Just being

Effect of Anapanasati Meditation on Thought Patterns and Subjective Well-being Among Orphan Adolescents

Background

Over 2000 years old, Anapanasati meditation is the technique of mindful breathing where Anapana is breathing and sati is mindfulness. Anapanasati meditation focuses on training the mind to be sensitive to one or more of the entire body, rupture, pleasure and the mind itself-steadying, satisfying or releasing the mind (Satipathannasutta).

Purpose

Mindfulness can be enhanced with the extensive practice of mindfulness meditation. The study was conducted to see the effect of Anapanasati meditation on orphan adolescents.

Methods

The total sample size comprised 54 orphan adolescents from the Indian city of Pune, Maharashtra. The population had an equal number of male and female participants. Anapanasati meditation was taught to the adolescents for 3 months. Content analysis was used to analyse the subjective experiences of the individuals over a period of 3 months after inter-coder reliability for the items.

Results

Appraisal of others' emotions, emotional regulation, sharing feelings with their peers and a promising future saw a maximum increase after Anapanasati meditation. This content analysis provides valuable insights into the impact of meditation on emotional experiences.

Conclusion

While stability is observed in various emotional facets, there are nuanced changes that hint at the transformative potential of meditation, particularly in enhancing self-awareness and regulating negative emotions. These findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge on meditation's psychological effects and underscore the need for further research to explore the intricacies of emotional changes during and after meditation.

Mindfulness and therapeutic relationships: A phenomenological inquiry into paediatric occupational therapists' practices

BACKGROUND

A growing body of literature points to the potential of mindfulness to support therapeutic relationships, and the importance of the therapeutic relationship when working with children and youth, yet little attention has been paid to this topic in occupational therapy.

AIMS/OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to inquire into occupational therapists' experiences of mindfulness in the therapeutic relationship with children and youth.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Hermeneutic phenomenology was the methodological approach, with Heidegger's concepts of being-with and care as theoretical underpinnings of the study. Eight North American occupational therapists participated in semi-structured interviews that elicited first-hand accounts of mindfulness in the therapeutic relationship with children and youth. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a phenomenological approach.

RESULTS

Four key themes were identified: fostering a safe space, enhancing presence, being authentic, and cultivating acceptance.

CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE

The findings offer insights regarding the potential affordances of mindfulness to support clinicians in the development of therapeutic relationships with children and youth. Further, this study highlights research priorities for future inquiry.

Radical Self-Care for Social Workers in the Global Climate Crisis

Gradual environmental degradation, more extreme climate change events, and related environmental injustices affect individuals and communities every day. Social work entities around the world are increasingly highlighting professional responsibilities for addressing the global climate crisis. Often, social workers experience vicarious trauma from work with those immediately affected. Working within the context of the global climate crisis brings further risk. Social workers may be personally affected, or experiencing their own challenges, such as climate anxiety and eco-grief. Thus, radical self-care is a dire need as social workers promote sustainable communities and environments and seek ecological justice for all. This article discusses the health and mental health impacts of the compounding factors of the climate crisis, modern technology, and current political contexts. Activism for change and ecotherapeutic strategies are presented as radical self-care for social workers, in both academic and practice-based settings. These strategies are essential for recognizing, legitimizing, and addressing the need for radical self-care practices in the global climate crisis.

Using relational mindfulness to facilitate safety in the clinical encounter

OBJECTIVE

The therapeutic relationship in psychiatry is reliant upon first establishing a sense of interpersonal safety. This paper explores relational mindfulness as a way to facilitate safety in the clinical encounter, as well as proposes factors that enhance a clinician's capacity to remain mindfully present.

CONCLUSIONS

Through the ongoing practice of mindful awareness, self-care and self-awareness all clinicians can benefit from increased capacity for relational mindfulness to enhance interpersonal safety. This is then likely to benefit not only the patient and the therapeutic relationship but also the clinician.

How do surgeons think they learn about communication? A qualitative study

CONTEXT

Communication education has become integral to pre- and post-qualification clinical curricula, but it is not informed by research into how practitioners think that good communication arises.

OBJECTIVES

This study was conducted to explore how surgeons conceptualise their communication with patients with breast cancer in order to inform the design and delivery of communication curricula.

METHODS

We carried out 19 interviews with eight breast surgeons. Each interview centred on a specific consultation with a different patient. We analysed the transcripts of the surgeons' interviews qualitatively using a constant comparative approach.

RESULTS

All of the surgeons described communication as central to their role. Communication could be learned to some extent, not from formal training, but by selectively incorporating practices they observed in other practitioners and by being mindful in consultations. Surgeons explained that their own values and character shaped how they communicated and what they wanted to achieve, and constrained what could be learned.

