Meditation And Volunteer At The Meditation Group

This paper is about my experience with mindfulness based meditation and scientific inquiry of these experiences. Mindfulness based meditation is describes as technique used to cultivate nonreactive, non-judgmental and stable awareness of the present moment (Garland and Gaylord, 2009). The end goal is to sustain this meta-cognitive state for a long period of time. I practiced non-denominational form of mindfulness based meditation for the first time in my psychology class, which was devoted towards intellectual and experiential examination of meditation. The practice was conducted in a group it was instructed by our own professor and it begun at the end of class. There was one sessions per week and each session was structured meaning it was

Do you think meditation leads to heightened sensation and perception? Explain why or why not.

Meditation is something that, prior to this semester, I had never experienced. I wanted to incorporate it into my self-care plan because I struggle with stress management and pessimism. Negative thoughts and feelings will sometimes get the best of me; meditation seemed like a good habit to create in order to control and manage my stress and cynicism. Meditation was difficult at first, but the more I practiced it the easier it became. It assisted me in processing my feelings and thoughts, more importantly it led me to insights about myself. It helped me to understand how I function and areas where I need to improve. For example, I never processed my fear surrounding death; meditation assisted me in recognizing that my fear stems not from my facing my own mortality, but rather from the prospect of losing my son or husband. Nothing scares me more than losing them in any form, and death is a form of loss. Meditation also assisted me in recognizing areas where I have improved, but previously did not observe (e.g. my view of alcoholism has drastically changed and for the better). Finally, meditation helped me to process some extremely intense negative emotions unrelated to the course (having learned to meditate could not have happened at a more necessary time). Meditation was by far the most useful self-care activity for me; it is one habit I plan to cultivate and utilize throughout my

The causal claim in studies 2, 3, and 4 hypothesized that listening to a 15 minute mindfulness meditation tape would result in more frequent resistance of cost bias when compared to a mind-wandering tape, the control condition (Hafenbrack et al., 2014). A major fault in Bergland's (2014) article is he presents very limited information about the methods of the study. His description provides that two groups listened to a fifteen-minute tape, to establish either a state of mindfulness or mind-wandering, and were subsequently asked to answer a question that involved a sunk cost decision (Bergland, 2014). Concerning internal validity, there is no discussion of how the study controlled for confounding variables. Consequently, readers cannot determine if the increased resistance to sunk cost bias was caused by being in a state of mindfulness or a confounding variable that may not have been accounted for.

This article was based on a pilot study that provided mindfulness training to obese individuals. The training was an established curriculum called Mindfulness Eating and Living (MEAL) and was used as an intervention. It was hypothesized that MEAL would be associated with a decrease in weight and inflammation and improvement in metabolic markers. Outcome markers were established at baseline, after completion of the program and in follow up at 12 weeks.

It is imperative for a study to be valid, for the results to be accurately applied and interpreted. From this article it is difficult to say whether the study reflects the truth. Insufficient information on how the participants were selected; how participants got involved in the study; what questions were asked; whether or not the researcher’s body language and style of questioning influenced the results; and how trust was gained with participants leaves the reader questioning the validity of the article (Litwin, 1995, Merriam, 2009).

Recent research in the clinical field of psychology has focused on combining mindfulness-based practices with clinical therapy to create more positive affects for clients. Mindfulness is often practiced in the form of meditation, but is determined by the development of one’s mental state to be able to create nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. Awareness of the present moment can be induced by thoughts, emotions, physical perceptions, and one’s environment (Grow, Collins, Harrop, & Marlatt, 2015). Research has begun to analyze mindfulness-based practices as an alternative treatment program for individuals with a substance abuse dependence. Substance abuse dependence often is correlated with increased stress, impulsivity, negative

The steps were MRI session 1, meditation training 1, meditation training 2, meditation training 3, mediation training 4, MRI session 2. Important information to go along with the process is The State Anxiety Inventory (SAI) and The Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI). The State Anxiety Inventory was to evaluate the effects of mindfulness meditation. This was applied before and after each MRI and mediation training session. The Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory checks the levels of mindfulness. This was applied before MRI session 1 and after MRI session 2. How they measures FMI was through a psychometrically instrument that could check the consistency at a high internal level. If he subject scored a higher score of FMI that would be mean that there was a higher level of

In the research concerning transcendental meditation, variables linked with and most often tested in relation to TM include stress, anxiety, depression, ego development, and cognition, all of which contribute to overall well-being. Sample sizes in these studies vary greatly, some consisting of smaller groups and other that synthesize information collected from larger studies. There is also great variation in terms of time, some studies spanning over only a few months while others study groups over the span of ten years. This diversity within the studies is helpful in gaining a more well-rounded understanding of TM and its effects.

