A Definition of Mindfulness Meditation
For many people, the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word “mindfulness” is meditation. Indeed, research has revealed a relationship between meditation experience and levels of mindfulness. For instance, in a study by Vinchurkar, Singh, and Visweswaraiah (2014), more years of meditation practice was found to be significantly associated with higher levels of trait mindfulness.
According to the 9th edition of Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, mindfulness meditation is
“A technique of meditation in which distracting thoughts and feelings are not ignored but are rather acknowledged and observed nonjudgmentally as they arise to create a detachment from them and gain insight and awareness.”
There are several different types of mindfulness meditations (many of which you will see if you read on), from sessions meant to be done first thing in the morning, to quick sessions meant to be done whenever one can, to longer sessions meant to aid in drifting off to sleep. Whatever type of mindfulness meditation sessions one chooses to do, the benefits of mindfulness meditation are clear.
The most commonly used mindfulness meditation is sitting meditation with a body scan. However, during the past years, different meditations have been developed and tested as well.
The so-called “soles to the feet” meditation, for instance, was designed to help youngsters and people with limited intellectual abilities to deal with anger (Fix & Fix, 2013). In a similar vein, acceptance-based meditations have been found to successfully allow people to deal with emotions and cravings (Alberts, Schneider, & Martijn, 2011; Alberts, Thewissen, & Raes, 2012).
Importantly, however, it must be recognized that mindfulness does not equal meditation.
This is because there are other types of meditation, such as loving-kindness meditation, which fall under the different umbrella of compassion-based contemplative practice. Further, and irrespective of formal meditation experience, dispositional mindfulness levels appear to vary among the population (Brown & Ryan, 2003).
In other words, a person who has never heard of mindfulness and never meditated before can still live a very mindful life. Furthermore, research has shown that meditation is just one way to cultivate mindfulness. By integrating mindfulness into everyday routines, mindfulness levels can be increased as well (Hanley, Warner, Dehili, Canto, & Garland, 2015).
The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
For conciseness, we had to limit the list of benefits to just a few prominent topics, but in reality the benefits of mindfulness meditation is exceedingly long.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
One way to examine the efficacy of mindfulness meditation is to examine the efficacy of programs which use mindfulness meditation, most popularly Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).
MBSR was initially developed for use by anyone looking to reduce stress levels, and MBCT was adapted from MBSR to:
“prevent future episodes of depression in people with a history of recurrent depression.” (umassmed.edu)
Since many mindfulness courses revolve around MBSR and MBCT and both of those programs rely on mindfulness meditation, reviewing the effectiveness of those programs is an indirect way to review the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation.
One group of researchers reviewed several randomized controlled trials involving MBSR and MBCT, and found concrete benefits of both programs:
- They concluded that MBSR improves mental health in “non-clinical and clinical populations”, and that it can complement traditional medicine in people who are physically ill.
- They also found that MBCT “is an effective and efficient way to prevent relapse in recovered, depressed patients with three or more previous episodes” (Fjorback Arendt, Ørnbøl, Fink, & Walach, 2011).
Mindfulness Meditation and Headaches
Mindfulness meditation can also help people with headaches, as one study examined the effects of mindfulness meditation on college students with migraine headaches (Azam, Katz, Mohabir, & Ritvo, 2016, p. 72). They found that:
“… brief mindfulness practices, and mindfulness-based interventions, can promote post-stress recovery in headache-affected populations.”
Specifically, mindfulness meditation was found to help regulate the heart rates of participants with headaches after a stressful event.
Mindfulness Meditation and Insomnia
A meta-analysis of the effects of mindfulness meditation on people with insomnia also showed benefits (Gong et al., 2016). For example, mindfulness meditation significantly reduced the amount of time participants spent awake as well as how long it took them to fall asleep, while also increasing the quality of their sleep.
Interestingly, another study looking at insomnia in postmenopausal women found that postmenopausal women with insomnia rated themselves as less mindful and attentive than postmenopausal women without insomnia, indicating that a lack of mindful practices may be partially responsible for the development of insomnia (Garcia et al., 2014).
These two studies show that mindfulness levels can both explain the presence of insomnia as well as ameliorate the effects of insomnia.
Effects of Mindfulness on Sensitivity to Pain
At North Carolina University, experiments were conducted using electrical stimulation on participants. The participants were given brief electrical pulses which increased and decreased in strength depending on each person’s pain tolerance.
