November 9, 2016 By Admin

Research Supports Meditation for Health Improvement

Meditation for Health Improvement

It is estimated that between 10 and 15 million Americans participate in some form of regular mindfulness or contemplative practices; secular-based meditation and yoga may be the most common of these practices. Many others practice tai chi, qi gong, forest-based contemplation, Taoism, etc. The US National Institute of Health has been a regular generous funder of many mindfulness research projects. Most mindfully-informed people have heard of or practice Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction; many informed therapists have heard of or practice Steven Hayes’ Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Much of this supporting research MindfulHappiness_WhatisMindfulness-2015 comes from controlled studies with random assignment, and some of the research is based on randomized controlled clinical trials. Various well-designed meta-analyses (2014, 2015) have found that there are moderately strong and positive effects from the practice of regular meditation and/or yoga. Despite the popular press claims that meditation and yoga cure just about everything, these careful studies have noted that there are beneficial meditation effects for depression, anxiety, stress reactivity, chronic pain and substance misuse; in the last area, improvements are due mainly to improved awareness of bodily sensations leading to emotions (interoception), better emotion regulation, executive strengthening, and limbic quieting. Below I will list various research-supported positive effects from regular meditation practices.

Improvements documented in research (with many controlled randomized clinical trials)include:

Better attentional capacities (sustained, reoriented, shifted);
Improved working memory;
Better emotion regulation (cognitive and physiological practices that counter stress);
Greater compassion (especially from loving kindness meditation);
Improved personal happiness in various forms;
Greater access to deep wisdom about the WAY things are, the nature of reality (less so in secular practices);
Informed insight into causes of personal suffering;
Improved breathing capacities (respiratory volume, respiratory efficiency, oxygen exchange) and skills;
Better awareness in both focused and open mental orientations;
Faster and better alerting perceptual skills;
Improved relaxation and equanimity – the famous “relaxation response;”
Better response inhibition – better self-control in challenging emotional situations;
Improved overall psychological and emotional well-being (life coping, contemplative quality, life purpose, life meaning, life satisfaction, etc.);
Greater gratitude for what you do have right now;
Reduced depression and anxiety;
Improved chronic pain management;
Better concentration skills;
Reduced self-medication habits;
Improved physical health – especially movement meditation and meditation/yoga coupled with exercise;
Deeper social and earthly connections (non-duality);
Strong transformational processes with improved integrations of body-mind-heart-spirt experience (via spiritual/religious path practices);
Improved personal behaviors in life – more positive compassion-based behaviors, less negative greed-based behaviors); and,
Positive impact on cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, musculoskeletal disorders.

With all these potential personal benefits from regular meditation (and yoga) practice, WHY would you NOT do such practices????? It is time!

For more information refer to Kaszniak, A. W. (2014). Contemplative pedagogy: Perspectives from cognitive and affective science. In O. Gunnlaugson et al. (Eds.). Contemplative Learning and Inquiry Across Disciplines. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, pp. 197-211. See also Khalsa, Sat Bir S. (Winter, 2016). Unpacking the science of yoga. Kripalu: Stockbridge. MA. This research is based on work done and used at Harvard Medical School. And Quintiliani, A. R. (2014). Mindful Happiness…Shelburne, VT: Vermont Voices Press.

By Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC

From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont

Author of Mindful Happiness

New Edition of Mindful Happiness in Production…Coming soon!

The True Nature of Phenomena Here I will present common steps in the process of vipassana meditation. My presentation will end with a brief discussion of nirvana (enlightenment). 1) It will be helpful not to have strong conceptual intention about your goal of attaining insight. You will know when you have entered it via your […]

Henry David Thoreau & Walking Meditation Henry David Thoreau is, perhaps, the most individualistic of the American Transcendentalists. He asked us to consider what we have learned that is useful as we travel our own “stream of life.” He cautions us not to regret when we die that we “had not lived.” He advised us to […]

In Times of Uncertainty; Clinical Practice H. Colodro and J. Oliver provide sound advice in their new book, A Guide to Self-Care for Practitioners in Times of Uncertainty. This 2020 New Harbinger publication is loaded with helpful suggestions on surviving, even thriving, in our time of struggle. Their core questions include: What do my clients need most […]

Laughter to Support you in Suffering As we all know life is filled with joy, suffering, and neutrality or boredom. This is THE WAY IT IS! Or, as a very good old friend often reminded me: “It is what it is!” In Buddhism we preach a middle way in various areas of practice; the same […]