CONCLUSIONS

These surgeons' understanding of communication is consistent with recent suggestions that communication education: (i) should place practitioners' goals at its centre, and (ii) might be enhanced by approaches that support 'mindful' practice. By contrast, surgeons' understanding diverged markedly from the current emphasis on 'communication skills'. Research that explores practitioners' perspectives might help educators to design communication curricula that engage practitioners by seeking to enhance their own ways of learning about communication.

Teaching mindfulness in medical school: where are we now and where are we going?

OBJECTIVES

Mindfulness has the potential to prevent compassion fatigue and burnout in that the doctor who is self-aware is more likely to engage in self-care activities and to manage stress better. Moreover, well doctors are better equipped to foster wellness in their patients. Teaching mindfulness in medical school is gaining momentum; we examined the literature and related websites to determine the extent to which this work is carried out with medical students and residents.

METHODS

A literature search revealed that 14 medical schools teach mindfulness to medical and dental students and residents.

RESULTS

A wide range of formats are used in teaching mindfulness. These include simple lectures, 1-day workshops and 8-10-week programmes in mindfulness-based stress reduction. Two medical schools stand out because they have integrated mindfulness into their curricula: the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry (USA) and Monash Medical School (Australia). Studies show that students who follow these programmes experience decreased psychological distress and an improved quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Although the evidence points to the usefulness of teaching mindful practices, various issues remain to be considered. When is it best to teach mindfulness in the trajectory of a doctor's career? What format works best, when and for whom? How can what is learned be maintained over time? Should mindfulness training be integrated into the medical school core curriculum?

Doctors' attachment style and their inclination to propose somatic interventions for medically unexplained symptoms

OBJECTIVE

We tested the theory that general practitioners (GPs) offer somatic intervention to patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) as a defensive response to patients' dependence. We predicted that GPs most likely to respond somatically after patients indicated symptomatic or psychosocial needs had attachment style characterised by negative models of self and others.

METHOD

Twenty-five GPs identified 308 patients presenting MUS and indicated their own models of self and others. Consultations were audio recorded and coded speech-turn-by-speech-turn. We modeled the probability of GPs proposing somatic intervention on any turn as a function of their models of self and other and the number of prior turns containing symptomatic or psychosocial presentations.

RESULTS

Prior psychosocial presentations decreased the likelihood of GPs offering somatic intervention. The decrease was greatest in GPs with most positive models of self and, contrary to prediction, least positive models of others. The positive relationship between prior somatic presentations and the likelihood that GPs offered somatic intervention was unrelated to either model.

CONCLUSION

Findings are incompatible with our theory that GPs propose somatic interventions defensively. Instead, GPs may provide somatic intervention because they value patients (positive model of others) but devalue their own psychological skills (negative model of self).

Personal growth and its correlates during residency training

OBJECTIVES

To explore the characteristics of and factors associated with personal growth during residency training.

METHODS

In 2003, 359 house officers on 7 internal medicine residency training programmes in the USA were surveyed about their training experiences and issues related to their personal growth. Factor analysis and internal reliability testing were used to develop a 'personal growth scale'. Logistic regression models were then used to identify independent associations between individual variables and 'high' versus 'low' personal growth scores.

RESULTS

A total of 281 house officers (80%) responded. The personal growth scale had a Cronbach's alpha of 0.81. Factors that were independently associated with achieving high amounts of personal growth during residency training included: agreeing that reflection is important during residency training (odds ratio [OR] 2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-7.4); being male (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.4-4.5); being non-white (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.3-3.9); having a strong desire to develop personally and professionally (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1-4.1), and feeling highly supported by one's programme director (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.2-3.9). Independent predictors of scoring below the median on the personal growth scale included feeling emotionally isolated at work (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.7) and noting that negative or disappointing experiences had been powerful (OR 0.4, 95% CI 0.2-0.9).

CONCLUSIONS

Disparate amounts of personal growth occur among trainees during residency training. Residency programmes interested in promoting personal growth among their trainees may wish to focus on modifiable factors that are associated with personal growth, such as fostering supportive relationships and encouraging reflection.

The benefits of being present: mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being

Mindfulness is an attribute of consciousness long believed to promote well-being. This research provides a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of mindfulness in psychological well-being. The development and psychometric properties of the dispositional Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) are described. Correlational, quasi-experimental, and laboratory studies then show that the MAAS measures a unique quality of consciousness that is related to a variety of well-being constructs, that differentiates mindfulness practitioners from others, and that is associated with enhanced self-awareness. An experience-sampling study shows that both dispositional and state mindfulness predict self-regulated behavior and positive emotional states. Finally, a clinical intervention study with cancer patients demonstrates that increases in mindfulness over time relate to declines in mood disturbance and stress.