What You Can Expect From Meditation
While meditation is scientifically proven to lower stress and improve well being, each person's reason of practicing meditation and mindfulness is a personal one.
Some see it as a way to support their immune system against illnesses, others see it as a means to reduce unnecessary stress, examine their daily choices and unconscious motivations.
It is now widely accepted by scientists that continuous elevated stress is linked to cardiovascular diseases and accelerated physiological aging.
[1] As a society, we work longer hours with fewer days off, leisure becomes a luxury.
Sleep disturbances, headaches and depression are common.
The good news is, it takes only a small amount of time to enhance well being using meditation, especially it can be done at home.
Even doing the most mundane things, such as eating a raisin, is a form of mindfulness meditation if we do it attentively.
If you decided to take a class or join a program, it will be beneficial to ensure the instructor is qualified and is right for you.
A good well being teacher should be able to teach you how to walk, talk and sit mindfully.
A typical week-long mindfulness meditation program will also include a silence period, usually a day, which participants are told to sit alone and not to communicate with each other, neither verbally nor non-verbally.
This solitary period is designed to quiet your mind and for you to acknowledge your own presence.
[2] Does meditation also reduce emotional interference? A recent research [3] found that mindfulness meditation practitioners showed less interference from affective pictures and reported higher psychological well being.
The experiment divided participants into 3 groups according to their meditation practice: mindfulness, relaxation and no intervention (did not practice any meditation).
Participants from both the mindfulness and relaxation meditation groups reported increased well being, however only the mindfulness group was able to reduce emotional interference from unpleasant pictures .
Compassion fatigue is a common problem among psychologists and therapists [4] .
Dealing with patients who often went through traumatic situations, from domestic violence to serious accidents, many therapists and psychologists reported emotional exhaustion.
With the latest finding indicating that mindfulness meditation can reduce the emotional interference from negative visual stimuli, it may suggest that therapists who want to improve their own well being and effectiveness by practicing mindfulness meditation.
Sources: [1] Oman, Doug; Shapiro, Shauna L.
; Thoresen, Carl E..
Journal of American College Health, v56 n5 p569-578 Mar-Apr 2008.
(EJ790617) [2] Newman, Michael.
Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and Theory, v58 n4 p284-298 2008.
[3] Motivation & Emotion; Dec2007, Vol.
31 Issue 4, p271-283, 13p [4] Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology; Mar2007, Vol.
26 Issue 3, p385-403, 19p
Some see it as a way to support their immune system against illnesses, others see it as a means to reduce unnecessary stress, examine their daily choices and unconscious motivations.
It is now widely accepted by scientists that continuous elevated stress is linked to cardiovascular diseases and accelerated physiological aging.
[1] As a society, we work longer hours with fewer days off, leisure becomes a luxury.
Sleep disturbances, headaches and depression are common.
The good news is, it takes only a small amount of time to enhance well being using meditation, especially it can be done at home.
Even doing the most mundane things, such as eating a raisin, is a form of mindfulness meditation if we do it attentively.
If you decided to take a class or join a program, it will be beneficial to ensure the instructor is qualified and is right for you.
A good well being teacher should be able to teach you how to walk, talk and sit mindfully.
A typical week-long mindfulness meditation program will also include a silence period, usually a day, which participants are told to sit alone and not to communicate with each other, neither verbally nor non-verbally.
This solitary period is designed to quiet your mind and for you to acknowledge your own presence.
[2] Does meditation also reduce emotional interference? A recent research [3] found that mindfulness meditation practitioners showed less interference from affective pictures and reported higher psychological well being.
The experiment divided participants into 3 groups according to their meditation practice: mindfulness, relaxation and no intervention (did not practice any meditation).
Participants from both the mindfulness and relaxation meditation groups reported increased well being, however only the mindfulness group was able to reduce emotional interference from unpleasant pictures .
Compassion fatigue is a common problem among psychologists and therapists [4] .
Dealing with patients who often went through traumatic situations, from domestic violence to serious accidents, many therapists and psychologists reported emotional exhaustion.
With the latest finding indicating that mindfulness meditation can reduce the emotional interference from negative visual stimuli, it may suggest that therapists who want to improve their own well being and effectiveness by practicing mindfulness meditation.
Sources: [1] Oman, Doug; Shapiro, Shauna L.
; Thoresen, Carl E..
Journal of American College Health, v56 n5 p569-578 Mar-Apr 2008.
(EJ790617) [2] Newman, Michael.
Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and Theory, v58 n4 p284-298 2008.
[3] Motivation & Emotion; Dec2007, Vol.
31 Issue 4, p271-283, 13p [4] Journal of Social & Clinical Psychology; Mar2007, Vol.
26 Issue 3, p385-403, 19p
