Mindfulness, Meditation & Health
Stan, Clarence, Barry, and the Health Chatter team chat with Dr. David Alter, psychologist, author, teacher, and explorer, about mindfulness, meditation and health.
Dr. Alter has more than 35 years of experience as a clinician, educator, trainer, and researcher. His career spans clinical practice, international teaching, and authorship of books and peer-reviewed articles. Beyond psychology, he is also an adventurer and photographer, using his lens to explore humanity’s shared heritage and our deep connections to nature. At the heart of his work is a passion for understanding relationships—within our biological systems, between brain, mind, body, and environment, and how these connections influence health and healing. He is also the co-host of the podcast Trance-forming Relationships.
Join us for an enlightening discussion about the role of mindfulness meditation in promoting health, and stay tuned to gain fresh perspectives on the healing power of connection.
Join the conversation at healthchatterpodcast.com
Brought to you in support of Hue-MAN, who is Creating Healthy Communities through Innovative Partnerships.
More about their work can be found at https://www.huemanpartnershipalliance.org/
Research
What are meditation and mindfulness?
- “Meditation” refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance overall well-being.
- Meditation has a history that goes back thousands of years, and many meditative techniques began in Eastern traditions.
- Meditate means to reflect, consider, and take appropriate action, which is the antithesis of impulsive, reactive, or reflexive responding
- Mindfulness is less a technique than an applied philosophy
- Types of meditation vary. Mindfulness meditation is a particular form of meditation, one among dozens that arose out of every faith tradition across the globe dating to thousands of years ago. Other types of meditation, which can and are commonly practiced together:
- Transcendental Zen - Maintaining mental focus on a particular sensation, such as breathing, a sound, a visual image, or a mantra, which is a repeated word or phrase.
- Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR ) - involving maintaining attention or awareness on the present moment without making judgments.
- Compassion (metta or loving-kindness)
- Insight (Vipassana )
- Moving meditation forms include qigong, Tai Chi and yoga.
- MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) is the combination of Cognitive Behavioral Theory and Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)
- Meditation and mindfulness practices are usually considered to have few risks.
- The percentage of U.S. adults who practiced meditation more than doubled between 2002 and 2022, from 7.5 to 17.3 percent (National Health Interview Survey)
- Commonly reported reasons for practicing mindfulness and meditation:
- General wellness
- Disease prevention
- Stress reduction/management
- Improved sleep
Research Backed Benefits of Meditation:
While more research is needed in this area, the current research shows overwhelming benefits with little to no risks. Benefits include but are not limited to:
- Boosting the immune system and increasing the healing response
- Recent studies have offered promising results about the impact of meditation in reducing blood pressure.
- Regulating emotions to counteract depression, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Improves sleep
- Increasing attention and concentration
- Decreasing pain or changing the perception of pain
- Improving levels of happiness or satisfaction with daily life
- Activating the body’s relaxation response (the opposite of the fight-or-flight response)
- meditators’ brains had a thicker prefrontal cortex (PFC), which begins to shrink with age. The PFC is responsible for high-level skills such as:
- Decision making
- Impulse control
- Planning and organization
- Emotional and behavioral control
How does meditation/mindfulness improve health? How does this even work?
- Mindfulness helps the body by reducing stress—and that can have powerful ripple effects.
- Chronic stress weakens the immune system and worsens many health conditions.
- Mindfulness lowers the body's stress response, which may lead to improvements in overall health.
- Psychological research shows mindfulness affects two major stress pathways in the brain.
- It can change brain structure and activity, especially in areas tied to attention and emotion regulation.
- Studies on MBCT (Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy) show people are less likely to respond with negative thoughts or emotions under stress.
- MBCT and MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) also help people stay focused on the present and reduce worry and rumination.
How to meditate/improve mindfulness
You can meditate wherever you are, though a quiet place is best. To start:
- Close your eyes (you can meditate with your eyes open if it’s more comfortable)
- Notice any areas of your body that may feel tense, then try to soften them
- Turn your attention to your breathing, notice your chest expanding and contracting with each natural breath
- Continue to breathe in and out through your nose, focusing on your breath or the sounds around you
- As your attention wanders, gently bring it back to the present
You can spend just one to two minutes to start, then work your way to additional time. Even 20 minutes a day can make a big difference in your life.
There are many styles of meditation and mindfulness can easily be paired with other activities like Yoga.
Meditation/mindfulness programs
- The UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) offers a free app, UCLA Mindful, with basic meditations to get you started, available in English and Spanish.
- The app also allows you to contribute to research regarding mindfulness and meditation by reporting how you feel and any symptoms pre and post meditation sessions
- Other apps may require payment but are commonly used
- Headspace
- Calm
- Websites like the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course is 100% free, created by a fully certified MBSR instructor, and is based on the program founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. https://palousemindfulness.com/MBSR/week0.html
- Local in-person courses and classes
Other Talking Point from Dr. Alter
- Mindfulness and meditation are not a religion, cult, escape from responsibility, pointless or empty, involve more than simply counting our breaths while contemplating our navels
- Mindfulness and meditation generally seek to liberate us from the suffering associated with the timeless struggles humans beings experience during their brief time on earth
- Mindfulness and meditation are useful in the face of all manner of illness-related pain, suffering, fear, and loss
- Mindfulness and meditation are useful in giving us access to joy, peace, and calm in the presence of pain, suffering, fear, and loss
- Biologically, mindful states activate bodily systems that reduce acute and chronic stress, promote active healing and healthier intrapersonal and interpersonal connections
Sources
https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/mindfulness-meditation-health-benefits-and-how-to-start
