Mindfulness

La Mindfulness è una capacità  della mente che consente di  vivere l’esperienza del momento presente con un atteggiamento attento, curioso e aperto; è un modo particolare di essere presenti a tutto ciò che stiamo vivendo.

È una qualità della mente, una capacità che deve essere allenata!

Da oltre 30 anni studi scientifici (anche grazie alla RMF- Risonanza Magnetica Funzionale) hanno dimostrato che la Mindfulness aumenta il benessere psico-fisico, agendo su:

• Riduzione dello stress
• Maggiore concentrazione-attenzione
• Maggiore memoria
• Miglioramento delle performance e della creatività
• Correlazione nagativa con Whorkaholism e Burnout
• Miglioramento della gestione delle emozioni
• Controllo dell’ansia
• Riduzione della depressione

Con la Mindfulness si rafforzano le funzioni esecutive, che sono alla base della pianificazione, creazione di strategie, problem solving, creatività nella ricerca di soluzioni, autoregolazione emotiva, attenzione focalizzata (selezione degli stimoli).

Più in generale la Mindfulness ci permette di riscoprire un nuovo modo di vivere, più consapevole e gioioso, avere migliori performance lavorative, con relazioni più soddisfacenti e un contatto più profondo e genuino con le persone che amiamo; migliorano le relazioni umane in quanto si assume un atteggiamento più accogliente verso se stessi e verso gli altri.

Di seguito si riportano alcuni dei numerosi studi sull’efficacia della Mindfulness nel miglioramento della salute psicofisica dell’individuo.

