Scientifically Proven Benefit of Mindfulness Training
After Only 8 Weeks
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Improves Mental Health & Happiness
Good Mental Health & Happiness is not simply the absence of depression or anxiety.
It is a wealth of feel-good factors.
As well as the obvious: feeling enthusiastic and joyous, we might include:
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The ability to be assertive,
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Experience difficulties with some objectivity,
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Regulate our emotions,
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Know our own strengths and use them,
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Lead a meaningful life,
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Decrease negative thinking patterns, and
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Feel in control of our lives.
There has been a lot of research in this area revealing that Mindfulness Training is an excellent framework for cultivating psychological health.
The enduring effects of Mindfulness Training have been demonstrated with regard to a shift in feelings away from frustration, anger and hostility, towards feelings of happiness, joy and motivation.
They have also been demonstrated most profoundly by shifts in brain activity of the test subjects, even many months after the training.
The science also shows that Therapeutic Mindfulness also promotes healthy coping strategies that lead to better psychological health in the long-term as well as short-term.
This includes:
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increasing assertiveness,
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gaining perspective over our emotional experiences, and,
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ability to feel in control of our lives.
The Science
Cultivating psychological health
1. Effects of Mindfulness on Psychological Health: A Review of Empirical Studies
Shian-Ling Keng,a Moria J. Smoski,b and Clive J. Robins, 2011
An investigation into the past two decades of all correlational studies, clinical intervention studies and lab based experimental studies of mindfulness concluded that Mindfulness Training reduces general psychological distress, including perceived stress. All studies showed that mindfulness training is positively associated with psychological health and improved regulation of behaviour.
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1. Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation
Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, Rosenkranz M, Muller D, Santorelli SF, Urbanowski F, Harrington A, Bonus K, Sheridan JF. Wisconsin USA. 2003
After 8 weeks of Mindfulness Based Therapy (MBT) training with 45 minutes a day of mindful mediation the stressed out and anxious biotech workers in this study reported feeling able to deal with feelings of frustration or stress.
In a four month follow up there were the same improvements.
FMRI scans also confirmed changes in brain activity, moving from right to left in the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFT) after the MBT.
Activity in the right PFC demonstrates thoughts and feelings such as frustration, anger, hostility.
Activity in the left PFC demonstrates thoughts and feelings of happiness, enthusiasm & joy .
Also these changes from right to left PFC activity were confirmed at the 4 month follow up.
In the control group there were no such changes.
NB: Both groups were also vaccinated with the flu vaccine at the end of the 8 week period. It was found that the participants who had undergone the Mindfulness Training showed significant increases in antibodies compared to the control group.
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1. The effect of mindfulness training on the increasing assertiveness among anxious students
Mariyeh Arab Ghaeni , Kianoosh Hashemian , Mina Mojtabaei , Elahe Majd ara , Atoosa Aghabeiki
The small study used a statistical sample of 45 female students at Islamic Azad University. They all had low mindfulness, low assertiveness, and high anxiety. Subjects were randomly placed in experimental groups who underwent an 8 week MBSR course, a control group and a placebo medicated group.
Conclusion:
mindfulness training method had more significant impact on increasing assertiveness and reducing anxiety than the control group and placebo medicated group.
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Coffey & Hartman, 2008.
This study investigated the relationship of mindfulness with psychological well-being and psychological distress. Participants were 717 students who completed the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale (PHLMS; Cardaciotto et al., 2008), the Self- Regulation Inventory (SRI -25; Ibanez et al., 2008), the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28; Besharat, 2009) and the Autonomy Scale (AS; Parto, 2010). Mindfulness was negatively and highly correlated with psychological distress and was positively and highly correlated with psychological well-being. Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was found to cultivate self-regulation, which may contribute to positive changes in both physical and psychological health. People who have developed their self-regulatory capacities are better able to calibrate their emotions, and tend to attribute their successes or failures to factors within their control.