Sixty percent of people who experience a single episode of depression are likely to experience a second. Ninety percent of people who go through three episodes of depression are likely to have a fourth. But help is available: The 8-week Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program been shown to reduce the risk of relapse. How does it work? To find out, researchers in the United Kingdom interviewed 11 adults who had experienced three or more episodes of severe depression, and had undergone MBCT within the previous three years. They analyzed the interviews to create a model, published in the journal Mindfulness, to demonstrate how MBCT enables people to relate mindfully to the self and with others. The key, it seems, lies in the way MBCT enhances relationships: Less stress about relationships in turn helps prevent future episodes of depression. Three specific themes emerged from the study: 1. Being present to the self: Learning to pause, identify, and respond Mindfulness practices of MBCT allowed people to be more intentionally aware of the present moment, which gave them space to pause before reacting automatically to others. Instead of becoming distressed about rejection or criticism, they stepped back to understand their own automatic reactions—and to become more attuned to others’ needs and emotions. Awareness gave them more choice in how to respond, instead of becoming swept up in escalating negative emotion. 2. Facing fears: It’s ok to say “no” Participants also reported that they became more assertive in saying ‘no’ to others in order to lessen their load of responsibility, allowing them to become more balanced in acknowledging their own as well as others’ needs. The authors speculate that bringing mindful awareness to uncomfortable experiences helped people to approach situations that they would previously avoid, which fostered self-confidence and assertiveness. 3. Being present with others Being present to others enabled people to bring more attention to relationships and to appreciate their time with others. They talked about how being present to others helped them let go of distressing histories, allowing them to relate to others in new ways. Disagreements also became more constructive, as participants were able to identify their communication problems, and were better able to take on another’s perspective and focus on potential solutions. Study participants also described having more energy, feeling less overwhelmed by negative emotion, and being in a better position to cope with and support others. Getting through difficulties with significant others through mindful communication helped them feel closer, and having the energy and emotional stamina to spend more time with family members helped them grow together. Many participants said that as time went on, the benefits of MBCT permeated their whole life. “Through relating mindfully to their own experiences and to others, they were feeling more confident and were engaging with an increased range of social activity and involvement,” write the authors. The researchers write that in the future, interventions could place a more explicit focus on approaching relationships with mindfulness. This focus could reinforce the benefit of MBCT, and perhaps lead to even better outcomes in reducing the risk of relapse for people with chronic depression.

In some Buddhist traditions, there’s a prayer in which one makes a rather unusual request of the universe: Bring me challenges and obstacles. “In certain temples that I’ve been to, there’s actually a prayer that you make asking for difficulties,” says Western Buddhist master Jack Kornfield. “May I be given the appropriate difficulties so that my heart can truly open with compassion. Imagine asking for that.” Being grateful for not only life’s blessing but also its suffering is a key component of living a spiritual life—and more broadly, to a fulfilling and meaningful life—according to Kornfield, who will speak about cultivating an appreciation for all that life has to offer at next month’s Greater Good Gratitude Summit. Trained in the monasteries of India, Thailand, and Burma, Kornfield has studied and taught meditation for over 40 years, and has pioneered transmitting ancient Buddhist spiritual teachings to a modern Western audience. After working in the Peace Corps and earning a doctorate in clinical psychology, Kornfield founded the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, MA, and later, Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California. He’s also authored a number of books on mindfulness, compassion, and Buddhist psychology, notably his 1993 bestseller A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life. “This life is a test— it is only a test,” Kornfield writes in A Path With Heart. “If it had been an actual life, you would have received further instructions on where to go and what to do. Remember, this life is only a test.” We spoke to Kornfield—originally for HuffPost Health Living—about the importance of being grateful (even for the bad things), the “mindful revolution,” and the importance of giving back. Carolyn Gregoire: Why is gratitude an essential component of a spiritual life? Jack Kornfield: If we see the world as sacred, which is an expression of the spiritual life, then gratitude follows immediately and naturally. We’ve been given the extraordinary privilege of incarnating as human beings—and of course the human incarnation entails the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows, as it says in the Tao Te Ching—but with it we have the privilege of the lavender color at sunset, the taste of a tangerine in our mouth, and the almost unbearable beauty of life around us, along with its troubles. It keeps recreating itself. We can either be lost in a smaller state of consciousness—what in Buddhist psychology is called the “body