Over a period of six weeks, I embarked on a personal study to discover the effectiveness
of the meditative practice of mindfulness on creating real and lasting change in relation to
negative thinking. I became aware that I would ruminate pessimistic thoughts of situations from
the past, current issues, and potential future problems. Although this practice of mulling over
stressful situations, both real and imagined, had a limited repertoire, they would swirl around in
my head like a revolving door. These scenarios would become more frequent and last longer as
my level of stress rose or my anger was stirred by adverse circumstances I could not control.
Week one began on Monday, September 29, 2014. I dedicated the entire seven
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No intervention was used to stop ruminating, I simply kept count of the instances that I
was aware of obsessive thoughts. To keep the count accurate, I utilized an application on my
iPhone called, Karma Jar. The program was developed based on the practice of a Buddhist
monk who would place a white stone in a glass jar when he had positive thoughts, and dark
stones in the jar when he experienced negative thinking. As the jar filled up, I could visually
compare and count the number of times when ruminating would take over my attention.
Looking at a jar full of dark stones at the end of every day that first week allowed me to see the
scope of the problem. By the end of the week, I had endured 144 incidents of ruminating.
In spite of being overwhelmed by the severity of my problem with rumination, I felt
extremely motivated to change, and enthusiastically began the mindfulness phase of the study.
The first few hours of implementing the intervention seemed difficult and tedious, but I was
quickly surprised at how much better I got in a very short space of time.
The Practice and Study of Mindfulness
I discovered that by not judging the thoughts, and the anxiety or depression they
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As the first mindfulness week progressed and I counted a dramatic drop in the number of
ruminating interludes. I also noticed that I was learning to quickly disengage from ruminative
thought patterns. My awareness of the onset of an episode became sharper, allowing me to have
increasingly longer periods of time in between ruminating thoughts. This respite from self-
inflicted torment, and the liberating of my brain to flourish in more constructive thoughts, was
the best reward I could have received.
The remaining observation weeks continued to show a sharp decline in ruminative
thinking with as few as three per day in the final week. The Oxford study concludes that,
“rumination occurs to some extent as a common human experience, but becomes particularly
dysfunctional when it is excessive and uncontrollable. The idea is that greater skill in mindful
awareness, either naturally occurring or cultivated in meditation practices, does not mean that
people do not ruminate, but that they are better at noticing it when it occurs, so that they
subsequently can disengage from it” (Raes, Williams 2010).
Outcome
What the Oxford study discovered corresponds to my own personal
...xposed to extremely stressful situations that may have the potential to cause psychological harm. Many of the participants were visibly distressed” (McLeod 7). These stressful situations produced many signs of tension such as stuttering, sweating, trembling and biting lips. Three of the participants had severe seizures that forced the experiment to stop.
In the study Debiasing the Mind Through Meditation: Mindfulness and the Sunk-Cost Bias, the researchers investigate how mindfulness meditation affects our sunk cost biases, which means tendency of people to continue investing money, time, or effort in something only because they invested a lot of money, time, or effort already (Hafenbrack, 2013). By definition sunk cost situation is an event that happened in the past, so when we do not come back to the past in our thoughts, under the law of equilibrium our thoughts are more focused on the present time which positively affects our attention and decision making. Recent studies too showed that thinking about future events (that might not even happen) can negatively affect people`s attention in the present time because they "are influenced by emotions they expect to experience in the future" (Hafenbrack, 2013)....
"Facts & Statistics | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA." Facts & Statistics | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Feb. 2014. .
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th Ed, text revised. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000. Print.
...ions. There were a lot of surveys to complete within the two-week time period of the study. The surveys should be spread out a little more and be over a month’s time so they do not cause stress.
The Encyclopedia of Health: Compulsive Behavior, Chelsea House Publishers Tallis, F. (1995) Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: A Cognitive and Neuropsychological Perspective, John Wiley and Sons Llt. “Choices” November/December 2004, Scholastic publications http://www.ocfoundation.org
This type of mindfulness meditation is known as shamatha in Buddhism. It basically forces you to focus on the present because you have to continue to follow the inhale and exhale of your breath. You can be mindful of the way you eat, taking a shower, driving to work or enjoying quiet time with your spouse. Every moment in every day is an opportunity to practice mindfulness. In Buddhism, the Buddha realized that focusing on just his breath allowed him to accurately perceive reality and attain enlightenment.
There are different ways in which one can experience stress and it is important to remember that stress is an essential part of life. Not all stressful situations are negative. Receiving a promotion at work, the birth of a child or taking a trip can all be stressful but are not threatening. The reason why one may see these situations as stressful is because they may feel unprepared to deal with them. To eliminate confusion and misuse of words Hans Selye gave names to the different types of stress one may experience, he described damaging or unpleasant experiences as distress and pleasurable or satisfying experiences are called eustress (Rice, 2012).
Levenkron, S. (1991). Treating & Understanding Crippling Habits. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. New York, NY: Warner Books.
An example could be that the elders have experienced multiple changes and need assistance on how to manage change. We discuss how mindfulness activities assist the elderly population. Demographics The population will be between 65 years and older, both male and female participants. The demographic population
Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, as a therapeutic technique. The M square, as I call it, which stands for Mindfulness and Meditation is making an impact on today’s society, as it has been used by more people with each passing day. They are starting to acknowledge the benefits, some of which are the improvement in both mental and physical health, acceptance of one’s self, lower stress and depression, and maybe more, but to mention a few. Not excluding these two great men: Dr. Martinez, a Biocognitive Psychologist, and Keith Mitchell, an ex-American football linebacker in the National Football League. Both Dr. Martinez and Keith are strong supporters and practitioners of meditation and mindfulness.
The proposal study will identify the mindfulness of each participant as they go through the training program to analyze their own actions/reactions and behaviors within their selves. To develop an effectiveness meditation program, the study will help maintain the healthy, functional development of a healthy individuals within the sixteen universities. The appropriate study will become beneficial and reliable to evaluate and acknowledge the self-aware and the environment of individuals within the six-month study.
" Psych Central. Psych Central, 19 Jan 2012. Web. The Web.
It became difficult to sleep at night. My restless mind made nights long, and days empty. The itinerary of my daily routine consisted of “I don’t care”s and “ok, it’s fine”s. Less of my classes were about Biology; and more of my classes were chosen based on whatever wasn’t filled up. Depression.