MINDFULNESS WORKS

Mindfulness & Meditation Training

Evidence

Mindfulness helps against anxiety and depression

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“Young adults with social phobia and anxiety, people with recurrent depression and cancer patients all benefit significantly from following an eight-week programme with mindfulness.

This is the conclusion of three Danish studies, which have been published in major clinical psychology journals and which have now been gathered in a PhD thesis.” Read full article…

 

 

Mindfulness involves bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis. When you are being mindful, you’re conscious of the flow of thoughts, impressions, feelings and impulses in the present moment with a friendly and accommodating approach. (Photo: Colourbox)

Mindfulness an antidote to work ADD

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Article on how mindfulness in the workplace improves people’s focus, capacity for rapport and connection by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence.  Includes some links to mindfulness techniques.

 

 

“Some consultants tell me that the number one problem in the workplace today is attention. People are distracted. They’re in a state of what’s called “continuous partial attention” where even at meetings, your body is there but your mind is somewhere else. You have countless gadgets constantly sending you information: texts, phone calls, emails, and reminders. All buzzing and dinging for your attention.

People not being fully present is a big problem because the most effective interactions occur when two people are mutually present to each other. That’s when rapport happens. That’s when chemistry happens. That’s when you’re going to have the most powerful communication and mutual understanding. If your attention is over there, it means you’re not over here with the person you’re with.” Read full article.

Mindfulness helps small business owners find the ‘off’ switch.

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Dr Craig Hassed Photo: Brendan Read

Love this quote from article in the Sydney Morning Herald in Nov 2011:

“To enjoy our life we have to pay attention to it…We need to foster sustainable performance to use our energy, time and resources in a more mindful and focused way rather than wasting them in stress. We need to be more self-determined in getting on with what we need to get on with at the right time. Mindfulness helps us enjoy our life more, to find more meaning in our life and to help protect us from stress, anxiety and depression,” Dr Hassed says.

One of the most difficult things for a small business owner is to stop thinking about the business, but this kind of stress causes wear and tear on the body and mind, and reduces effectiveness in work and in life. The good news is that training in mindfulness can help you find the ‘off’ switch.

Speaking at the Mind & Its Potential conference earlier this month, Monash University’s Craig Hassed says we can not stop our minds, but mindfulness teaches us to have the skill of whether or not we will engage with our thoughts.

“You can switch off a machine, you can switch off an email, you can leave the office and go on a holiday – but it’s really about whether the mind has left work and switched off. Very often we’re preoccupied. It’s really not where we physically are, it’s where we mentally are that matters,” says Dr Hassed, an award-winning medical researcher from Monash’s department of general practice, and author of The Essence of Health: The Seven Pillars of Wellbeing.

Read more:

Mindfulness meditation assists breast cancer patients with pain and general well-being

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Great article in The Daily Telegraph (UK)  highlighting various studies of mindfulness meditation, it’s benefits and growth in the mainstream corporate world as well as in Oncology.

“Earlier this year, Dr. Hoffman’s study was published online by the Journal of Oncology and the results show, for the first time, that the use of Mindfulness offers a “statistically significant improvement in physical and emotional wellbeing”.”

More from the article:

“Mindfulness has been in the news – from The Today Programme’s “Thought for the Day” to a BBC Breakfast’s item on how Mindfulness has helped a woman patient deal with the pain from lupus. She said: “It doesn’t take away the pain but it puts it in its place – down a notch or two”. Brain scans showed obvious changes when she used the technique and it has been clinically proven to thicken the brain’s grey matter and change the brain’s euro pathways – thus increasing cognitive ability, concentration, emotional resilience and enhancing awareness.”

“Companies like Apple and Google have been offering classes in Mindfulness to their employees for years and, astonishingly (to me, at least) Transport for London’s tube drivers have found enormous help from the technique. Turning up for a two hour session once a week for six weeks at the end of their shift. Tfl pays for this, and you can see why: stress-related absenteeism has dropped by 70 percent.”

“Next will come the nurses. Mindfulness at Work has just received accreditation from the Royal College of Nursing – which means that nurses, osteopaths and any other health professionals under the RCN can sign up for a 45 minute session each week for four weeks, which will count towards their Continual Professional Development hours.”

 

Study shows that meditation reduces effects of anxiety and mild depression.

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Psychology Today reports on a study by neuroscientists which shows that meditation alters brain activity in a positive way.

“The brain waves of meditators show why they’re healthier. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their     brain activity to different areas of the cortex—brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before. ”

 

 

“Maybe meditation isn’t so mysterious after all. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex – brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, recorded the brain waves of stressed-out employees of a high-tech firm in Madison, Wisconsin. The subjects were split randomly into two groups, 25 people were asked to learn meditation over eight weeks, and the remaining 16 were left alone as a control group.

All participants had their brain waves scanned three times during the study: at the beginning of the experiment, when meditation lessons were completed eight weeks later and four months after that. The researchers found that the meditators showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before. The study will be published in the next issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.” Article from Psychology Today

Mindfulness Meditation Improves Focus at Work

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Mindfulness meditation helps improve focus at work, reduces stress and increases concentration new study finds. Who would’ve guessed?  Reported in USA Today by Darren Calabrese .

Entrepreneur Wendy Woods, meditating next to her BlackBerry, says it helps her be more creative.
“Entrepreneur Wendy Woods, meditating next to her BlackBerry, says it helps her be more creative.”

“All sorts of gizmos and gadgets can help you be more productive at work, and theories abound on how you should structure your days to get more done.  But a new study finds that becoming more focused, productive and less stressed at work may involve nothing more than learning to meditate.  David Levy, a computer scientist and professor with the Information School at the University of Washington, found that those who had meditation training were able to stay on task longer and were less distracted. Levy and his co-authors discovered that meditation also improved test subjects’ memory while easing their stress.”  Read full article