Mindfulness news

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April 2011

Mindfulness - is it much ado about nothing? by Juliet Adams, Mindfulnet. April 2011

A first hand account and reflections on Jon Kabat-Zinns public talk in Oxford in November 2010. What made Jon devote much of his life to making mindfulness more mainstream? What does the future hold for mindfulness? What's the connection between mindfulness & Neuroplasticity?

March 2011

Mindfulness classes help women with hot flashes, By Genevra Pittman, Reuters, March 17th 2011

Women with severe hot flashes said their quality of life improved after taking mindfulness classes that included meditation and stretching exercises, according to a new study. The findings also suggest that such classes could help improve sleep quality, stress, and anxiety in women during menopause.

Learning to care for the bends by Victoria Lambert, Telegraph, March 17th 2011

According to Arthritis Research UK, there are around 200 different musculoskeletal conditions, which together are responsible for one in five GP visits. Dr Cheryl Rezek, a Buckinghamshire-based clinical psychologist, often sees patients complaining of physical pain. "What we think and feel [emotionally] will have an impact on what we feel physically," says Dr Rezek. "It's about learning to manage the pain with one's own internal resources and resilience, in addition to meds or other intervention. One technique she uses is "mindfulness", where patients learn to focus on their breathing in a natural but helpful way, breathing into specific areas of the body."

Justice Department seeks stress-reduction for staff by CTV News, March 16th 2011

The federal Justice Department, is looking for stress-reduction treatment for its employees. Senior officials have ordered two nine-week programs, that "will help individuals to deal more effectively with difficult thought and emotions that can leave you feeling stuck in everyday life." The program will stress "mindfulness," which the department describes as "the practice of paying attention to the present moment, with acceptance and compassion."

Executive stress: how to beat burnout, Sydney Morning Herald, 15th March 2011

If you're tired all the time, discouraged and have lost your spark you could be suffering from one of today's most common problems - burnout. "Mindfulness can help us to become less anxious and more focused, and allows us to be more controlled in our behaviour," says Challem.

February 2011

He said, She said..But who heard? by Deborah Schoeberlein, February 8th 2011, Huffington Post

Mindfulness practice is among the most effective approaches to cultivating emotional management because it trains the mind to notice what's really happening in and around you, right now. Mindfulness helps us notice when inner experience doesn't align with outer circumstances. It also fosters the capacity to recognize thoughts, feelings and sensations for what they really are: mental expressions and physical experiences.

Norwich Children given cash boost, Norwich Evening News, February 8th, 2011

A scheme which helps Norwich youngsters cope with stress and anxiety in the run up to their exams has been awarded a slice of £70,000. Over the course of eight hour-long lessons mindfulness techniques will be taught to about 180 students to enable them to cope with anxiety and stress in the run up to their exams.

January 2011

Stress can equal illness by Laura Casey, 12th January 2011, Contra Costa Times

Stressors, the life events that cause feelings of stress, can also often put the body in a chronic "fight or flight" or hyperarousal mode, says clinical social worker Reba Connell of the Center for Stress Reduction in Oakland. The feelings associated with fight or flight include accelerated heartbeat and breathing, tunnel vision and racing thoughts. This mode releases endorphins and cortisol, which can increase blood pressure, heart rate and blood sugar levels. High blood pressure can increase the risk of heart attack.

"Unfortunately, our society is kind of set up for us to stay in fight or flight," Connell says. "We lose our ability to distinguish between what is an emergency and what is not.".....

"Talk to any professional who deals with stress and anxiety for more than a few minutes and one name will certainly come up -- Jon Kabat-Zinn"...." It might all sound terribly new agey, but many physicians and therapists have taken MBSR training and say they suggest it to their patients. Some health plans cover the training and some health organizations offer MBSR training for well-being"

globe and mail

Stressed out? Try mindfulness meditation by Dave McGinn, 9^th January 2011, Globe and Mail

Dr. Segal defines mindfulness meditation as "a way of training yourself to pay attention in the present moment without judgment [as] to what your experience is."

A recent U.K. study, found Mindfulness reduces the risk of depression relapse by 50 per cent, Britain's National Institute for Clinical Excellence recommends mindfulness meditation in cases of chronic depression. The Mental Health Foundation, a U.K.-based charity, has recently launched a campaign called Be Mindful, and offers an online program intended to make mindfulness more widely available.

Dr. Segal says that people need to understand that mindfulness is much different than the popular idea of meditation.

"You think of the Beatles, you think of TM [transcendental meditation], you think of people achieving some kind of bliss state. And it's really different from what people who are going through mindfulness-based cognitive therapy get," he says. "If anything, what the meditation does is provide them with a way of staying grounded in the midst of very difficult emotions."

