According to a new study, mindful meditation can help people break their bad habits such as smoking, overeating, and other vices.
CNN reports the research published in Trends in Cognitive Sciences suggests this mental training (which originated from Buddhist meditation) strengthens self-control.
Mindful meditation helps people become focused on self-awareness, stimulating the brain's motivational and stop and go systems.
Researchers from Texas Tech University and University of Oregon gathered 60 students, consisted by 27 smokers and 33 non-smokers for five hours of meditation and relaxation sessions within two weeks. Half of the group were listed under the relaxation training, and the other half participated in the integrative body-mind training (IBMT), which is a form of mindful meditation.
After completing the sessions, respondents went through brain scans, lung exams, and filled out questionnaires. Results have shown that although the IBMT group did not intend to quit smoking, 60% of them have minimized smoking.
"Rather than trying to stop smoking, IBMT focuses on improving the self-control network in the brain and moderating stress-reactivity, that may help treat the inner cause of smoking," Texas Tech psychological sciences professor, Yi-Yuan Tang, lead author of the study told CNN.
"Moreover, there was no correlation between intention and smoking changes. If smokers do not have an intrinsic need and craving, why not change smoking behavior?"
"Self-control is important for us to pay attention, regulate emotion and make decisions in school, workplace and life," Tang added, saying there are more effective techniques in addition to mindful meditation. "We should be open-minded to explore the best method for us."
"Self-control is a muscle that gets strong(er) when you exercise it," said Christine Whelan, lead researcher at the Consumer Science faculty in University of Wisconsin-Madison's School of Human Ecology. "When we try to stop ourselves from eating overly caloric foods or smoking, we might be successful all day long."