Benefits of Meditation, Mindful Breathing and taking your attention inside

For some people, they will desire to have some research and empirical evidence around new practices and what benefits they have been shown to have.  If this is you please read on. If not, please scroll down to the bottom if you want to go straight to the resources.

If you are into science read on! While this does not claim to be an exhaustive literature review and critique, we do offer the findings of some key studies (mainly meta-analyses) to demonstrate that the techniques which we recommend, have a scientific base.

Meditation, mindful breathing and other related techniques and practices, have been used across a large number of areas.  The focus here will be on the use of them in stress and anxiety, in relation to the 2020 situation and the other resources we are offering here for your use.

Pascoe, Thompson, Jenkins and Ski (2017) looked at the impact on the physiology of stress and found that a positive effect was shown on reducing blood pressure, reducing cortisol, reducing heart rate, and showed an impact on triglycerides and tumour necrosis factor-alpha. If we highlight just one study, on 3,500 participants (Goyal, Singh, Sibinga, Gould, Rowland-Seymour, Sharma, Berger, Sleicher, Maron, Shihab, Ranasinghe, Linn, Saha, Bass and Haythornthwaite,2014) we can begin to see the potential for stress reduction in this field. The wider implications of stress on the impact on inflammation and cytokines has also been studied by Rosenkranz, Davidson, MacCoon, Sheridan, Kalin and Lutz (2013) and shown that the inflammatory response can be reduced.

Other studies have also showed a positive impact in patients with anxiety, phobias, paranoia and obsessive-compulsive behaviours (Carmody and Baer, 2008; Miller, Fletcher, Kabat-Zinn, 2016; Chen, Berger, Manheimer, Forde, Magidson, Dachman, Lejuex, 2012).

Other studies have shown a positive impact on symptoms of depression (Goyal et al 2014;  Kasala, Bodduluru, Maneti and Thipparaboina, 2014; Jain, Walsh, Eisendrath, Christensen and Cahn,2015; ).

Hilton, Maher, Colaiaco, Apaydin, Sorbero, Booth,Shanman and Hempel (2017) and Lang, Strauss, Bomyea, Bormann, Hickman, Good and Essex (2012) looked at post traumatic stress and concluded that “Meditation appears to be effective for PTSD and depression symptoms”.

Other authors have looked at stress related conditions and found improvement following meditation. For example: fibromyalgia (Kozasa, Tanaka, Monson, little, Leao and Peres (2012) and in cancer and palliative care (Ball and Vernon, 2015; Speca, Carlson, Goodey, and Angen, 2000; Ülger and Yağlı, 2009).

A recent study explored the impact of meditation on sleep quality and found it can be beneficial (Rusch, Rosario, Levison, Olivera, Livingston, Wu and Gill, 2019).

Luberto, Shinday,Song, Philpotts, Park, Fricchione and Yeh (2018) looked at wider impacts and found evidence to support the ability to increase empathy, compassion and pro-social emotions and behaviours.  Galante, Galante, Bekkers and Gallacher (2014) demonstrated that loving kindness meditation improves a persons sense of compassion to themselves and to others. And, this appears to increase over time Frederickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, Finkel (2008).

In relation to breathing, it seems odd to have to teach adults how to breath yet it is claimed that, in part due to the way we sit and the number of hours we are seated, that we are not reaching a good lung capacity when we breathe (Lin, Parthasarathy, Taylor, Pucci, Hendrix and Makhsous (2005).  The use of cell phones has also been implicated in poor posture related to breathing (https://www.thebreatheffect.com/posture-breathing-physiological-effects/). It has been reported that “most people are doing it wrong most of the time,” says Amy Crawford-Faucher, MD, a family medicine specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (https://www.prevention.com/fitness/a20476969/4-breathing-mistakes/). The ideal breathing rate is around 12-14 breaths per minute and ideally, the breath extends into the bottom of the lungs, where there is a greater proportion of parasympathetic nerve fibres. The primary breathing is nasal.

The diaphragm (the main muscle used in healthy breathing) contracts and moves down with each inspiration – generally increasing the lung capacity. Intercostal muscles, between your ribs, assist, helping to raise the ribs upwards on an in breathe and they allow ribs to lower on an out breath. Muscles in the neck and shoulders also assist the process.

“Shallow breathing doesn’t just make stress a response, it makes stress a habit our bodies, and therefore, our minds, are locked into,” says John Luckovich, an apprentice Integrative Breathwork facilitator in Brooklyn, New York (https://www.headspace.com/blog/2017/08/15/shallow-breathing-whole-body/)

Andre (2019) writes how the first thing we do in life is take a breath in and the last thing we do is exhale a breath out. He talks about how breath is often described as being vital for well being, linked to our life’s energy. Whether we call it qi, prana, pneuma, rûah or breath, there is something deeper than just the movement of air being alluded to, interestingly he says that “In Latin languages, spiritus is at the root of both “spirit” and “respiration.””

It has been shown that slow (and paced at 6 breaths per minute) breathing can promote changes in Heart Rate Variability and impacts on some brain structures (Zaccaro, Piarulli, Laurno, Garbella, Menicucci, Neri and Gemignani (2018). Reportedly creating positive changes in comfort, relaxation, pleasantness, vigor and alertness, while reducing symptoms of arousal, anxiety, depression, anger and confusion. In one study (Ma, Yue, Gong, Zhang, Duan, Shi, Wei and Li, 2017) they found that diaphragmatic breathing practice can be useful in “improving cognitive function and reducing negative affect and physiological responses to stress in healthy adults”.

The following are two recordings to help you learn the technique of balanced breathing. The first is a set of simple instructions on how to breathe in a way that will bring your beautifully into balance – you only need listen to this once. The second is a meditation that you can listen to again and again that utilises breathing as a way to bring your body into calm alertness.