Even extraverts preferred these 10 activities mostly done alone.
Nine months later 45 percent of participants were no longer misusing opioids.
People high on this trait scored lower on measures of stress, depression and anxiety.
Way of thinking may also help people over the initial aversion to exercising.
Way of thinking may also help people over the initial aversion to exercising.
People who are naturally more ‘mindful’ are less likely to be obese.
The naturally mindful also have less abdominal fat than those of a more distracted nature.
While being naturally mindful is something that’s part of your personality, it can also be taught.
Dr Eric Loucks, who led the study, said:
“This is everyday mindfulness.
The vast majority of these people are not meditating.”
394 people in the study responded to prompts that probed how mindful they were.
For example, strongly agreeing with both of the statements below suggests low levels of natural mindfulness:
Mindfulness may stop obesity by making people aware when they are overeating.
It may also help people over the initial aversion to exercising.
Dr Loucks said:
“That’s where the mindfulness may come in.
Being aware of each and every moment and how that’s related to what we do and how we feel.”
Other studies have also shown that greater mindfulness can improve diet and help overcome cravings.
As I wrote in a previous article on food and the mind:
“Eating is so routine that we easily zone out from the experience.
While our minds are wandering, though, our hands are shovelling it in faster and faster.
Studies have shown that people eat more when they are distracted, like when watching TV or talking with friends (Bolhuis et al., 2013).
Unfortunately when not focusing on our food, we tend to eat more and get less enjoyment from it.
This is why one approach that’s used to combat eating disorders and obesity is mindful eating.
This is taking smaller bites and paying more attention to what you are eating.
Not only do people eat less this way, but they also enjoy it more.”
The results of the current study were encouraging but natural mindfulness only had a modest link to weight.
Dr Loucks said:
“Awareness seems to be enough to have a small to medium effect.
Then there is the question of what could we do to increase it.”
The study was published in the journal International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (Loucks et al., 2015).
Two-thirds of Americans report one or more adverse childhood experiences.
When left to its own devices the mind almost always wanders to negative thoughts and brings us down.
Students of mindfulness are taught to notice and accept their thoughts and feelings, but what does acceptance mean?
The most common side-effect from meditation is ‘dysregulated arousal’.
Mindfulness works, but it has pitfalls.
Mindfulness is often touted as the answer to mental health problems, but is it?
Mindfulness is often touted as the answer to mental health problems, but is it?
Mindfulness helps to reduce depression, anxiety and stress for many people, new research finds.
However, its effects on depression and anxiety may be relatively small, with the highest quality studies finding little benefit.
Also, the practice does not work for everyone and is probably no better than alternatives like exercise for improving mental well-being.
Mindfulness is:
“The awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally to the unfolding of experience moment by moment.”
Here are some common mindfulness exercises that are easy to fit into your day and 10 ways mindfulness benefits the mind.
The best advice is probably to try and see if it works for you, but do not be surprised if its effects on depression and anxiety are modest.
The conclusions come from a review of 136 studies of mindfulness that compared the practice with various control groups.
The study provides a useful curb to the idea that mindfulness is the answer to mental health problems for everyone, said Dr Julieta Galante, the study’s first author:
“For the average person and setting, practising mindfulness appears to be better than doing nothing for improving our mental health, particularly when it comes to depression, anxiety and psychological distress — but we shouldn’t assume that it works for everyone, everywhere.”
Although mindfulness was often found to be beneficial, it may be no better than other simple alternatives.
Professor Peter Jones, study co-author, said:
“While mindfulness is often better than taking no action, we found that there may be other effective ways of improving our mental health and wellbeing, such as exercise.
In many cases, these may prove to be more suitable alternatives if they are more effective, culturally more acceptable or are more feasible or cost effective to implement.”
When the researchers included just the highest quality studies in their analysis, mindfulness was only effective at reducing stress.
It was not effective in these higher quality studies for reducing depression, anxiety or improving mental well-being.
The current research did not include studies of online mindfulness courses.
However, there are studies that suggest it can be just as beneficial as its offline counterparts.
Dr Galante said the difficulty was in the lack of contact with a teacher:
“If the effects of online mindfulness courses vary as widely according to the setting as their offline counterparts, then the lack of human support they offer could cause potential problems.
We need more research before we can be confident about their effectiveness and safety.”
The study was published in the journal PLOS Medicine (Galante et al., 2021).
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