Meditation Helps Us Become More Socially Connected

Meditation can enhance social connectedness and positivity toward strangers in a laboratory setting. According to a scientific study, even a few minutes of  meditation helped people to increase their feelings of connection and positivity. While social distrust and alienation are growing, this research’s result could be inspirational to practice LKM (Loving-Kindness-Meditation) more because social connection is a fundamental human motive, which improves the individual’s psychological and physical health (15). Another study that LKM was used suggested that practicing it led to positive emotions, such as love, gratitude, joy, hope, pride, amusement, awe, and contentment. These positive emotions have lasted over a span of 9 weeks and 2 weeks after the intervention ended. Positive emotions were also linked with mindful attention, self-acceptance, better physical health, and positivity toward others (16).

Self-compassion refers to being kind and understanding toward oneself rather than being self-critical, isolating, or holding painful emotions. Mindfulness and meditation practices improve one’s self-compassion skills (17). When self-compassion skills are improved, it also leads to other positive psychological variables, such as wisdom, curiosity, happiness, optimism, personal initiative, and so on (18).

Due to practicing meditation, acceptance of self, others, and nature get enhanced; thus one of the outcomes of meditation is self-actualization (19).

REFERENCES

15. Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion, 8(5), 720-724. 
16. Friese, M., Messner, C., & Schaffner, Y. (2012). Mindfulness meditation counteracts self-control depletion. Consciousness and Cognition, 21(2), 1016-1022.
17. Shapiro, S. L., Brown, K. W., & Biegel, G. M. (2007). Teaching self-care to caregivers: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. Training & Education in Professional Psychology, 1, 105-115.
18. Neff, K. D., Kirkpatrick, K. L., & Rude, S. (2007). Self-compassion and adaptive psychological functioning. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 139-154.
19. Alexander, C. N., Rainforth, M. V., & Gelderloos, P. (1991). Transcendental meditation, self-actualization, and psychological health: A conceptual overview and statistical metaanalysis. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 189-247.

How Meditation-Mindfulness Affects Well-Being

Even if mental health was defined in term of an absence of illness, it has recently become changing in a more holistic way (1). It is recently defined in regard to having positive qualities that help people to keep healthy. The new and broader definition has led to the studies about meditation and mindfulness techniques, which have been intended to expand human potential. Mindfulness has three components: (a) intention-knowing why and what we are doing; (b) attention-attending the present moment; and (c) attitude-how we pay attention, enabling us to be more open, curious, and kind. It helps the practitioners to increase empathy, compassion, awareness, and insight (2). 

It was noticed that emotional health was more than only being optimistic. Emotionally and mentally healthy individuals are defined as the ones having a sense of contentment, the ability to handle with stress, a sense of meaning and aim in life, the ability to balance the parts of life, the capability to establish and maintain relationships, high levels of self-esteem, and the flexibility to learn and adapt (3).

Accepting thoughts, feelings and emotions without any judgment help the person to deal with experiential avoidance. There is a positive relationship between acceptance and well being, improved mental health and personal effectiveness. Mindfulness has some similarities with the concept of acceptance because it also supports openness and welcoming of psychological content (emotions, feelings, thoughts, ruminations, etc.) without a judgment. In a study conducted with police officers, it was stated that recruits who were more mindful and better at identifying their feelings and thoughts are more likely to have lower levels of depression and increased mental health (4).

A study showed that heartful meditation helps health providers to improve their burnout and increase their emotional wellness (5). Additionally, transcendental meditation is also found as helpful to improve psychological wellness, and to decrease mental and physical tension (6).

REFERENCES

1. Seligman, M., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 55, 5-14.
2. Shapiro, S. L., Carlson, L. E., Astin, J. A., & Freedman, B. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62, 373-386.
3. The Help Guide (2016). Improving emotional health: Strategies and tips for good mental health. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/improving-emotional-health.htm.
4. Williams, V., Ciarrochi, J., & Deane, F. P. (2010). On being mindful, emotionally aware, and more resilient: Longitudinal pilot study of police recruits. Australian Psychologist, 45(4), 274-282.
5. Thimmapuram, J., Pargament, R., Sibliss, K., Grim, R., Risques, R., & Toorens, E. (2017). Effect of heartfulness meditation on burnout, emotional wellness, and telomere length in health care professionals. Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives, 7(1), 21-27.
6. Hjelle, L. A. (1974). Transcendental Meditation and Psychological Health. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 39(1), 623-628.

