The International Journal of Whole Person Care
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Who experiences depressive symptoms following mindfulness-based stress reduction and why?
Get PDFBackground: A small percentage of patients screen positive for depression following a mindfulness-based program. We identified patient characteristics associated with this outcome in order to understand this phenomenon.Methods: Depressive symptoms, stress, mindfulness, coping with illness and sense of coherence were measured in 126 patients with various medical and psychological conditions pre- and post- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Results: Fewer patients (27% vs. 49%) screened positive for depression post-MBSR. Both pre- and post-MBSR patients who were depressive following MBSR scored lower on meaningfulness, comprehensibility, and manageability (sense of coherence), higher on emotional coping and lower on palliative and distraction coping. Smaller positive changes (e.g. stress) occurred in these patients as well. Viewing life as less meaningful pre-MBSR predicted more symptoms of depression post-MBSR.Conclusions: Patients who suffered depressive symptoms following the program were unable to reappraise their lives in such a way as to become stress resilient.
Video Conferencing for Mindfulness Programs: Benefits, Experiences, and Recommendations
Get PDFOnline learning has grown tremendously with the advent of increasingly sophisticated digital technologies. Used well, the online experience is a positive one rivalling and perhaps exceeding the efficacy of in-person programming. The use of video conferencing uniquely promotes several factors foundational to mindfulness programs, including participant engagement and the nuanced challenge of the creation of a safe space for open sharing and inquiry
A New Description of a Healthcare Professional’s Resilience, Incorporating an Eastern Philosophical Perspectives of Self-definition. How to Bridge the Gap between Independent and Interdependent Self-definition in Medical Education
Get PDFTeaching about resilience is one of the biggest challenges in medical education. One of the problems is that medical educators might still ascribe to the individualistic self-definition mainly promoted in the North American society. This definition includes characteristics such as “enduring ongoing hardship,” “thriving on challenges,” “being healthy,” and “being stronger,” which may raise hidden expectations that a healthcare professional’s personality should be strong enough to bounce back to his or her original condition even in a psychologically demanding situation. Psychological theorists describe two broad modes of self-definition in two different cultures: independent self-definition in North American individualism and interdependent self-definition in East Asian collectivism. Despite this seemingly stereotypical discussion on the characteristics of self-definition, a discussion of the two types of self-definition can still encourage medical educators to propose a broader model of resilience in medical education. More specifically, a person using an independent self-definition may become be a complete, whole, autonomous entity, without others, and thus tends to achieve more and become more productive in a competitive society. In contrast, a person using an interdependent self-definition is more likely to be open to another aspect of the context and thus might be able to find and value the self in different ways even in the same context. However, these two self-definitions may not be dichotomous or mutually exclusive but occur in varying ratios in any one individual, particularly as trends of increased globalization, immigration, and technology call for changes in an individual’s value systems in countries. From this standpoint, this review proposes a new definition of resilience in medical education, which is ‘a person’s capacity to be aware of the aspects of the self differently identified in each context, and to consciously value oneself and others in the context’. This is the first article that incorporates the concept of the two self-definitions into resilience education in healthcare. The proposed definition may provide a broader model of resilience in a healthcare professional for educators as well as trainees in medical education
Psychophysiology of slow breathing exercises using heart rate variability measurements for stress reduction
Get PDFSlow breathing exercises, associated with meditation and other eastern style modalities like tai chi and hatha yoga, are now increasingly employed in mainstream medicine to reduce stress, attenuate moderate hypertension, and alleviate symptoms of lifestyle-related illnesses. The clinical literature on slow breathing exercises includes studies employing various physiological measurements, including heart rate variability (HRV), galvanic skin response, and changes in skin temperature. HRV has been increasingly used to measure the activity of the autonomic nervous system in various human studies employing healthy and chronically ill subjects. 1. Objective: To understand the effects of slow breathing exercises on heart rate variability as a complementary intervention for stress reduction. 2. Method: Four subjects, through repetitive trials, were instructed to slow down their breathing following a metronome at 10 breaths per minute or 6 breaths per minute or spontaneously relax to slow down their respiratory rate. The ECG, heart rate, and respiratory rate were recorded using a Powerlab set-up (ADI). 3. Key Results: Results showed an increase in amplitude of heart rate variability during these slow breathing exercises, either through the metronome-guided or spontaneous slow-breathing exercises, especially around a breathing frequency of 6 breaths per minute. The increased amplitude of heart rate variability can be seen as a positive sign, a marker for sympathovagal balance. 4. Conclusion: HRV measurements have shown that slow breathing exercises can increase heart rate variability. Future protocols for clinical trials are being projected using the HRV technique and other physiological measurements for studying effects of yoga-based complementary interventions for stress reduction
Healing environments that facilitate medical student training: from urban to rural settings
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Touching the compassionate heart: the ground of healing
Get PDFI am a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, secular mindfulness teacher and former university lecturer. Having conducted research in fields varying from laboratory molecular medicine to clinical applications of mindfulness, I took a two year sabbatical to focus on an inner search and healing. It was spent mostly spent in Plum Village: a Buddhist monastery in France in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. I have recently returned to clinical work.I found that it was not until I took a compassionate view of myself that I truly began to heal; and that following my heart was the only way I could negotiate the uncertainties of the path
Uncovering freedom: a story of empowerment
Get PDFThis article tells the story of a woman suffering from food anxiety and unintentional weight loss and how shifting to an empowerment-based model of care led her onto a path of health and healing