Managing Stress Through Mind Fullness Meditation
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Managing Stress through
Mindfulness Meditation
Linda Nguyen, BScFaculty of Nursing, University of Torontolin.nguyen@utoronto.ca
Tony Toneatto, PhD
Centre for Addiction and Mental Healthtony_toneatto@camh.net
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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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