The investigation into meditation as a treatment and preventative measure to anxiety has been growing in recent years. I will be using the following definition of meditation as, a family of techniques which have in common a conscious attempt to focus attention in a non-analytical way, and an attempt not to dwell on discursive, ruminating thought (Shapiro, 1980, p. 14). Meditation can also be called mindfulness and in fact it seems that most current scholarly articles are referring to meditation as mindfulness. With the United States being in a constant state of war and conflict, many soldiers are returning with anxiety disorders such as PTSD. One research team at the University of Pennsylvania led a study where an 8 week course in mindfulness was taught to a group of 48 U.S. Marines preparing for deployment. 31 marines were taught mindfulness while 17 were the control group. The study focused on mindfulness training in both seated positions and exercises to practice in daily life such as bringing attention to the breath. This study was an attempt to discover if there was a way to use mindfulness as a preventative to increased anxiety resulting from deployment. Using the Operation Span Task, working memory was tested and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was used to evaluate mood. both findings were positive and suggested that mindfulness training may work as a sort of psychological prophylaxis. University of Pennsylvania. (2010, February 17). Building fit minds under stress. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 21, 2014 from sciencedaily/releases/2010/02/100216101153.htm
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:24:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015