Meditation on the Feeling of Letting Go – Pacification! Pacifying the mind is a desired outcome of regular, stable meditation practice. Pacification may be done via meditating on the breath, general mindfulness awareness, vipassana, and various other forms of meditation. However, the wise mind skill of “letting go” of unhelpful, negative, and harmful thoughts and […]

Vipassana Meditation and Introduction Vipassana meditation, as taught by S. N. Goenka, has been practiced in India, Europe, the United States and in many other parts of the world. There are various claims for effectiveness when used as a form of meditative treatment with various populations (often correctional and substance using populations); however, there is […]

Happiness #5 – Last Post on Characteristics This will be my last post for a while on the important topic of happiness. Here I will hit a few highlights about simple joy and lasting inner experiences of true happiness. Simple Joy – We experience simple joy in simple experiences, small sometimes subtle events in our […]

Trauma Informed Care – Avoidance Process Although more and more clinicians are learning about and using principles/practices of Trauma Informed Care, too few understand the behavioral dynamics of negative reinforcement in the avoidance of trauma-related cues (people, places, things, internal sensations, emotions and images). This post will give a very brief description of negative reinforcement […]

Advanced Practice in Tara Brach’s RAIN Protocol So often we humans find ourselves in a state of limbic disarray, with ego defenses stimulating our need to protect ourselves from others – even from ourselves. We feel something is very wrong in this moment, and we allow separateness to pull us into a frenzied effort to […]

From The Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation We humans have a unique way of perceiving and processing emotional experiences. Years ago I developed a formula to understand the perception and process of emotional experiences: CABS-VAKGO-IS/Rels. The C stands for cognition; we spend a great deal of time thinking about pretty much everything we […]

A Dark Night with Saint John of the Cross The writings of Saint John of the Cross offer a special viewpoint about the suffering of souls, suffering souls on their way to unity with the divine. What follows stands in contrast to the Buddha’s views in The Dhammapada about ultimate happiness without any form of union […]

More on Self-Compassion Practices Suffering and happiness represent opposites in human emotional experience. In our culture we often equate happiness with what we HAVE and suffering with the GAP between what we have versus what we want. Material possessions tend not to lead to intrinsic happiness; joy based on materials gains is often short-lived – […]

Self-Medication: Is Your Hand-Held Device a Dopamine Device? Mindfulness Activities: Here is a simple activity that may inform you about your personal level of addiction to your digital/electronic devices. Simply click the link below to download the PDF Worksheet; answer each question according to your personal opinions. Dr-Anthony-Quintiliani_HandHeldDeviceActivity Be sure to complete the meditation activity […]

Liberation of the True Self Socrates is reported to have noted that “the secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old but on building the new.” In Buddhism there are clear relationships between “no-self” and the force of impermanence, that reality that ensures constant change and thus personal […]

Personal Happiness in the Age of COVID-19 We are all in this together! However, wealth and employment status do play important roles. RTI International and the Consortium for Implementation Science have serious concerns about the links between racial equity, social justice, and personal responses to COVID-19. Neuroscience notes that personal happiness in a brain-mind-body thing. Its […]

Overcoming the Hindrances of Ill-Will and Aversion Although regular daily practice and sincerely following of The Eight-Fold Path in one’s life may be the best ways to overcome various hindrances, there may be some additional practical suggestions to consider on the path. We will begin our discussion with common human pain and suffering; we will […]

Human Needs and Spiritual Experience and the Need for Supportive Rituals From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont Recently the Human Givens Blog in the United Kingdom presented a post about human needs. I will paraphrase their information as well as information from other sources for Mindful Happiness. Having such […]

The Journey of Human Compassion Practices Where are YOU on the journey of human compassion practices? I modified interpretations of compassion to present a more formal depiction of compassionate practices and skills. Go ahead; take the compassion quiz. Your Goal: To Reduce Human Suffering Human Warmth Unconditional Positive Regard Human Caring Compassionate Actions […]

Grief, Mourning, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on the Buddhist reality of impermanence – we all will someday die; it is also quite true that we all will suffer from loss, grief, and mourning when others we care about die. The typical stages in this process are Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. There are […]

In The Dhammapada the Buddha includes an important section on the topic of happiness. How to be happy in a life of changing joy, suffering, and neutrality? How to be happy in a world of attachment/craving for desired pleasures and avoidance of all suffering? Attachment, impermanence and unhelpful experiences – all cause suffering. It is quite […]