Mind-body therapy use and magical thinking.

RATIONALE: Mind-body therapy use is an increasing social and clinical trend. Practitioners of mind-body therapies still disseminate traditional mechanistic explanations such as purification of mental or vital forces. These explanations sound similar to magical thinking, especially thought-action fusion. OBJECTIVE: The present research examined whether mind-body therapy users exhibit two related forms of magical thinking, including thought-action fusion. METHOD: Two online, cross-sectional studies with U.S. participants (Study 1 N = 645; Study 2 N = 566) assessed thought-action fusion and magical causal belief, along with mind-body therapy use and potential covariates. RESULTS: The results from Study 1 revealed that thought-action fusion was uniquely associated with mind-body therapy use. This finding was replicated in Study 2, in which thought-action fusion was uniquely associated with past-year mind-body therapy use for psychological reasons and for pain/nausea. Additionally in Study 2, magical causal belief was uniquely associated with past-year use for pain/nausea and for physical disease. CONCLUSIONS: Magical thinking, particularly thought-action fusion, may be associated with mind-body therapy use. Because thought-action fusion is associated with mental health vulnerabilities and magical thinking may play a role in health decision-making, these preliminary findings warrant attention.

Mindfulness meditation and physical activity: Evidence from 2012 National Health Interview Survey.

OBJECTIVE: Physical activity is critical for health, yet only about half of the U.S. adult population meets basic aerobic physical activity recommendations and almost a third are inactive. Mindfulness meditation is gaining attention for its potential to facilitate health-promoting behavior and may address some limitations of existing interventions for physical activity. However, little evidence exists on mindfulness meditation and physical activity. This study assessed whether mindfulness meditation is uniquely associated with physical activity in a nationally representative sample. METHOD: Cross-sectional data from the adult sample (N = 34,525) of the 2012 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed. Logistic regression models tested whether past-year use of mindfulness meditation was associated with (a) inactivity and (b) meeting aerobic physical activity recommendations, after accounting for sociodemographics, another health-promoting behavior, and 2 other types of meditation. Data were weighted to represent the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized adult population. RESULTS: Accounting for covariates, U.S. adults who practiced mindfulness meditation in the past year were less likely to be inactive and more likely to meet physical activity recommendations. Mindfulness meditation showed stronger associations with these indices of physical activity than the 2 other types of meditation. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that mindfulness meditation specifically, beyond meditation in general, is associated with physical activity in U.S adults. Future research should test whether intervening with mindfulness meditation-either as an adjunctive component or on its own-helps to increase or maintain physical activity. (PsycINFO Database Record

Association between mindfulness and interoceptive accuracy in patients with diabetes: Preliminary evidence from blood glucose estimates.

OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness-based interventions, which increase dispositional mindfulness, may be useful adjunctive therapies for patients with chronic diseases, including diabetes. One way that mindfulness may benefit patients with diabetes is by fostering more accurate interoception, particularly in the form of blood glucose estimate accuracy. Many people with diabetes regulate their behavior based on estimates of their blood glucose levels from interoception, but they vary in estimate accuracy. Therefore, our objective was to conduct a preliminary test of the hypothesis that, in a sample of patients with diabetes, more mindful individuals would demonstrate greater blood glucose estimate accuracy. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, patients (N=28) with type 2 diabetes estimated their blood glucose levels immediately before their actual levels were assessed. Participants also completed two measures of mindfulness: one assessing general dispositional mindfulness and another assessing mindfulness specifically in the face of difficulty. RESULTS: Although general dispositional mindfulness was unrelated to blood glucose estimate accuracy, individuals who reported more mindfulness during difficulties were approximately four times more likely to meet established accuracy criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Mindfulness specifically during difficulties might play a role in disease-relevant interoception for patients with diabetes. Future research should aim to replicate this finding in larger and different samples, and to examine the potential role of mindfulness during difficulties in mindfulness-based interventions for patients with diabetes.

Being present and enjoying it: Dispositional mindfulness and savoring the moment are distinct, interactive predictors of positive emotions and psychological health.