Mindfulness therapy is no fad, experts say by Chris Woolston, 8^th January 2011, Los Angeles Times

"Mindfulness has become a buzzword, especially with younger therapists," said Stefan Hofmann, a professor of psychology at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders.

Mindfulness therapy encourages patients to focus on their breathing and their body, to notice but not judge their thoughts and to generally live in the moment. It may sound a bit squishy and New Agey to some, but Hofmann and other experts say mindfulness has something that discredited theories of the past never had: solid evidence that it can help. "I was skeptical at first." Hofmann said. "I wondered, 'Why on Earth should this work?' But it seems to work quite well."

Mindfulness Therapy Offers Limited Fibromyalgia Relief by Jennifer Davis, 5^th January 2011, Arthritis Today

"A new study finds modest symptom improvement with a yoga and meditation program - but experts say some should still try it……

"Everybody who feels that there is no more positive development with his or her disease should try these methods. You only find out by trying and many others so far had tremendous success with this approach."

Mindfulness therapy seen as aid to stress reduction by Monifa Thomas, Kanuary 4^th2011, Sun Times

"A study this month in the Archives of General Psychiatry found that mindfulness-based therapy worked as well as antidepressants in preventing relapses of depression over an 18-month period.

"What mindfulness-based stress reduction has in its favor is all of the research behind it, which gives it a decent amount of credibility," said Maggie Crowley, a clinical psychologist at the Northwestern Center for Integrative Medicine and Wellness."

The article goes on to describe mindsfulness under the following headings: Seize the moment, Notice what is now, Become the explorer, Sea of calm, Stop thinking, Don't censor yourself, accept yourself, Question the negative, Judge by results, Give up your options, Protect the space.

Demystifying Mindfulness by Karen Lawson, M.D, 4^th January 2011, Minesota Medicine

"Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is an approach to health and wellness that an increasing number of health care providers are practicing and recommending to their patients. This article describes MBSR, its use in health care, and its benefits for patients with conditions such as anxiety, depression, chronic pain syndromes, and insomnia. It also offers advice about how physicians can incorporate elements of MBSR into their daily practices in order to reduce stress in their lives and prevent burnout."

Conquering Fear by Melinda Beck, January 2nd 2011, Wall Street Journal

"The boss loves your work. Your spouse thinks you're sexy. The kids—and even the cat—shower you with affection. But then there's the Voice, the nagging presence in your head that tells you you're a homely, heartless slacker.

This new psychology movement centers on mindfulness—the increasing popular emphasis on paying attention to the present moment. One of its key tenets is that urging people to stop thinking negative thoughts only tightens their grip—"like struggling with quicksand," Dr. Hayes says. But simply observing them like passing clouds can diffuse their emotional power, proponents say, and open up more options.

"Part of what mindfulness does is get to you to recognize that these critical thoughts are really stories you have created about yourself. They are not necessarily true, but they can have self-fulfilling consequences," says Zindel V. Segal, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto who devised Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy to help depressed patients. "If you can get some distance from them, you can see that there are choices about how to respond."

Mindfulness and the Evolution of Humanity by Bronwyn Roberts, January 2nd 2011, Examiner.com

"During this past decade, the exploration and practice of mindfulness grew on a global scale. Utilized in settings ranging from preschools to prisons, mindfulness was studied extensively by scientists, educators, medical and mental health practitioners. This expansive study and practice revealed that mindfulness has a profound impact on our health and wellbeing….

Mindfulness improves attention, memory, and problem solving, enhances the experience of empathy and positive emotions, lowers stress, and is effective in the treatment of varied medical and mental health conditions such as ADHD, post traumatic stress, chronic pain, cancer, addiction and depression."

How to alleviate mental and physical conditions by being mindful by Simon Park, 2^nd January 2011, Daily Mail

Long practiced by Buddhists, mindfulness is now well established in the West and widely used by those seeking psychological or spiritual change in their lives.

Advocates believe this meditational practice can help alleviate a variety of mental and physical conditions, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety. But what is mindfulness and how might we use it?

Simon Parke, our One-Minute Mystic, shares his tips to help us get started on the 'path to transformation'

Stars' meditation technique gains mental health experts' approval by Willam Skidelsky, 2nd January 2011, The Observer

"NHS departments are now offering the Buddhism-inspired method of 'mindfulness meditation' which is favoured by celebrities such as Goldie Hawn

A form of meditation practised by some of Hollywood's biggest stars is becoming a major growth area within British psychology, as evidence grows of its effectiveness in dealing with anxiety and depression.

