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Author: hw8w@virginia.edu

News and Notes

3/19/2024

The first Introduction to Mindfulness for Healthcare Employees course finished last week. This is an abbreviated six-week course (nine total class hours) based on the eight-week twenty-hour Mindfulness for Healthcare…

Research Update

3/19/2024

A Single Session Mindfulness and Compassion Intervention Can Reduce Stress, Anxiety and Depression Single-session interventions (SSIs) are a potential means of expanding access to mindfulness programs. This randomized clinical trial…

March Madness

3/19/2024

March Madness, as the NCAA basketball tournaments are frequently referred to, is here again.  The fields have been chosen, and a favorite team may have been selected or not, leading some of us to feel either happiness or disappointment. Now, over the next three weeks, many people will be focused on their brackets and their favorite teams, perhaps to a state of madness.  Madness has a number of definitions according to dictionary.com, at least two of which might apply now.  The first is intense excitement or enthusiasm. This is how many people feel during the tournaments, especially watching their favorite team, or a team that is important to their bracket.  Another definition is senseless folly. This might be how people who have no interest in basketball view the whole affair.   However we view March Madness, as is the case for anything that elicits strong emotions, it can be an instructive time to pay attention to our present moment experience.  If we really get caught up in the tournament, we can notice the emotions that arise- happiness or even elation when our favorite team wins, sadness or anger when our team loses.

Research Update

3/4/2024

Mindfulness-Based Interventions During Pregnancy Can Reduce Postpartum Depression Symptoms This metanalysis evaluated the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) delivered during pregnancy on post-partum depression. Five randomized controlled trials with a…

The Space Between Stimulus And Response

3/4/2024

While driving recently, I was wondering what to write for this month’s Musing when I came to a stop sign.  Seeing the red sign with STOP written on it brought my attention back to the present moment.  “Aha!” I then thought - I’ll write about STOP, an acronym that reminds us to pause to practice mindfulness in the moment. The importance of pausing is well described in the quote below often attributed to Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, although I have been unable to find a reference to him actually saying it.  Instead, according to the Viktor Frankl Institute, “The true origin of the quotation is somewhat involved. To put it shortly, the author Stephen R. Covey used to recount that he found the quote in a library book and thought it fitting to describe Frankl's views - but he did not note down the book's author and title.”  Whatever the origin, this is still a very powerful statement: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”  Pausing allows us to pay attention to our present moment experience, and in pausing gives us the space to choose our response, rather than just reacting to our circumstances.

News and Notes

1/12/2024

Mindful Eating Course to be Offered in January The Mindfulness Center will be offering another Mindful Eating Course starting this month.  The course is designed to help people alter their…

News and Notes

1/12/2024

New Introduction to Mindfulness for Healthcare Employees Course to Be Offered in February  The Mindfulness Center will begin offering a new course for healthcare employees starting in February.  This six-week…

Research Update

1/12/2024

The Impact of Mindfulness Interventions on Creativity The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of mindfulness interventions on creative performance.  The investigators reviewed 37 studies, 20…

Perspective

1/12/2024

I have been thinking about the importance of perspective recently.  As our society becomes more and more polarized, it seems it has become harder and harder to appreciate the perspectives of those who may see the world differently than we do.  We all have views on the way things should be that are largely based on our upbringing and other formative experiences.  These views are deeply held and we often don’t even recognize that we have them.  When someone says or does something that is counter to these core beliefs it often triggers a strong reaction in us.  On the other hand, we tend to like when our core beliefs are supported.  Social media companies and news organizations recognize this, and thus our feeds are full of reinforcing information that often focuses on the positives of our beliefs and the negatives of other beliefs. This can lead to greater and greater polarization. Yet if we want to solve difficult problems, we often have to not only acknowledge but even understand and appreciate the beliefs and views of others.  This can be very hard because we often move from feeling negatively about an action to making negative assumptions about the person doing the acting.  Rather than try to understand them, we judge them.

News and Notes

12/22/2023

New Introduction to Mindfulness for Healthcare Employees Course to Be Offered in January The Mindfulness Center will begin offering a new course for healthcare employees starting in January. This six-week…