Do you find yourself constantly stressed out due to the demands of school, work, and life? New research has emerged from investigators at West Virginia University which suggests that mindfulness training can actually relieve stress. Mindfulness, which is an age-old concept that dates back to early Buddhist teachings, refers to deliberately giving your full attention to everything that you are involved in from one moment to the next. In this experiment, half of the participants were assigned to an experimental group that received training over the course of an 8-week period on a variety of techniques designed to improve mindfulness, including breathing exercises, yoga, and meditation, whereas the other half of the participants were provided with written instructions on how to handle stress in life and at work. After the conclusion of the study, all participants were subsequently followed for 3 months to record their response to everyday stressful situations in light of either the written instructions about stress reduction or mindfulness training they had received from participation in the study. Findings from this 3 month follow-up showed that participants who had received the mindfulness training experienced significantly less psychological distress, daily hassles, and medical problems, such as fewer bodily pains and lower blood pressure, than their counterparts in the study who had not been provided with this training. Several other universities, including UCLA and Yale, have also tested the effects of mindfulness training on stress and found similar results suggesting mindfulness techniques are an excellent way to bust stress and reduce everyday anxiety. Indeed, these findings go a long way in demonstrating the power of mind over matter.