Mindfulness and savoring the moment both involve presently occurring experiences. However, these scientific constructs are distinct and may play complementary roles when predicting day-to-day positive emotions. Therefore, we examined the unique and interactive roles of dispositional mindfulness and perceived ability to savor the moment for predicting daily positive emotions as well as related psychological health benefits. Participants completed a nine-week longitudinal field study. At baseline, dispositional mindfulness and perceived ability to savor the moment were assessed, along with three indicators of psychological health: depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and life satisfaction. Each day for the subsequent nine weeks, participants reported on their emotions. At the end of the study, participants again completed the three psychological health measures. Results showed that baseline dispositional mindfulness and perceived ability to savor the moment interacted to predict mean positive emotion levels over the reporting period and, in turn, residualized changes in psychological health. Specifically, the relation between perceived ability to savor the moment and positive emotions and, in turn, residualized change in psychological health indicators, was amplified at greater levels of mindfulness and fell to non-significance at lower levels of mindfulness. Dispositional mindfulness only predicted positive emotions and, in turn, residualized changes in psychological health, for those very high in perceived ability to savor the moment. This research provides preliminary evidence that dispositional mindfulness and perceived ability to savor the moment, though related constructs, may serve unique and synergistic roles in predicting benefits for and through positive emotions.

Enjoying food without caloric cost: The impact of brief mindfulness on laboratory eating outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness-based interventions have been increasingly applied to treat eating-related problems ranging from obesity to eating disorders. Yet few studies have empirically examined the mechanisms of a mindful approach to eating. The current studies examine the potential of brief mindfulness instructions to enhance the psychological and behavioral dimensions of eating. METHODS: In three experiments (total N = 319 undergraduates), we examined whether brief mindfulness instructions would enhance the positive sensory experience involved in tasting food as well as healthy eating behaviors. RESULTS: Relative to distraction control instructions, the first two studies demonstrated that brief mindfulness instructions increased the enjoyment of a commonly pleasurable food (chocolate; Study 1), and a food with generally more mixed associations (raisins; Study 2). The third study replicated and extended these findings to show that brief mindfulness instructions also led to lower calorie consumption of unhealthy food relative to distracted or no-instruction control conditions, an effect mediated by greater eating enjoyment. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrated the power of brief mindfulness instructions to positively impact both health-relevant behavior and sensory experience associated with eating food. Implications for both theory and clinical applications of mindfulness are discussed.

From a state to a trait: Trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness.

Theory suggests that heightening state mindfulness in meditation practice over time increases trait mindfulness, which benefits psychological health. We prospectively examined individual trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during a mindfulness-based intervention in relation to changes in trait mindfulness and psychological distress. Each week during the eight-week intervention, participants reported their state mindfulness in meditation after a brief mindfulness meditation. Participants also completed pre- and post-intervention measures of trait mindfulness and psychological symptoms. Tests of combined latent growth and path models suggested that individuals varied significantly in their rates of change in state mindfulness in meditation during the intervention, and that these individual trajectories predicted pre-post intervention changes in trait mindfulness and distress. These findings support that increasing state mindfulness over repeated meditation sessions may contribute to a more mindful and less distressed disposition. However, individuals' trajectories of change may vary and warrant further investigation.

Does mindfulness attenuate thoughts emphasizing negativity, but not positivity?

The current research investigated whether mindfulness is differentially associated with thoughts that emphasize positive or negative valence. In Study 1, trait mindfulness was inversely associated with negative rumination but unassociated with positive rumination, controlling for state affect. In Study 2, participants completed either a mindful breathing meditation or a comparable control exercise, followed by a thought listing while viewing affective images. Compared to the control condition, the mindfulness condition listed proportionately fewer negative thoughts, particularly in response to negative images, and more non-valenced thoughts. The conditions did not differ in their proportions of positive thoughts. These results suggest that mindfulness may attenuate thoughts that emphasize negativity but not those that emphasize positivity.