Once participants’ tolerance ratings on pain were recorded, they then practiced mindfulness meditation for 20 minutes each day over a period of three days. After those three days, participants’ pain tolerance ratings were measured again using the same method.
The experiment’s results showed that participants’ pain tolerance ratings had significantly decreased since the commencement of the three-day meditation. The participants were less susceptible to pain just after three days of meditation.
Effect of Meditation on Sensory Experiences
A similar study has been done to better understand how meditation influences sensory experiences. Zeidan et al (2011) used an arterial spin labeling fMRI to identify neural mechanisms that were influenced by mindfulness in healthy participants. The study involved four days of mindfulness meditation training.
After this period, (through a multiple regression analysis) results showed a significant decrease of 57% in the unpleasantness of pain and a reduction of 40% in pain intensity ratings. The reduction in pain intensity ratings was associated with an increase in activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, and was also linked to orbitofrontal cortex activation.
These findings are consistent with previous studies that have also shown that when participants were taught to experience the full extent and intensity of a sensory event, meditation reduced the unpleasantness of the pain. It is thought that this is due to the enhancement of cognitive control and the reframing of the contextual evaluation.
Meditation has also been associated with improved cognitions, including but not limited to working memory, visual-spatial skills and attention. The question is: can results be experienced with only a brief amount of training, just like with the electrical stimulation experiment?
So, How Fast Does it Work?
Researchers set out to test this idea in four sessions through fostering basic mindful meditation such as breathing exercises and body awareness, while another group of participants was instructed to mindfully listen to the audio recording of the novel “The Hobbit.” After the sessions participants completed self-report measures and various cognitive tasks to assess effects on mood and mindfulness or whether they had improved cognitive abilities.
Both groups improved on mood, but the mindful meditation group surpassed the second group on cognitive measures (memory and attention) and mindfulness. These levels had previously only been found in long term meditators.
This illustrates that even short-term meditation training can result in improved cognitive functioning and mood.
Google Tech Talk Lecture on Mindfulness Meditation
What our readers think
Great resource! I love the mix of research, practical exercises, and tools for all levels. The insights on mindfulness beyond meditation and its benefits for stress, pain, and even kids are especially valuable. Thanks for sharing!
i went thru all your meditation practices including videos and text etc. Still i feel a missing link between practice and theory as taught in Scriptures. Try in practice and read with real progressive wisdom of Bhante Vimalaramsi’s Brahmavihara meditation. The clear understanding comes about the real meditation of loving kindness. Please try with practical approach.
Thank you very much for a very comprehensive analysis with practical. tips and further reference on mindfulness meditation the very need of the day for regular practice
thank you ver muc
I teach mindfulness to kids. Fantastic resource! Thank you Joaquin :))))
Thanks, Joaquin for spending your precious time writing this amazing article. I’m sure that it will help lots of people improve things that are causing them some harm. Congratulations. Greetings from Brazil!
A Note on Resting States and Resting Brains
A resting state, or ‘somatic rest’, would seem to correspond with a brain at rest or ‘neurologic’ rest, but by definition, somatic and neurologic rest are entirely different things. A resting ‘state’ or somatic rest represents the inactivity of the striatal musculature that results from the application of resting protocols (continual avoidance of perseverative thought represented by rumination, worry, and distraction.). Resting states also are affective states, as they elicit opioid activity in the brain. Resting states in turn may occur in tandem with all levels of non-perseverative thought that are passive or active, from just passively ‘being in the moment’ or being mindful, to actively engaging in complex and meaningful cognitive behavior. The latter cognitive behavior is also additionally affective in nature due to its elicitation of dopaminergic activity, and the resulting opioid-dopamine interaction results in a perceived state of ‘bliss’ or ‘flow’. On the other hand, a resting ‘brain’, neurologic rest, or the so-called ‘default mode network’ is a specific type of neural processing that occurs when the mind is in a ‘passive’ state, or in other words, is presented with no or very limited cognitive demands. This results in ‘mind wandering’ that can entail non-perseverative (creative thought) or perseverative thought (rumination, worry). As such a resting brain may or may not correlate with somatic rest, and is correlated with a level of demand, not a kind of demand, as in somatic rest.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing
Joaquin, this is such an amazing list of free mindfulness exercises and resources! Thank you!
Here is a site with more than 1,500 free mindfulness exercises:
https://mindfulnessexercises.com/