 

Mindfulness Can Help You Live a Healthier Life

When a person is more mindful, they are likely to have more positive perspective of their own health and stressful events so it helps them to reduce their stress levels and other disorders related to stress (20,21). A decrease in tension, increased emotional regulation, increased non-attachment (the view that happiness is independent from specific events, or people), and reduction in rumination by practicing meditation and mindfulness-based interventions support to have less stress and better health (22). A group of patients with breast or prostate cancer have participated in a MBSR (Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction) program, and, according to the results, they reported decreased blood pressure, altered immune and cortisol patterns due to an increased level of mindfulness (23).

Meditation training might support establishing good relationships at a stressful time because it increases forgiveness, and decreases ruminative thoughts (24). The level of resilience also gets stronger by practicing meditation because people learn to cope with stressors instead of avoiding them (25). People become focusing on their self-care that helps them to deal with the stressors more effectively. Being aware of their stress and understanding the results of it are crucial in order to begin self-care and wellness, thus people know what actually is happening in stressful time by practicing meditation and mindfulness interventions (26). Arrington (27) stated that three strategies, which are (a) exercise, (b) meditation and (c) being in therapy, are the most helpful ones for social workers so it might be said that meditation is one of the top strategies using for people who work in stressful jobs. In a study conducted with 656 Thai people over 45 years old, it was found that insight meditation helps people to enhance their happiness, and decrease their perceived stress levels. So it is seen safer and natural healing when compared to drug treatments (28). In another study, it was reported that mindfulness practices decreased psychological symptoms of menopause that includes stress and unhappiness (29). A pilot study of 23 women practiced mindfulness-based stress reduction practices for 8 weeks, showed a 28% reduction in the menopause-specific quality of life and stress, and 39% decrease in vasomotor symptoms of menopause (30).

REFERENCES

20. Zvolensky, M. J., Solomon, S. E., McLeish, A. C., Cassidy, D., Bernstein, A., Bowman, C. J., & Yartz, A. R. (2006). Incremental Validity of Mindfulness‐Based Attention in Relation to the Concurrent Prediction of Anxiety and Depressive Symptomatology and Perceptions of Health. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 35(3), 148–158.
21. Roberts, K. C., & Danoff-Burg, S. (2010). Mindfulness and Health Behaviors: Is Paying Attention Good for You? Journal of American College Health, 59(3), 165–173.
22. Coffey, K. A., & Hartman, M. (2008). Mechanisms of Action in the Inverse Relationship Between Mindfulness and Psychological Distress. Complementary Health Practice Review, 13(2), 79–91.
23. Carlson, L. E., Speca, M., Faris, P., & Patel, K. D. (2007). One year pre–post intervention follow-up of psychological, immune, endocrine and blood pressure outcomes of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 21(8), 1038-1049.
24. Oman, D., Shapiro, S. L., Thoresen, C. E., Plante, T. G., & Flinders, T. (2008). Meditation Lowers Stress and Supports Forgiveness Among College Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of American College Health, 56(5), 569-578.
25. Fergus, S., & Zimmerman, M. A. (2005). Adolescent Resılıence: A Framework for Understanding Healthy Development in the Face of Risk. Annual Review of Public Health, 26(1), 399-419.
26. McGarrigle, T., & Walsh, C. A. (2011). Mindfulness, Self-Care, and Wellness in Social Work: Effects of Contemplative Training. Journal of Religion & Spirituality in Social Work: Social Thought, 30(3), 212-233.
27. Arrington, P. (2008). Stress at work: How do social workers cope? Retrieved from http://docplayer.net/14926328-Stress-at-work-how-do-social-workers-cope.html
28. Surinrut, P., Auamnoy, T., & Sangwatanaroj, S. (2016). Enhanced happiness and stress alleviation upon insight meditation retreat: mindfulness, a part of traditional Buddhist meditation. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 19(7), 648-659.
29. Sood, R., Kuhle, C. L., Kapoor, E., Thielen, J. M., Frohmader, K. S., Mara, K. C., & Faubion, S. S. (2019). Association of mindfulness and stress with menopausal symptoms in midlife women. Climacteric, 1-6.
30. Kenne Sarenmalm, E., Mårtensson, L. B., Andersson, B. A., Karlsson, P., & Bergh, I. (2017). Mindfulness and its efficacy for psychological and biological responses in women with breast cancer. Cancer Medicine, 6(5), 1108-1122.

