I’m always on the look-out for new mindfulness studies and projects.
I’ve mentioned a number of my “favorite” researchers in past blogs and recently a new researcher (at least new to me) has caught my attention.
Amishi Jha, PhD, out of the University of Miami, is the lead investigator of the Schofield Barracks Training and Research on the Neurobehavioral Growth (STRONG) project.
This project endeavors to investigate if and how resilience training can improve the working memory (complex thought, problem solving, and cognitive control of emotions) of soldiers who are living under extreme stress.
The work is ongoing, with the current study not scheduled to be completed until December, but they have published some very preliminary research in the journal Emotion.
Investigators selected US Marines who were involved in a high-stress predeployment program and divided them into two groups.
One group participated in an eight-week mindfulness-based Mind-Fitness Training course, while the second received no training and acted as a control.
Included in the training were skills to manage stress reactions, increase resilience to future stressors, and improve their unit’s effectiveness.
Both groups of soldiers were tested for their working memory capacity using brainwave recording technology before and after the mindfulness training period.
The control group’s working memory capacity decreased over the eight weeks.
Results for the training group depended on the time that they spent practicing the mindfulness skills: the longer the amount of practice time, the better the working memory capacity.
Couple of things to note: I’m disappointed that this study didn’t randomly assign because, as you know, that’s the gold standard of research.
But on the other hand, this is an area of research that hasn’t been fully explored and I’m excited about the possibility of mindfulness being used to build resilience in our soldiers as they ready for deployment.
While this study provided only preliminary findings, a current study should provide more insight into the possible benefits of mindfulness training for individuals in extreme stress situations.
It’s certainly a fascinating topic, and one that keeps coming up in our mindfulness programs.
Have you utilized mindfulness techniques with patients who are in high-risk professions?
Please leave a comment below.
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You must try and not let your feelings of fear overtake you. You may have to be put on some medications to see how they work. If they help you, you wouldn’t have to go to a hospital. Why not ask the Lord to come into your heart? He loves you and wants to share your life with Him. God can help you lots !
Ronnie (October 14, 2020 @ 8:48am)could you please elaborate on how you cured yourself of PTSD through mindfulness? I am quite intersted in this due the fact that I deal it with myself and plan on specializing in trauma healing when I begin my internship as an MFT. You can reach me at mechel1706@gmail.com
So that’s the case? Quite a reiolatven that is.
Hi Ruth,
Thank you for sharing an interesting study of how the military perceives mindfulness-based techniques as helpful to soldiers. This seems a far cry from how meditation first developed as a spiritual practice. I think of the four principles of the Bodhisattva warrior–loving-kindness, joy, equanimity, compassion–and wonder if a great tragedy occurred when mindfulness was medicalized, thereby losing its enlightened understanding of the heart-felt power of meditation.
Interesting territory we are entering into here, and I find myself saying “Yes!” to Ronnie’s comments.
And, as one veteran told me recently, “You can teach a solider to kill women and children and to go home and sleep like a baby at night.”
Mindfulness of itself is like ‘God’s’ rain; it serves the just and the unjust alike. Like resiliency.
As Norman Doidge points out in The Brain That Changes Itself, “neuroplasticity isn’t all good news…. It is by understanding both the positive and negative effects of plasticity that we can truly understand the extent of human possibilities.” pg. xx
If “mindfulness” is used properly – you’ll have soldiers leaving the military right and left. Simply study the word itself – “MINDFUL” – If you understand and are mindful of what’s in your mind – a soldier will find that he is going against his moral self by killing/maiming other human beings – especially is he is a Christian and pays attention to the ten commandments – you know – the one that says “Do Not Kill.”
The only thing he can keep in his mind is that the “other” is “bad, terrible and awful” in other words “demonized”, the “other” becomes dehumanized. If he pays attention to the fact that the “other” has feelings, people he/she loves, is in fact “human” then he is in a double bind – officers telling him to kill and his better moral sense telling him not to kill.
I cured myself of PTSD by using three processes – one being Mindful at all times of what was in my mind. If I became aware of negativity in my mind – I would look at it carefully and deal with it. Anger was OK as long as I was aware of it – allowed it – and LET IT GO! An awareness develops as you become more and more Aware of what is in your mind at ALL times.
If everyone in the world would understand PTSD and understood the way out of it they would no longer go to war. And that would be wonderful!!
amazing information. i am curious if studies have been done where mindfulness is “done” for someone else. Dr. William Tiller has done substantial research on recording thought/meditation and measuring its impact on ph of water, and atp/adp ratio of fruit flies. additionally there is growing body of literature on power of intent. are there any studies of practioners practicing mindfulness for someone else?
Hi Ruth, you may be interested to know that the group at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, Society who under the guidance of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Dr. Saki Santorelli have been working with military officials to develop pre and post deployment MBSR workshops for troops in hope of reducing incidence of PTSD. Cheers, Greg