• Barnhofer, T., Duggan, D. S., & Griffith, J.W. (2011). Dispositional mindfulness moderates the relation between neuroticism and depressive symptoms. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 958–962.
• Birnie K., Speca M., and Carlson L. E. (2010). Exploring self-compassion and empathy in the context of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Stress Health 26, 359–371.
• Branstrom, R., Duncan, L. G., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2011). The association between dispositional mindfulness, psychological well-being, and perceived health in a Swedish population-based sample. British Journal of Health Psychology, 16, 300–316.
• Brown, K., & Ryan, R. (2003). The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological wellbeing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848.
• Campanella F., Crescentini C., Urgesi C., Fabbro F. (2014), Mindfulness –oriented meditation improves self-related character scales in helthy individuals. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 55, 1269-1278.
• Capurso V., Fabbro F., Crescentini C. (2014), Mindful creativity: the influence of mindfulness meditation on creative thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 1020.
• Chambers R., Gullone E., Allen N.B. (2009), Mindful emotion regulation: an integrative review. Clinical Psychology Review, 29, 560-572.
• Chambers, R., Lo, B. C. Y., & Allen, N. B. (2008). The impact of intensive mindfulness training on attentional control, cognitive style, and affect. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 303–322.
• Colzato I. S., Ozturk A. and Hommel B. (2012), Meditate to create: the impact of focused attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Front. Psychol. 3:116
• Condon P., Desbordes G., Miller W. and DeSteno D. (2013), Meditation Increases Compassionate Responses to Suffering, Psycological Science.
• Davidson R. J., Kabat-Zinn J., Shumacher J., Rosenkanz M., Muller D., Santorelli S. F., et al. (2003), Alteration in brain and immune function produced by mindful meditation, Psychosom. Med. 65, 564-570.
• Fjorback L. O., Arendt M., Ornbol E., Flink P. and Walach H. (2011), Mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy; a systematic review of randomized and controlled trials. Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 124, 102-119.
• Franco Justo, C., de la Fuente Arias, M., and Salvador Granados, M. (2011a). Impacto de un programa de entrenamiento en conciencia plena (mindfulness) en las medidas del crecimiento y la autorrealización personal, Psicothema 23, 58–65. Available online at: http://www.psicothema.com/psicothema.asp?id=3850
• Fredrickson, B.L., Cohn, M.A., Coffey, K.A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S.M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045-1062.
• Giluk, T. L. (2009). Mindfulness, big five personality, and affect: a meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 805–811.
• Greenberg, J., Reiner, K., and Meiran, N. (2012). “Mind the trap”: mindfulness practice reduces cognitive rigidity. PLoS ONE 7:e36206. doi: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0036206
• Grossman P., Ninemann L., Schmidt S. and Walch, H. (2004), Mindfulness based stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis, J. Psychosom. Res 57, 35-43.
• Grossman, P. (2008), On measuring mindfulness in psychosomatic and psychological research, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 64(4), 405-408. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2008.02.001
• Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York: Guilford.
• Harris A. R., Jennings P. A., Katz D. A., Abenavoli R. M., & Greenberg M. T. (2016), Promoting stress management and wellbeing in educators: outcomes of the CALM intervention, Mindfulness. doi:10.1007/s12671-015-0451-2.
• Holzel B.K., Carmody J., Vangel M., Congleton C., Yerramsetti S. M., Gard T. and Lazar S. W. (2011), Mindfulnes practice leads to encreasesin regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research, 191, 36-43.
• Holzel B.K., Lazar S. W., Gard T., Schuman-Oliver Z., Vago D. R., Ott U. (2011), How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 537-559.
• Hulsheger, U. R., Alberts, H. J. E. M., Feinholdt, A., & Lang, J. W. B. (2013). Benefits of mindfulness at work: the role of mindfulness in emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 98, 310–325.
• Jha, A. P., Krompinger, J., and Baime, M. J. (2007). Mindfulness training modifies subsystems of attention. Cogn. Affect. Behav. Neurosci. 7, 109–119. doi: 10.3758/CABN.7.2.109
• Jislin-Goldberg, T., Tanay, G., & Bernstein, A. (2012). Mindfulness and positive affect: cross-sectional, prospective intervention, and real-time relations. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, 349–361.Baer R. (2014). Mindfulness-based treatment approaches: Clinician’s guide to evidence base and applications (2nd ed.). NY: Academic.
• Kabat-Zinn J. (1982), An outpatient program in behavioral medicine for chronic pain patients based on the practice of mindfulness meditation: Theoretical consideration and preliminary results. General Hospital Psychiatry, 4, 33-47.
• Kabat-Zinn J. (1990), Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness. New York City: Delacourte.
• Kabat-Zinn J. (2003), Mindful-based intervention in the context: past, present and future, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 5, 305-331, 10, 144-156.
• Key, B. L., Rowa, K., Bieling, P., McCabe, R., & Pawluk, E. J. (2017). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy as an augmentation treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 24, 1109–1120.
• Kiken, L. G., Garland, E. L., Bluth, K., Palsson, O. S., & Gaylord, S. A. (2015). From a state to a trait: trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness. Personality and Individual Differences, 81, 41–46.
• Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–855.