of fear,” which brings suffering to us and to others—or we can bring the quality of love and appreciation, which I would call gratitude, to life. With it comes a kind of trust. The poet Pablo Neruda writes, “You can pick all the flowers, but you can’t stop the spring.” Life keeps recreating itself and presenting us with miracles every day. CG: It’s easier for us to feel grateful for things that make us happy and that make life easy for us. But how do we learn to be grateful for life’s “10,000 sorrows”? JK: I remember my meditation master in the jungles of Thailand who would ask at times, “Where have you learned more compassion? Where have you learned more? Where has your heart grown wiser—in just having good times, or going through difficulties?” There’s a Buddhist-oriented therapy in Japan called Naikan Therapy, and one part of that training is to review your life and begin to remember all the things you have gratitude towards, even the things that were difficult and taught you lessons. Or even the people that were difficult, sometimes in your own family— [remembering] the gratitude you have for family, that they’re even there. And speaking of gratitude, in a group that I taught recently, there was a man who spoke up whose son and daughter-in-law had become meth addicts. They were both addicts to the point where this fellow and his wife as grandparents had to take the children and raise their grandchildren. After a moment of great despair, he began to do a gratitude practice to see what he could be grateful for. He was grateful to have the grandchildren in that way, he was grateful that his children were still alive and that they were considering treatment. He was grateful for the depths of compassion that had grown when he learned about the waves of addiction that were prevalent in the country, and that he could somehow contribute to bringing an end to it…. He said that by being able to find gratitude as well, he was able to bear the difficulties and to bring some grace and love to it. CG: What is the connection between gratitude and mindfulness? Is it that when we’re more mindful, it’s easier for us to experience gratitude because we’re more aware of the good things? JK: To become mindful—which Zen master Suzuki Roshi also called “beginner’s mind”—is to see the world afresh without being lost in our reactions and judgments, and in seeing it afresh with a clarity, we begin to be able to respond to the world rather than react to it. I like to translate mindfulness as loving awareness—an awareness that knows what’s present, and also brings a quality of compassion and lovingkindness to that. The cultivation of mindfulness—which modern neuroscience has now shown in 3,000 papers and studies in the last two decades to help bring emotional regulation, steady attention, and physical healing—really allows us to become present for our own body, for the person in front of us, for the life we’ve been given. Out of that grows quite naturally the spirit of gratitude. Now it turns out, like all good things, they feed one another. Cultivating an opening to gratitude also helps us to become more mindful of the life around us and what circumstance we’re in. CG: We live a culture defined by consumerism, materialism and addictions—so often we feel we’re not enough, and we’re constantly trying to fill a void with more “stuff.” Why is American society in particular so in need of gratitude, and how can we cultivate this sense of appreciation and abundance when we’re socialized to live with a sense of lack? JK: One very articulate writer on this subject, Anne Wilson Schaef [author of When Society Becomes an Addict], has described ours as an addicted society. Whether it’s consumerism or addictive substances or just keeping ourselves busy or being online or working 80 hours a week, we have things that keep us busy because, in some ways, the culture wants us to keep engaged and not to look around much… not to see the struggles of people, the continuing injustice, the economic disparities, the people who are hungry, climate change. What becomes clear is that there’s no outer fix or satisfaction—no amount of computers, no amount of nanotechnology or biotechnology and all the great things that we’ve developed that will stop us from continuing warfare, racism and environment destruction. Those outer developments have to be matched by a transformation of human consciousness to realize that we are interdependent and we depend on the air we breathe, and on people in other nations as they depend on us. We are woven, as Dr. Martin Luther King said, into a single garment of destiny. When we see this, we begin to realize that the values of consumerism and getting more and more—which start to become emptier and emptier—don’t satisfy the heart. When we look at what’s satisfied us in the past week or month or decade, it’s been the connections, the love and the openness of our lives to the places we’ve traveled and the people we’ve met. This really is the basis for gratitude. Then we start to sense that it is possible to live with a quieter mind and an open heart, and with a sense of satisfaction within ourselves—it’s the satisfaction of well-being. CG: We are beginning to witness the seeds of this shift taking place, with the recent explosion of interest in meditation. You’ve been a key player in bringing Buddhist practices to the West for more than 40 years now. How have you seen attitudes towards mindfulness shift in that time? JK: Mindfulness, in the beginning, was associated mistakenly with a religious practice, when in fact Buddhist teachings, at their essence, are a science of mind which simply offer us these universal trainings that can steady and balance our attention, and give us a deeper connection to ourselves and one another. Fortunately, with all those 3,000 research studies that I mentioned and the great neuroscience