually by maintainingawareness of the breathe and resisting focusing

on the contents of mental activity

IM: understanding the nature or main

characteristics of mental events and mental

activities and our relationship to them


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core skill defining mindfulness is the

capacity to respond to mental events with

an attitude of non-judgmental, accepting,

present-moment, awareness (Segal, Williams &

Teasdale, 2002)

dispassionate, non-evaluative, andsustained moment-to-moment awareness of

perceptible mental states and processes(Grossman et al., 2004)


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Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR),usually delivered in 8 weekly sessions, has

emerged as one of the better known clinicalapplications of MM (Kabat-Zinn, 1990)

MBSR has been shown to significantly benefitindividuals with a diverse set of conditions when

included as an adjunctive intervention, including : chronic pain (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1987),

cancer(Speca et al., 2000),

anxiety disorders (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1992),


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eating disorders (Kristeller & Hallett, 1999)

fibromyalgia (Goldenberg et al., 1994)

relapse to depression (Segal et al., 2002).

Psoriasis (Kabat-Zinn et al., 1998)

Stress (Williams etal., 2001)

addictive behavior(Marlatt, 2002)


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How Does Mindfulness Help?

Relaxation?

Desensitization?

Distraction?

Increased frustration tolerance?

Extinction?

Acceptance?

Insight into nature of mental activity?


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Spiritual teachings that form the basis for MBSRand other MM interventions stress all of these

pathways but especially the last one: insight Such insight reflects the experientially-based

conviction that mental events are impermanent,lack any essential / objective existence, and can

exacerbate suffering and distress By comparison, lack of insight attributes a

substantiality and power to mental activity that it,by nature, does not possess


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Pain is unavoidable; Suffering is optional

MM addresses the suffering or distress associated

with mental and physical illness by skilfultraining in this insight

most modern MM interventions include

extensive practice in MM, breathing exercises,

yoga/ body awareness, compassion training and

other elements


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Although research to date is generally

supportive, it is not yet definitive

Research is being directed towards

measuring M, evaluating which

components of MM are most effective,

understanding the biology/ neuroscience ofMM, and the mechanism by which it

benefits


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WhatHappens During MM?

Although evidence for the efficacy of MM is

growing, very little is known about what is

happening while people meditate Without greater understanding of what is actually

happening within the mind it is very difficult to

convincingly attribute any benefits of MM to

actual MM

Our study was designed to obtain some evidence

related to this question


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Study of Mindfulness Process

Healthy sample of 17 undergraduate students

Received course credit for participating

Most had previous MM experience Asked to meditate 20 daily for 8 weeks

Recorded their subjective experiences of MM ona daily basis

Provided with weekly instruction by TT

Pre/post assessment of depression, anxiety,somatic stress, mindfulness skills


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Daily diary rated the frequency* of thefollowing aspects of MM:

Feelings of tranquility and calm Ability to remain present-focused

Ability to remain non-distractible

Distancing from mental activity

Nonjudgmental attitude towards mental events Restlessness and agitation

Maintaining attention on the breathe

*ranging from none of the time to all of the time on a 6-point scale


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Weekly instruction encouraged:

attention on breath;

noting mental activity but neither avoiding or

holding on to them;

permitting mental events to naturally arise and

subside without interference attitude of curious, benign observation similar to

the experience of watching clouds cross the sky


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Results

14 females; 3 males

Mean Age in early 20s

Frequency of meditation: 79% of days or

44/56 (ranged from 50% to 100%

compliance)

Length of daily meditation: 17 min/day or

1.6 hrs. per week (~13 hours in total)


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Loweranxiety scores post-8 weeks were

significantly associated with higher ratings

of the following towards mental activity:

nonjudgmental/accepting attitude (~r=.-75)

non-distractibility (~r =-. 58)

present-focus (~r=-.60)

achieving tranquility (~r = -.50)


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Lowerdepression scores post-8 weekswas significantly associated with higher

rating of:nonjudgmental/accepting attitude (~r=.70)

Lowersomatic symptom scores post-8weeks was significantly associated with:

amount of time spent in MM (~r=.65)


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Significant improvements in ratings of

behavioral impulsivity, social relationships

and role effectiveness also found

Subjects with > 11 hrs of MM during the

study had significantly higher ratings on

measures ofpresent-focus and non-distractibility than those with


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The more time spent in MM per day (whichranged from 9 - 40 minutes with an avg of 17 minutes),

the higher the rating for maintaining:present-focus (r=.80),

non-distractibility (r =.78),

tranquility (r = .73) andnon-restlessness (r = .64) at the end of the

8-weeks


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Summary and Conclusions

MM is increasingly being shown to be an

effective adjunctive intervention for the

alleviation of mental and physical illness-associated stress and suffering

While we know little about what occurs while

people practice MM, this study showed that a

brief, 8-week program with healthyundergraduates produced measurable benefits

with only ~17 minutes of MM/ day


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Specifically, skill in maintainingpresent-

focus, a non-judgmental attitude and

tranquility was associated with lower

frequency in negative moods such as

anxiety and depression

reduced physical symptoms of stress wasmost associated with time spent in MM


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Since more time meditating was associated with

stronger effects it is likely that practicing MM for

about an hour/ day (which is commonlyrecommended) would yield correspondingly

stronger effects, especially in populations who

are in significant clinical distress

However, even in non-clinical populations,improvements were evident with as little as 17

min/day over a two-month period


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In conclusion, MM is an ancient but novel

intervention that is showing potential to

help reduce stress and suffering and to alsoincrease self-understanding if practiced

regularly and properly


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MM Instructions

maintain erect but comfortable sitting posture

maintain attention on rhythym of breathing

when distracted by any mental activity, note/labeldistraction and return attention to breathing

do not force the mind neither to think or to not think

neither encourage thought nor block it

permit thoughts to arise, briefly abide, and subside

observe your mind dispassionately but alertly

if thoughts come, let them come; if they go, let them go;if they stay, let them stay


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Managing Stress Through Mind Fullness Meditation