• Lecomte T., Fortin G., Masse M., Therien P., Bouchard V. &Hofman S. G. (2013), Mindful-based therapy: a comprehensive  meta-analysis, Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 763-771.
• Leiberg, S., Klimecki, O., & Singer, T. (2011). Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game. PLoS One, 6, e17798.
• Lutz A., Slagter H. A., Dunne J. D., Davidson R. J. (2008), Attention regulation and monitoring in meditation, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 12, 163-169.
• Malinowski P. (2013), Neural mechanism of attentional control in mindfulness meditation. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 7, doi: 10.3389/fnins.2013.00008.
• Mesmer-Magnus, J., Manapragada, A., Viswesvaran, C., & Allen, J. W. (2017). Trait mindfulness at work: a meta-analysis of the personal and professional correlates of trait mindfulness. Human Performance, 30, 79–98.
• Mind and Life Education Research Network (MLERN) (2012), Contemplative practices and mental training: prospects for american education. Child Dev .Perspect. 6, 146–153. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00240.x
• Moore A, Malinowski P. (2009), Meditation, mindfulness and cognitive flexibility. Consciousness and cognition, 18, 176-186.
• Ostafin, B. D. and Kassman, K. T. (2012). Stepping out of history: mindfulness improves insight problem solving. Conscious. Cogn. 21, 1031–1036.
• Piet J. and Hougaard E. (2011), The effect of mindfulness based cognitive therapy for prevention of relapse in recurrent major depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Clin. Psychol. Rev. 31, 1032-1040.
• Piet J., Wurtzen H. and Zachariae R. (2012), Tehe effect of mindfulness-based therapy on symptoms of anxiety and depression in adult cancer patients and survivors: a systematic review and meta-analysis, J. Consult. Clin. Psychol., 80, 1007-1020.
• Rau, H. K., & Williams, P. G. (2016). Dispositional mindfulness: a critical review of construct validation research. Personality and Individual Differences, 93, 32–43.
• Ren, J., Huang, Z., Luo, J., Wei, G., Ying, X., Ding, Z., et al. (2011). Meditation promotes insightful problem-solving by keeping people in a mindful and alert conscious state. Sci. China Life Sci. 54, 961–965. doi: 10.1007/s11427-011-4233-3
• Reynolds, C. R., & Kamphaus, R. W. (2004). Behavior Assessment System for Children – Second Edition manual. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service Publishing.Ren, J., Huang, Z., Luo, J., Wei, G., Ying, X., Ding, Z., et al. (2011). Meditation promotes insightful problem-solving by keeping people in a mindful and alert conscious state. Sci. China Life Sci. 54, 961–965.
• Sauer, S., Lemke, J., Wittmann, M., Kohls, N., Mochty, U., and Walach, H. (2012). How long is now for mindfulness meditators? Pers. Individ. Differ. 52, 750–754. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2011.12.026
• Schonert-Reichl, K. & Lawlor M. S. (2010), The effects of a mindfulness-based education program on pre- and early adolescents’ well-being and social and emotional competence. Mindfulness, 1, 137-151. doi: 10.1007/ s12671-010-0011-8.
• Septhon S. E., Salomon P., Weissbecker I., Ulmer C., Floyd A., Hoover K. and  Studts J. L. (2007), Mindfulness meditation alleviates depressive symptoms in women with fibromyalgia: Results of a randomized clinical trial, https://doi.org/10.1002/art.22478
• Shonin, E., Van Gordon,W., Dunn, T. J., Singh, N. N., & Griffiths, M. D. (2014). Meditation awareness training (MAT) for work-related wellbeing and job performance: a randomized controlled trial. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 12, 806–823.
• Sidhu, P. (2013). The Efficacy of Mindfulness Meditation in Increasing the Attention Span in Children with ADHD (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
• Siegel D. J. (2007), The Mindful Brain, Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being, New York: WW Norton & Company.
• Tang Y.-Y., Ma Y., Wang J., Fan Y., Feng, S., Lu Q., et al. (2007). Short-term meditation training improves attention andself-regulation. Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci. U.S.A. 104, 17152–17156. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0707678104
• Taylor C., Harrison J., Haimovitz K., Oberle E., Thompson, K., Schonert-Reichl K. & Roeser R. W. (2016). Examining potential mechanisms of stress reduction in a mindfulness-based intervention for school teachers: results from a randomized-control trial. Mindfulness. doi:10.1007/s12671-015-0425-4.
• Tomlinson, E., Yousaf, O., Vitterso, A., & Jones, L. (2017). Dispositional mindfulness and psychological health: a systematic review. Mindfulness, 9, 23–43.
• Van Gordon,W., Shonin, E., Dunn, T. J., Garcia-Campayo, J., Demarzo, M. M. P., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). Meditation awareness training for the treatment of workaholism: a controlled trial. Journal of BehavioralAddictions, 6, 212–220.
• Wallace B. A., (2006), The attention revolution: Unloking the power of the focused mind. Boston: Wisdom.
• Wang, G., Liu, L., Tan, X., & Zheng, W. (2017). The moderating effect of dispositional mindfulness on the relationship between materialism and mental health. Personality and Individual Differences, 107, 131–136.
• Watson, D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1989). Health complaints, stress, and distress: exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review, 96, 234–254.
• Witehead A., (2011), Mindfulness in early childhood education: A position paper, Early education, 49, 21.
• Zeidan F., Johnson S. K., Diamond B.J., David Z., Goolkasian P. (2010), Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: evidence of brief mental training. Consciousness and Cognition, 19, 597-605.
• Zoogman S., Goldberg S. B. Hoyt W. T. & Miller L. (2014), Mindfulness interventions with youth: a meta-analysis. Mindfulness 6, 290-302.

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Mindfulness meditation alleviates depressive symptoms in women with fibromyalgia: Results of a randomized clinical trial