"Mindfulness meditation" was pioneered in the United States during the 1970s as a tool for alleviating stress and is practised, among others, by Meg Ryan and Goldie Hawn, who acts as an advocate for the technique"

Eating with your mind by Marion Linton, December 21^st 2010, Toronto Sun

"Want a weight control tip for the new year? Try eating a raisin. Not raisins, just a raisin. Slowly eating a raisin, also known as "the raisin exercise," is one of the ways in which people learn about mindfulness. And being mindful may help you to lengthen your life by shortening your meals.......

We rush home from work, grab a couple of handfuls of nuts while we prepare dinner and get the kids settled; at our favourite restaurant we're served a portion big enough for two, and eat it all; we watch TV and reach for the cookies and, before we know it, we've pigged out.

That's mindless eating, say experts. It's the opposite of mindful eating or devoting our senses to the present as we experience every bite.

In his book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Cornell University's Dr. Brian Wansink estimates that we make about 200 food-related decisions on a daily basis. These decisions mostly have nothing to do with appetite needs but are often made subconsciously and triggered by everything from colourful pictures of juicy hamburgers to enticing smells as we move through outdoor markets or even indoor malls"

New study shows humans are on auto pilot nearly half the time by Dr David Rock, 14th November 2010, Psychology Today

"A new study by Daniel Gilbert (who wrote a great book called 'Stumbling on happiness') and Matthew Killingsworth, confirms something we've all suspected: most of us are 'mentally checked out' a good portion of the time.

It turns out that just under half the time, 46.9% to be exact, people are doing what's called 'mind wandering'. They are not focused on the outside world or the task at hand, they are looking into their own thoughts. Unfortunately, the study of 2,250 people proposes, most of this activity doesn't make us feel happy."

Living in the moment by Jennifer Cunningham, 22nd November 2010, Herald Scotland

Jan Grigg, a 46-year-old biology teacher in Moray, has practised yoga and meditation for 10 years and has found mindfulness techniques so helpful in her work as a teacher that she is passing them on to her pupils. "I start my first lesson with a new class with five minutes' meditation. It's not compulsory and anyone who does not want to take part has my permission to regard it as a five-minute skive. I repeat it only if the children ask for it but they always do and now my classes get upset if we can't fit it in," she says.

The point is that after five minutes of freeing their minds there is less conflict and more concentration.

Older articles on Mindfulness

Psychological Changes from Meditation Training Linked to Cellular Health by Science Daily, November 4th 2010

Positive psychological changes that occur during meditation training are associated with greater telomerase activity, according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, and the University of California, San Francisco. The study is the first to link positive well-being to higher telomerase, an enzyme important for the long-term health of cells in the body.

Mindfulness: Beyond Science by Ed Halliwell, 7th September 2010, Guardian

Scientific studies show the effects of mindfulness, but can they do justice to the transformation felt by many who practise it?

New research compares mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with anti-depressants

New research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) programme is assessing whether a new psychological treatment could be an alternative to prescription drugs for people who suffer from depression.

Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is a recently developed therapy for people who have experienced a lot of depression and works by helping people to learn skills that can prevent depression coming back. Professor Willem Kuyken of the University of Exeter is leading the five-year study. He said: "Anti-depressants are widely used by people who suffer from depression and that's because there is evidence that they work. But, while they're very effective in keeping people well, when people come off them they are vulnerable to relapse. MBCT takes a different approach - it teaches people skills for life."

In a smaller-scale study conducted by the same team in 2005-2007, MBCT proved as effective as anti-depressant medication in preventing a relapse and was more effective in enhancing peoples' quality of life. It also suggested that MBCT may be as cost-effective as antidepressants. This new funding worth more than £1.8million will allow the team to take their research to the next level, to work out if MBCT could be a viable option for the large proportion of people suffering from depression who rely on mediation to stay well.

"The results of our research so far are very promising. This study will help us determine if it could be a viable alternative to prescription drugs for a large number of people."

The researchers aim to recruit 420 people with a history of depression for the study. Anyone who is interested in taking part in the study should contact the PREVENT Trial team on tel: 01392 726101

This project is due to publish in 2015.

A Call for Mindful Leadership by Ellen Langer, Harvard Business Review, April 28th 2010

If organizations were mindful — referring to the simple act of noticing new things — leadership would be quite a different matter. They would not only be mindful themselves; their most important responsibility would be to enable their followers to be mindful as well. One might argue that in an increasingly complex world — where work cuts across all types of institutional boundaries — the leader's only task may be to promote and harness "distributed" mindfulness.

In more than 30 years of research, we've found that increasing mindfulness increases charisma and productivity, decreases burnout and accidents, and increases creativity, memory, attention, positive affect, health, and even longevity. When mindful we can take advantages of opportunities and avert the dangers that don't yet exist. This is true for the leader and the led.

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