that’s been done, it becomes clear with the understanding of neuroplasticity that we can train our mind and our heart through attention. It helps schoolchildren, it helps in healing and clinics, and it helps attention, whether you’re writing computer program or a business plan or making love or creating a piece of art—the ability to steady the attention to be fully present is an enormous gift. I’ve seen mindfulness as a training and as an opportunity for the growth of presence and wisdom to be spreading in all these areas. I’m really happy for the benefit that it’s bringing. CG: Some critics of mindfulness have argued that the practice is too focused on the individual, at the expense of fostering a spirit of collectivity and positive social change. Do you think this is true? How do giving back and service figure into a spiritual practice? JK: It’s very simple. There’s a saying, “There are only two things to do: Sit, and sweep the garden.” This is like breathing in and breathing out. You quiet the mind and the heart so that you’re connected to yourself and listen to what really matters. Then you get up from that stillness, and if people are hungry, you offer food. If there’s injustice, you offer yourself for the healing of that injustice. In fact, it allows us to become agents of change because we are actually attentive and present for what is without being overwhelmed by it and without distracting ourselves. In that way, mindfulness is actually one of the necessary components of making a real transformation in whatever field or dimension of society we would choose. It supports it, and it leads towards it, and it allows people to do it without burnout. If you work for good causes but you do it out of anger and frustration and guilt—and all of those other motivations I’ve seen among activists I’ve worked with—you will burn out. But if that same compassion and care comes instead from the power of love and steadiness and a deep devotion to what is just and right, it has equal if not greater power. Mahatma Gandhi took one day a week in silence, even in the midst of marches of thousands and the ending of the British colonial empire. When everything was in the middle of this huge transformation, he would say, “I’m sorry, this is my day of silence.” And he would sit and quiet himself and try to listen to what was the most compassionate and skillful and powerful response he could make, coming from that deep center of wisdom. So rather than removing us from the world, it allows us to affect the world in a different and in many cases more profound way.

Attachment theory predicts that children who had warm, close relationships with caregivers will grow into adults who are equipped to have open and trusting relationships of their own. On the flipside, research finds that mistreated children are more likely to have insecure adult relationships. Can mindfulness act as an antidote to the deleterious effects of childhood abuse and neglect? In other words, can mindfulness help people who were maltreated as children to restore their security in relationships as an adult? Those are the questions tackled by University of California, Davis, researchers in a new study published in the journal Mindfulness. During a three-day retreat, the researchers taught mindfulness and loving-kindness practices to women who had experienced childhood maltreatment. For instance, they were guided through a body scan (systematically bringing attention to each part of the body), mediations in which they regarded thoughts with non-judgment and acceptance, and a practice in which they paired with another participant to silently offer and receive compassion to each other. The researchers administered questionnaires to participants before the retreat, and at two points in the month afterward—and compared their answers to women who were on a wait-list for the intervention, in an effort to understand how the retreat affected participants. The results suggested that the retreat led to reduced emotional suppression and rumination, more emotional clarity, and better emotion regulation. The women also wrote a narrative about their childhood trauma before and after the retreat took place. When the researchers compared the language structures that the women used at different time points, they found that following the retreat, the women used significantly more mindfulness-based words. The researchers concluded that these women were now approaching thoughts and emotions about experiences in relationships with less judgment and more self-awareness. Why might mindfulness help victims of childhood maltreatment? The authors write that past research has shown that mindfulness and a secure attachment style are often related to each other. Mindfulness might act as an “antidote” for people who are insecure in their relationships as a result of childhood abuse because mindfulness allows them to become aware of thoughts and emotions, without judging or overreacting to them. This non-judgmental, non-reactive approach can help people identify thoughts and emotions with more clarity and objectivity, rather than automatically suppressing or becoming caught up in them. In this way, mindfulness likely enables people to more deeply understand their own and others’ behavior, and respond more wisely to distressing thoughts, emotions, and behaviors related to relationships. The finding that a mindfulness intervention can help repair attachment wounds also has significant clinical implications. “Without appropriate clinical interventions,” write the researchers, “individuals exposed to relational trauma in childhood are at greater risk for difficulties in adult relationships and parenting.” At present, there is not much in the way of treatment for individual adults who have experienced childhood maltreatment: this study shows that mindfulness could help change that.

