active mindfulness 2015 06
TRANSCRIPT
Active Mindfulness and Wellbeing
Stewart Forsyth and Holly DixonFX Consultants June 2015
Prepared for the 2015 NZ Association for Positive Psychology Conference
Covering
• Why exercise + mindfulness?
• How does active mindfulness work?
• What impacts might be expected?
Exercise, like mindfulness, can be hard to get into and maintain
What helps?
• Social
• Goal-setting and contracting
• Personality – especially “conscientiousness”
Exercise, like mindfulness is likely
good for us• Even 15 min a day of walking improves longevity ( Wen et al, 2011)
• (Some proportion of) vigorous exercise best…(Gebel, 2015)
• More mindfulness practice appears to have more impact (Carmody and Baer, 2007), even short forms of mindfulness produce positive effects (Hutcherson, 2008)
• Practice of mindfulness enhances wellness – “d-effect” of .50 – Grossman et al. meta-analysis, (2004)
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/improve-your-life-7-reasons-and-5-ways-to-be-mindful/
Both Exercise and Mindfulness help us deal with stress
• Mindful individuals:– are less likely to appraise daily events as stressful (
Weinstein, N., Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M, 2009)
– have less heart rate reactivity in response to stress (Bullis et al., 2014)
• Mindfulness alters how we respond to daily experiences of stress (i.e. pain, interpersonal stress) (Garland et al., 2012; Davis et al., 2014; Barnes et al., 2007)
• Exercise has anxiolytic and antidepressant effects (for a review see: Salmon, (2001)
• Exercise reduces the stress response to psychosocial stressors (for a review see: Crews & Landers (1987))
What is “Active Mindfulness”?
• “Active” – warm up, alternating high(er) intensity and mild activity, stretching
• “Mindfulness” – focus on the breath – from at rest, extending to breathing between sets, and during walking; visualisation and loving kindness exercises
• Collecting measures – for motivation and evaluation
Measuring impacts? Before and after
Measured by:
“Active”:
• Heart rate – resting and maximum; a fitness indicator (eg, VO2)
“Mindfulness”:
• Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (before and after the programme)
• “momentary experience” (happiness) assessments (before and after sessions)
Where now?
• Open to further trials with organisations, community groups
• Stewart – [email protected]
• Holly - [email protected]
• The slides – and links to references are available:
https://www.facebook.com/ActiveMindfulness