Take a look at any magazine and you'll find out that being mindful of one's surroundings and self has definitely gained more attention lately. Studies are also being conducted on anything researchers and scientists can think of. From eating habits to how people bounce back after a crisis, you can be sure to find a plethora of these studies online and offline. This time, the study focuses on how people who meditate respond to pain which will soon be published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Dr. Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has studied carefulness for over 15 years and has seen a lot of improvement in health outcomes as a result. He started to wonder what if all the findings he observed were only placebo, though. He started to think, what if people are only stated improvements in their health and a significant decrease in pain just because meditation has a reputation of being a healthy practice. He wanted to know more about it, so he made trials that involved a placebo group.
For the real intervention, people sat for 20 minutes with straight posture, closed their eyes and listened to specific instructions about where to focus one's attention and how to let thoughts and emotions pass without judgment. "Our subjects are taught to focus on the changing sensations of breath and to follow the breath with the mind's eye as it goes down the chest and abdomen," Zeidan says.