Researchers have conceptualized mindfulness as being a trait—a quality inherent in an individual—or a state, which can be arrived at through meditation. In a recent study published in Psychological Science, Andrew Hafenbrack and colleagues used these two concepts to investigate whether the enhanced present-moment awareness that comes with mindfulness would reduce “sunk-cost bias”—that is, the tendency to continue down a path once we have already made some sort of investment of time, money, or effort. By definition, sunk-costs are things that have already happened in the past, not the present or future. For example, maybe you find yourself several years into a relationship and realize that you and your partner have irreconcilable differences—but instead of breaking up, you stick with the partner since you’ve shared so many years together. Or, perhaps, one day you realize that your job is not the right one for you. But you don’t look for another job or go back to school, because your current position has consumed so much of your time and effort. It is understandable that we’d want to see a return on such investments, and we might hope that holding on just a little longer will yield results; at the same time, feeling like one has wasted time, money, or effort can bring about negative emotions or moods that interfere with decision making. Because mindfulness is, by definition, oriented toward present moment and has been shown to reduce negative emotional states, the researchers hypothesized that mindfulness may help people reduce the tendency to fall into the sunk-cost fallacy. In a series of studies, researchers found that increased mindfulness—through a brief 15-minute breath meditation—reduces the tendency to think in terms of sunk-costs. In the first study, 178 adults completed online questionnaires, which measured trait mindfulness—the ability to non-judgmentally focus on the present moment—as well as their resistance to sunk-cost bias. Results showed that those who reported greater trait mindfulness also reported be less influenced by past investments in making decisions. In the next two studies, the researchers wanted to see if state mindfulness—that which is cultivated through practice—could cause a reduction in the sunk-cost bias. First, undergraduate participants were brought into the research laboratory and were randomized to either the meditation manipulation condition, where they participated in either a 15-minute mindful-breathing exercise or a mind-wandering control condition, where participants were allowed to think of whatever came into their minds. Those in the mindfulness condition reported greater present-moment attention and resisted the sunk-cost bias more than those in the control condition. In the final study, the researchers took this research a step further and examined the specific mechanisms involved in state mindfulness reducing the sunk-cost bias. One-hundred-and-fifty-six adults completed a series of online questionnaires, which measured mindfulness, decision-making about sunk-costs, and positive and negative emotions. Participants were again randomized to either listen to 15 minutes of mindfulness-mediation or the mind-wandering condition—the same ones described above. And, indeed, results suggested that mindfulness mediation decreased focus on the future and past, which reduced negative moods and emotions, which in turn led to reduced sunk-coast bias. Taken together, these findings suggest that even brief doses of mindfulness mediation may assist in improving decision-making processes and outcomes.

