12/22/2023
Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement in Individuals With Opioid Use Disorder Methadone treatment is a mainstay of therapy for opioid use disorder (OUD). However, medication treatment alone does not address the emotion…
12/22/2023
This time of the year is often associated with joy. According to Dictionary.com, one of the definitions of joy is “the emotion of delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying”. There are often many opportunities to experience joy now- giving and receiving gifts, noticing the sense of wonder that can arise in children, feeling our own sense of wonder, perhaps in relation to our religious traditions. Last weekend I participated with some of my family and 5000 or so others in the Tacky Light Run in Midlothian, a four-mile run/walk through neighborhoods with houses decorated for the holidays in a variety of often extravagant ways. I experienced joy in spending the time with my family, in seeing the decorations myself, and in watching others’ reactions to them. As with many positive emotions, joy can be missed or overlooked in the context of ongoing negative events. We may be caught up in worrying about these events, which can range from global to personal.
12/1/2023
Free Mindfulness Game One of the more valuable skills gained from an 8-week MBSR course is the ability to see one’s involuntary thoughts as generally irrelevant but distracting brain activity…
12/1/2023
Mindfulness-Based Interventions Lead to Brain Structural Changes This study investigated whether structural brain changes occur following mindfulness-based interventions. The authors conducted a meta-analysis including a total of 11 randomized controlled…
12/1/2023
Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity to practice mindfulness. The day is devoted to giving thanks, and we can pay attention to all of the things for which we can be thankful: family, friends, food, activities. We can Intentionally notice our experience as it arises, becoming aware of being in relationship with others, and really paying attention to what we are eating, drinking, and doing. Thanksgiving is also an opportunity to notice when we wish things were different than they are. We might find getting to wherever we are planning to go challenging. We might be spending time alone when we would prefer to be with others, or we might be with people we find difficult. Our favorite sports team might lose. When faced with these moments, we can see if it’s possible to just be with things as they are, noticing what we are feeling without judgement. We can notice the thoughts that arise and recognize the choice we have in getting caught up in them, which may only serve to amplify our suffering, or in letting them go. This doesn’t mean we have to passively accept our situation, but rather to observe it so that we can choose the most skillful response.
11/9/2023
Free Mindfulness Game One of the more valuable skills gained from an 8-week MBSR course is the ability to see one’s involuntary thoughts as generally irrelevant but distracting brain activity…
11/9/2023
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Can Relieve Loneliness, Anxiety, and Depression in Individuals with Cancer Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been suggested as an effective approach for relieving stress in patients with…
Capturing Moments of Mindfulness
11/9/2023
I was giving a talk on mindfulness recently and someone in the audience noted they had tried to meditate for 10 minutes and when they finished, their email inbox had filled up with work messages they had to attend to. They implied this made it seem that the time they had spent meditating had a higher cost than benefit. This situation applies to many of us when we try to find the time to practice mindfulness. How do we find the time to practice when we have busy schedules and seemingly more to do than there is time to do it all? Even though our lives are very busy and it seems that there is no time for meditation, often there is if we really have the intention to practice. When practicing, any time spent intentionally paying attention to our present moment experience is beneficial, and more time is better. Just like with exercising, if we want to make it a regular part of our lives we have to make the commitment to do it, set aside the time, and then do it regularly. Often this works best if we have a schedule and a time carved out every day, perhaps half an hour every morning after we get up. This is my favorite time to meditate. If half an hour is too long, we might try 15 minutes. If it’s only 15 minutes, we might even get up 15 minutes earlier to do it. Ideally, we will set an intention for how much we will meditate, decide when we will do it, and then practice every day.
9/14/2023
Innovative Mindfulness Training Research At the University of Virginia, we are testing three versions of a highly interactive open-awareness (versus breath-focused) game to help people train their brains to recognize…
9/14/2023
Both a Mediterranean Diet and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Reduced the Percentage of Newborns Born Small for Gestational Age Following High-Risk Pregnancies Being born small for gestational age is a leading…