In her research, the author emphasizes who the experimenter is and their characteristics. She uses various diagrams to show the different details about the participants and what the protocol required for music therapy is. Although Dvorak uses these techniques, she fails to clearly address the questions that were asked to the participants during the three periods which she analyzed their overall mood. Like her diagrams that where easy to follow Dvorak gave limited information on what the participants were asked to determine their mood. This information could have been helpful as the reader could make their own assumptions on the questions and whether or not they are suitable for the experiment. The author explains to the readers what type of questions were asked during the beginning, middle and end point of the experiment (Abbey L. Dvorak 76). However, she neglects to illustrate the exact questions or similar questions that where asked. By adding a few questions that she might have asked into her paper

In other words, the final results had a lot a room for questions regarding whether or not the results were good enough for the study. This is because there were various reasons to why the original hypothesis can be rejected. From the lack of a control group to the sample size being too small, a lot of errors may have occurred during the course of the experiment. I would plan to use some of the techniques in this study because it allowed a simple way of examining differences prior to an effect and post the effect. In other words, it provided a clearer way to measure what is being focused on rather than various irrelevant

These were before the program began, immediately after its completion, and four months after its completion. As the central aim of the study was to investigate the enduring effects of meditation, and as mindfulness meditation was prescribed and relatively consistently used as homework, these thee data points essentially represent time frames prior to meditation, immediately after meditation, and at a slightly reduced frequency of meditation. Thus, the enduring effects of mindfulness meditation may not have been accurately assessed. Furthermore, as the intervention was located at a busy office during office hours, consumed nearly three hours per week, and the control group was a wait-list control group, the attribution of all effects to meditation seems unjustified. For instance, the meditation group’s time away from work is a confounding variable. Additionally, via the group’s encouragement to engage in six hours a week of meditation in their personal time, the increased personal time of this group may have also acted as a confounding variable. Accordingly, this study lacks the specificity of variable control required to be considered robust. Likewise, the article lacks a clear explanation of mindfulness meditation, its distinction from other meditations, and a discussion on what aspects of mindfulness meditation may be most important for enduring biological

Connecting sentence: Furthermore, while medications repress depressive symptoms, the mindfulness taught in meditation teaches an individual how to acknowledge and dismiss such symptoms, resulting in a lower rate of relapse or recurrence of depression.

Albeit, in this study the onset tricked the participants about the results in order to had discover the effects of belief perseverance; receiving the participant’s thoughts on the forbidden toy study is crucial. Since, the Center for Children and Families at FIU plans to carry out the study as soon as possible. After the participants finish those instructions there are follow up questions. For instance, the following questions are: “Consider the study we plan to carry out at FIU. Compared to children in the no-threat condition, how do you think children in the threat condition will rank the forbidden toy?” (-5= less preferable, 0= no impact, 5= more preferable), “What if we did this study in Tampa, Florida? Compared to children in the no-threat condition, how do you think children in the threat condition will rank the forbidden toy?” (-5= less preferable, 0= no impact, 5= more preferable), “If the study we plan to run at FIU fails to replicate the results you originally read, to what extent would this failure to confirm the same findings impact your ratings of our real study?” (1= I’d find the new study questionable, 7= I’d find the new study trustworthy) and “In the study you originally read, what outcome did the researchers say occurred?” (1= more preferable than non-threatened children, 2= less preferable than non=threatened children, 3= neither more nor less preferable

The results of this study showed significant improvement in quality of life, anxiety, and blood pressure in the meditation group. While in controls, quality of life deteriorated and there was no improvement in blood pressure.