Why Is Mindfulness Meditation So Health-Beneficial?

Meditation and mindfulness-based stress interventions have some advantages, such as low to no side effects, opportunity to individualization and practicing anytime and anywhere, and scientifically proven effectiveness (13). There are many studies showing the benefits of meditation and mindfulness-based therapies. Practicing meditation and being mindful help people to decrease their level of stress, depression, anxiety, sleeping disturbances, cigarette-smoking and binge eating disorder, and many other psychological and physical disorders (15,16,17). 

Mindfulness meditation enables practitioners to have the ability to being aware of their thoughts and emotions when experiencing a stressful situation. It is based on the idea of Buddhism that our emotions and sensations are temporary. Practicing meditation doesn’t give practitioners an ability to protect themselves from, or avoid unpleasant emotions and sensations. It mostly helps them to understand that these aren’t permanent so they acknowledge without any judgment until the time these unpleasant emotions and sensations would disappear (18). 

Relaxation, which is one of the components of meditation practices, requires an intentional relaxing during the practice. People do it by visualization, or some special exercises. Hence, it leads people to have a state of reduced stress levels and arousal (19).

REFERENCES

13. Gailen, D., M. & Matthew T. T. (2018). Stress, mindfulness and the allergic patient, Expert Review of Clinical Immunology.
14. Scott, E. (2018, Oct 28). When Stress Is Actually Good for You. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-kind-of-stress-is-good-for-you-3145055
15. Baer, R. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: a conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 125-140.
16. Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z., & Williams, J. M. G. (1995). How does cognitive therapy prevent depressive relapse and why should attentional control (mindfulness) training help? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(1), 25–39.
17. Carlson, L. E., & Garland, S. N. (2005). Impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on sleep, mood, stress and fatigue symptoms in cancer outpatients. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12(4), 278–285.
18. Charoensukmongkol, P. (2014). Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation on Emotional Intelligence, General Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Stress: Evidence from Thailand. Journal of Spirituality in Mental Health, 16(3), 171–192.
19. Hwang, W. J., Lee, T. Y., Lim, K.-O., Bae, D., Kwak, S., Park, H.-Y., & Kwon, J. S. (2017). The effects of four days of intensive mindfulness meditation training (Templestay program) on resilience to stress: a randomized controlled trial. Psychology, Health & Medicine, 23(5), 497–504.

 

Studies Show Meditation Improves Attention-span and Creativity.

Studies show that meditation can increase the attention and it was found greater cortical thickness in areas of the brain associated with awareness and sustained attention (7). When the stimulus was expected, there was no difference between concentrative and mindfulness meditation practitioners. However, when the stimulus was unexpected, mindfulness meditation practitioners have shown a better performance than concentrative practitioners. This difference can be caused by that concentrative methods include focusing on a salient stimulus, yet meditation methods help the person to distribute his or her attention and no stimulus becomes salient than others (8).

In a study with 40 undergraduate students given 5 days of 20-min integrative body-mind training (IBMT) showed an improvement in the conflicts in attention, depression, anxiety, fatigue, and anger. IBMT includes several body-mind techniques like breath adjustment, body relaxation, mental imagery and mindfulness training (9).

In another study designed to evaluate the effect of mindfulness on creativity, it was determined that mindfulness enhances creativity, which is defined as insight problem solving depending on the capacity to transcend common and automatic cognitive patterns (10). A study conducted with 10 undergraduate students who were taught relaxation and 24 undergraduate students who were taught Zen meditation demonstrated that the Zen meditation group showed more improvement in creativity, expressing emotion and feelings, humor, and fantasy (11).

 

REFERENCES

7. Jha, A. P., Krompinger, J., & Baime, M. J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 109-119.

8. Valentine, E. R., & Sweet, P. L. G. (1999). Meditation and attention: A comparison of the effects of concentrative and mindfulness meditation on sustained attention. Mental Health, Religion and Culture, 2, 59-70.

9. Tang, Y.-Y., Ma, Y., Wang, J., Fan, Y., Feng, S., Lu, Q., … Posner, M. I. (2007). Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(43), 17152-17156.

10. Ostafin, B. D., & Kassman, K. T. (2012). Stepping out of history: Mindfulness improves insight problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition: An International Journal, 21, 1031-1036.