Mindfulness, or the moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, emotions, and environment, has been associated with a host of benefits, including reduced stress, greater positive emotions, and a healthier body image. Recently, however, research has begun to explore how practicing mindfulness might improve the ways we treat other people. A recent study, published in the journal Mindfulness, zeroes in on the question of whether mindfulness can boost compassion or altruism, the intention to increase the welfare of another, even at a cost to oneself. In the experiment, researchers in Sweden randomly assigned 42 adults to one of two groups: One attended nine 75-minute mindfulness meditation training sessions over an eight-week period; the other group sat on a wait list for those eight weeks. Before and after the eight weeks, all participants completed surveys assessing their levels of empathy, stress, mindfulness, self-compassion, and, of primary interest to the authors, “altruistic orientation”—the ability to feel empathic concern rather than personal distress when faced with the suffering of others. The training involved weekly meditations on topics ranging from mindfulness of one’s breath to self-compassion to empathic joy and equanimity. The course also included lectures, mindful movement exercises, Q&A discussion sessions, and weekly homework—participants were asked to use guided meditation recordings and engage in approximately 30 minutes of daily meditation practice. When compared with the waitlist group, the meditation group showed improvements in their ability to take the perspective of other people, an aspect of empathy; they also showed gains in self-compassion and mindfulness, and a reduction in stress. After their eight-week training, the meditators’ altruistic orientation had also increased from its levels before the training; however, the waitlist group showed similar increases over the eight weeks, making it difficult to conclude that the training had a significant effect on altruistic orientation, though it did seem to be moving in the right direction. Importantly, among the meditators, the amount of time they spent meditating outside of class was significantly associated with improvements in altruistic orientation, mindfulness, and stress—in other words, the more they meditated, the more they seemed to reap these benefits. Although the conclusions that can be drawn from this study are limited, likely due to the small number of participants, the results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting a relationship between mindfulness meditation and altruism or compassion. For instance, studies published last year suggest that mindfulness training can motivate people to come to the aid of someone in need and may even cause changes to the brain associated with compassion. For more on the links between mindfulness and compassion, check out the videos from the GGSC’s 2013 conference on “Practicing Mindfulness and Compassion”: What’s more, this study adds to the mounting empirical evidence suggesting that the benefits of meditation programs are directly related to the amount of time participants spend practicing at home. When it comes to mindfulness and meditation, like in so many other areas, it seems that what you get depends on what you put in.

Mindfulness Meditation May Improve Decision Making One 15-minute focused-breathing meditation may help people make smarter choices, according to new research from researchers at INSEAD and The Wharton School. The findings are published in the February issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. People have trouble cutting their losses: They hold on to [...]

When people talk about the keys to success these days, they often end up talking about marshmallows. They’re referring to the “Marshmallow Test.” Researchers at Stanford presented preschoolers with one marshmallow, telling them that they could either eat it right away or wait for several minutes; if they waited, they’d receive a second marshmallow as a reward for their patience. The researcher then left the room and watched to see which kids could delay their sweet gratification and which could not.   When these children were followed into adolescence, it turned out that those who were able to wait had fewer behavior problems in school, engaged in less risky behaviors (such as drug use), and had better SAT scores. But what about the kids who couldn’t wait? Despite the wide reach of the Stanford study, it never answered the burning question that those of us who teach or parent young children have: What can we do to help the children who just can’t resist the marshmallows?   That’s the question tackled in a new paper published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. Rachel Razza and her colleagues explored whether young children could build self-regulation skills by learning to practice mindfulness—the moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and surroundings—as taught through a program called YogaKids, which uses a blend of yoga and mindfulness practices in kid-friendly ways. At the beginning of the school year, they tested children in two ethnically diverse preschool classrooms on their self-regulation skills and asked their parents about how well the children demonstrated these skills at home. The teacher in one of the classrooms was trained in the YogaKids curriculum, which she wove into activities throughout the school day. For instance, children did sun salutations during morning meetings and practiced regulated breathing—such as counting in and out for five seconds while breathing deeply—during tricky transitions. They did activities like these for an average of 10-30 minutes a day, over a period of about six months. Children in the second classroom experienced “business as usual,” participating in no YogaKids activities. Although the two groups started out with similar self-regulation skills, by the end of the school year the children who had been practicing mindfulness were less impulsive and better able to wait for a potential reward—in other words, they became more like the kids who could wait for that second treat in the Marshmallow Test. They were also better able to sustain attention on certain exercises the researchers did with them, such as drawing and tapping games. What’s more, the program had the strongest effect on the children whose self-regulation skills were the weakest at the beginning of the year: Children who needed these skills the most benefited the most from having the chance to learn and practice them. Although children in the YogaKids classroom improved on the researchers’ tasks, self-regulation at home did not differ between the two classrooms, according to reports from parents. It may be that children need to practice these routines at home, as well as in school, in order for them to have the broadest impact. So what do these findings mean for young children—and the adults in their lives? The results suggest that it’s possible to enhance children’s self-regulation through our daily interactions with them, even if we can only commit to a few minutes each day. Children who struggle to wait their turn, calm themselves down, or follow rules are not destined for a life of difficulties; instead, research is identifying positive tools they can use to build their behavioral and emotional control—which, evidence suggests, will set them on a better life trajectory. Of course, more studies will shed light on the what, how, and when of developing self-regulation. But for those of us who lie awake at night worrying about the kids who can’t resist the marshmallows, it’s comforting to know that getting children ready for school—and life—may be just a few deep breathes away.

