Week Six Flashcards
(14 cards)
What Is Meditation and Its Purpose
- Observe experiences with interest and curiosity, noticing both large
sensations and small ones and the flow of the breath. - Learning to intentionally control attention
Mindfulness v. Meditation
1. Define Each
- Mindfulness is “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.”
- “Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state”
Meditation and mindfulness key aspects of Māori practices
1. List key values related to the practices that support reconnection to one’s body, mind and spirit
- whanaungatanga (relationship building)
- karakia (incantations)
- mirimiri - energetic exchange; mental and spiritual therapy - can include karakia, waiata (song), taonga
- romiromi (body agitation and realignment; physical therapy)
Research of Meditation
1. Stress
2. Grey Matter
3. Problems
4. Prefrontal cortex
- Helps regulate stress response, lowers cortisol output, lowers blood
pressure reduces chronic inflammation and maintains a healthy microbiome - Increases grey matter concentration over 8 weeks
- Meditators inspire efforts to solve complex problems like climate change
- 8 weeks of training increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex, relative to the right side: This pattern is associated with happy individuals, Also showed a stronger immune response to
the influenza vaccine
Explain the Metanalysis of Meditation
1. What effects?
2. Evidence
- Small effects but generally equivalent to other treatments (not better than active controls)
- Insufficient evidence in some areas but hampered by small sample sizes
Explain the RAIN Method
1. Explain
2. What does research show?
- Recognize what is happening
- Allow the feeling to be just as it is
- Investigate the emotions with interest and care
- Nurture with self-compassion
- Acceptance significantly reduces anxiety and depression
How Does Meditation Work on the Body and Brain?
Neurotrophic Factor
network
Connectivity
Cells
Social
Hippocami
- Amp’s up the brain’s Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor
- Less activation of the default mode network
- Changes in functional connectivity can be seen 3 days after mindfulness practice
- Growth of new brain cells in the hippocampi
- Increase the sense of social connectedness
- Better regulation of the parasympathetic nervous system
- Improvements in the immune function
- Increased telomerase activity
Benefits of Yoga
- Regular practice of yoga promotes strength, improved cognition, better sleep, quality of life, endurance,
and flexibility and facilitates characteristics of friendliness, compassion, and greater self-control while
cultivating a sense of calmness and wellbeing - Sustained practice also leads to changes in life perspective, self-awareness, and an improved sense of
energy to live life fully and with genuine enjoyment - Practice of yoga produces a physiological state opposite to that of a flight-or-fight stress response
Cold Therapy
1. Whole-body cryotherapy developed by Dr.Yamaguchi in 1978
2. Wim Hoff Method Study
1. Postive effect on…, edorphins, lessening discomfort
2. reduce what
- Treated patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis with short periods of exposure to below-freezing temperature: Positive effects on pain and soreness and Believed rapid decrease in temperature of outer
layer of skin led to the immediate release of endorphins, lessening discomfort - One small study showing benefits for reduced stress responses over 8 weeks training, but physical benefits
need more research
Cold Showers Buijze et al. 2016
- How many Participants and what control condition
- Key Findings
- 4 groups with 3 varying durations of cold water shower (30/60/90 seconds)
for 30 days (3018 participants) with one control condition - Routinely showering (hot-to-) cold resulted in a 29% reduction of self-reported sick leave (total number of days sick) from work but not illness days(# of days felt ill) at 90 days follow-up in adults without severe comorbidity
Benefits of Heat Therapy
1. Blood
2. Neurogenisis
3. Endorphins
4. Inflammation
5. Amyloid
6. Dementia
- Heat increases blood flow
- can promote neurogenesis
- releases endorphins
- reduces inflammation
- reduces amyloid accumulation
- May reduce significantly the risk of dementia and improve depression
Signs of Sedentary Lifestyle
1. Sleep
2. Motivation
3. Cocentrarting
4. Weight
- Difficult getting to sleep at night
- Fatigue and low motivation
- Difficulty concentrating, aches and pains
- Weight gain can be a consequence of reduced calorie expenditure due to
a lack of physical activity
WHO Recommendations For Exercise
1. Aerobic Exersise
2. Strength Training
3. Limit time
4. Minimum Level
- At least 150 - 300 mins of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week or 75 - 150 mins vigorous-intensity aerobic (or combination of the 2)
- Strength training of all major muscle groups 2x / week - gives additional
health benefits - Limit sedentary time
- Aim for more than minimum levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity
Benefits of Exercise
1. Mental
2. Physical
3. Mental Health
4. Sleep
- Increases vitality, mood, cognitive function, Dementia
- Decreases heart disease, cancer, diabetes, falls, mortality
- Decreases stress and anxiety
- Improves sleep
