Posts tagged with 'meditation'
Recent research: two papers on mindfulness & four on sleep
8th January 2009
Here are two papers on mindfulness and four on sleep. The Kuyken et al paper is important. It compares mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with continuation antidepressants in the prevention of relapse in recurrent depression. The results are great - "Relapse/recurrence rates over 15-month follow-ups in MBCT were 47%, compared with …
New Year’s resolution – would you like to be happier?
28th December 2008
So here's a blast from the past ... that could be fun and useful for a New Year's resolution. I first came across Michael Fordyce's research year's ago (Fordyce 1977; Fordyce 1983). It was probably the first serious scientific exploration of how to help people become happier that I'd ever …
Barbara Fredrickson’s recent research study on loving-kindness meditation (third post)
21st December 2008
What are some implications for using forms of mind training for ourselves and for teaching others? Reading this research study leads me to think about optimum amount of time spent practising these methods, the importance of encouraging application during daily life. I discuss these issues in this blog posting. It …
Barbara Fredrickson’s recent research study on loving-kindness meditation (second post)
14th December 2008
I have already written an initial blog post about Barbara Fredrickson and colleagues' interesting recent research paper (Fredrickson, Cohn et al. 2008) on the effects of teaching people loving-kindness meditation. So what are some possible implications of this research for people in general, for using forms of mind training (meditation, …
Barbara Fredrickson’s recent research study on loving-kindness meditation (first post)
7th December 2008
I've just been reading the recent paper by Barbara Fredrickson and colleagues "Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources" (Fredrickson, Cohn et al. 2008). It's quite a long read - 16 closely printed A4 pages - and it's fascinating in a whole …
Four aspects of helpful inner focus: 2.) nourishing positive states (part A)
29th October 2008
Ten days ago, on this blog, I wrote about "Reducing negative states" as one aspect of a simple model entitled "Four aspects of helpful inner focus" (see below). The model is a method I've evolved to help me organize and think about the many facets of deliberately induced altered states …
Four aspects of helpful inner focus: 1.) reducing negative states
19th October 2008
I started meditating regularly while I was still at university in the early 1970's. I then went on a number of meditation retreats and visited a whole series of monasteries and ashrams. By the late 70's I had a good deal of experience of a fruit salad of methods including …
Handouts & questionnaires for wellbeing and calming skills
13th October 2008
I continue to slowly add handouts & questionnaires to the relevant area in the website's "Good Knowledge" section. Here are a some that I use largely in the territory of wellbeing, mindfulness and relaxation. Some are assessment and monitoring questionnaires. Some provide orientating information. Some describe specific exercises to do. …
Some mindfulness resources on the internet
3rd September 2008
There was an interesting request on JISCmail (see note below), the listserv for BABCP cognitive-behavioural therapists, asking about podcasts on mindfulness. Several people wrote in with useful suggestions. These included: I don't know if this is exactly what you are looking for, but you can listen to Matthiew Richard on …