Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction

On Stress, Yoga Meditation, and The Evolution Revolution

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In the Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dick­ens wrote:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wis­dom, it was the age of fool­ish­ness…. It was the sea­son of light, it was the sea­son of dark­ness. It was the spring of hope, it was the win­ter of despair”

Yes, the peri­od of which Dick­ens wrote is a lot like the present day.

We are liv­ing through extra­or­di­nary times in a com­pli­cat­ed world. [Read more…] about On Stress, Yoga Med­i­ta­tion, and The Evo­lu­tion Revolution

Study finds a key ingredient in mindfulness training: Acceptance (not acquiescence)

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Life can be stress­ful. Whether it’s the stress that comes with hav­ing too much work to do in too lit­tle time, ful­fill­ing care­giv­ing oblig­a­tions, or deal­ing with a major ill­ness or set­back, some­times it can be hard to cope.

In response to stress, many peo­ple today are turn­ing to med­i­ta­tion or mind­ful­ness apps (myself includ­ed). But not all mind­ful­ness prac­tice is equal­ly effec­tive for com­bat­ing stress [Read more…] about Study finds a key ingre­di­ent in mind­ful­ness train­ing: Accep­tance (not acquiescence)

New book by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson describes four reasons why long-term meditation can lead to profound improvements in our minds, brains, and bodies

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Mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion is every­where these days. From the class­room to the board room, peo­ple are jump­ing on the mind­ful­ness band­wag­on, hop­ing to dis­cov­er for them­selves some of its promised ben­e­fits, like bet­ter focus, more har­mo­nious rela­tion­ships, and less stress.

I too have start­ed a mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion prac­tice and have found it to be help­ful in my every­day life. But, as a sci­ence writer, I still have to won­der: Is all of the hype around mind­ful­ness run­ning ahead of the sci­ence? What does the research real­ly say about mind­ful­ness?  [Read more…] about New book by Daniel Gole­man and Richard David­son describes four rea­sons why long-term med­i­ta­tion can lead to pro­found improve­ments in our minds, brains, and bodies

Study: Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) beat usual care for chronic back pain

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behavioral healthStudy finds mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion offers relief for low-back pain (NIH release):

“Mind­ful­ness based stress reduc­tion (MBSR) and cog­ni­tive-behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) may prove more effec­tive than usu­al treat­ment in alle­vi­at­ing chron­ic low-back pain, accord­ing to [Read more…] about Study: Mind­ful­ness-based Stress Reduc­tion (MBSR) and Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­a­py (CBT) beat usu­al care for chron­ic back pain

Top 10 recent scientific studies on the value of mindfulness in education

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More and more stud­ies are show­ing the poten­tial ben­e­fits of mind­ful­ness prac­tices for stu­dents –to improve phys­i­cal health, psy­cho­log­i­cal well-being, social skills, even aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance in some cas­es– as well as for teach­ers and admin­is­tra­tors –pri­mar­i­ly to reduce stress and burnout–.

To give you an update on the land­scape of sci­en­tif­ic research about the role of mind­ful­ness in edu­ca­tion, here goes our selec­tion of ten recent stud­ies, all of them recent ran­dom­ized con­trolled tri­als, with brief descrip­tions of each [Read more…] about Top 10 recent sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies on the val­ue of mind­ful­ness in education

Under what conditions can mindfulness courses help health care workers manage stress and burnout?

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stressed_nurseMed­ical pro­fes­sion­als are bur­dened dai­ly with the pain and suf­fer­ing of patients. Many work long hours, and reg­u­lar­ly face stress­ful sit­u­a­tions. This bur­den does not come with­out con­se­quence: 60 per­cent of physi­cians report hav­ing expe­ri­enced burnout at some point in their careers.

Mind­ful­ness cours­es designed to help health care work­ers [Read more…] about Under what con­di­tions can mind­ful­ness cours­es help health care work­ers man­age stress and burnout?