Mindfulness has historically been cultivated via formal meditation practice and the majority of meditation research examines individuals with extensive training or participants in Mindfulness based stress reduction programs that require considerable expense, a trained facilitator, and take approximately 8 weeks to complete. However, current literature does not speak directly to those who do not have the time or ability for such commitments. Formal mindfulness meditation practice and interventions reduce stress in various populations; however, the outcomes of a one-time intervention are relatively unknown. This study aims to examine whether a one-time (20-min) mindfulness meditation intervention would improve cardiovascular variables during acute stressors in a meditation naïve sample when compared to a control group. Fifty-eight (58) normotensive undergraduate students (27 males, 31 females) with no prior meditation experience were randomly placed into either a treatment group that participated in one-time 15-minute audio training session on mindfulness meditation or a control group which listened to an audio health article. Following the training, participants participated in a psychosocial stressor modeled after the Trier Social Stress Test. Heart rate and blood pressure were assessed before and after the intervention and during the stress task. Results showed the mindfulness meditation condition group was effective in decreasing blood pressure response during the study, when compared to the control group. These results indicate that brief meditation training has beneficial effects on cardiovascular variables. These findings suggest that the benefits of a brief one-time mindfulness meditation intervention can be recognized immediately after a brief training treatment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BGMYU2/oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-5157 |
| Date | 02 July 2013 |
| Creators | Jones, Dustin LaMar |
| Publisher | BYU ScholarsArchive |
| Source Sets | Brigham Young University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ |
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