Breathing In vs. Spacing Out http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/magazine/breathing-in-vs-spacing-out.html?emc=eta1 JAN. 14, 2014 Two and a half millenniums ago, a prince named Siddhartha Gautama travelled to Bodh Gaya, India, and began to meditate beneath a tree. Forty-nine days of continuous meditation later, tradition tells us, he became the Buddha — the enlightened one. More recently, a psychologist named Amishi [...]

Let’s say you want to be more mindful—that is, cultivate intentional, non-judgmental attention to each moment. Meditation is the core of mindfulness, but there are many different forms of meditation. Which one is best for you? That’s the question tackled in a new study published in the journal Mindfulness. Over the span of three weeks, the researchers broke 141 undergraduates into three groups that each engaged in one of these forms of mindfulness meditation: The sitting meditation, which involves sitting in a relaxed but erect posture and cultivating awareness of each breath you take. The body scan, which entails methodically paying attention to each part of your body, from top to bottom. Mindful yoga, the practice of deliberate, intentional movement.  At the beginning and end of those three weeks, participants answered questions measuring depression, anxiety, stress, emotion regulation, rumination, mindfulness (observing, describing, non-judging, non-reactivity, and acting with awareness), well-being, and self-compassion. Researchers found some benefits across all three groups. In all three groups participants reported reduced rumination, as well as greater self-compassion and well-being. These results echo decades of research showing that mindfulness practices improve physical and mental health. Then the researchers looked at each group (sitting meditation, body scan, or yoga) individually and compared those results to the other two groups. Differences emerged: Yoga improved well-being more than sitting meditation and body scan, which the authors argue may be linked to “longstanding evidence that physical exercise promotes psychological health” and well-being, rather than specifically mindfulness. Yoga and sitting meditation improved emotion regulation more so than in the body scan group. Why this might be is still a mystery, but the authors note that sitting meditation involves explicit instructions to observe strong emotions without holding on or trying to get rid of them, simply allowing them to be as they are. Members of the sitting meditation group were significantly less judgmental towards their own feelings and experiences than those who practiced yoga and the body scan, which is likely due to the sitting meditation’s “more explicit instructions against judging one’s experiences.” So which practice is best for you? That depends on what challenges you’re facing in your life, suggests this study. If you find yourself overwhelmed by anger against yourself or others, sitting meditation sounds like the one for you. If you frequently feel tired or sick, yoga is worth a try. While the body scan did not seem to yield as many benefits as the other two practices, that’s an area that needs further investigation. For example, it’s possible that body scan paired with sitting meditation or yoga could be helpful. This preliminary study is an exciting beginning to examining how these specific meditation practices may affect different parts of our lives.

Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-Being Introduction Definition of Meditation The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines meditation as a “mind-body” method. This category of complementary and alternative medicine includes interventions that employ a variety of techniques that facilitate the mind’s capacity to affect bodily function and symptoms. In meditation, a person [...]