The world is starting to open up to the idea of mindfulness and its importance. There have been some recent studies completed that show how great mindfulness really is.
The world is slowly coming around to the idea that mental health is important and the way you think does affect what is happening around you. With that thought process researchers have been testing areas and implementing mindfulness into them. The results are very exciting for the world of mindful people!
There are a few studies I found interesting and wanted to share with you.
Mindfulness can Help Lower Opioid Addictions
When patients are prescribed opioids they normally are also prescribed methadone maintenance therapy. That is a type of therapy that helps to reduce withdraw symptoms and cravings for opioids. While that is useful it is a difficult process for recovery.
Looking for ways to improve this system research was done to test substitute practices with the focus on mindfulness. Two groups were tested for eight weeks. One group only practiced the normal methadone treatment, while the second group did the methadone treatment as well as mindfulness practices.
At the end of the eight weeks participants in the mindfulness group reported having more control with their drug cravings than those not in the mindfulness group. They also had less stress and lower pain.
This is exciting because it demonstrates that the mind is powerful and can be used to create positive results in life. The way you think really does impact your actions. Opioid addictions are a huge problem and by using this information we can begin to help people move away from that issue.
Mindful meditation changes fear based memories
In another eight-week mindfulness study researchers at a Harvard-affiliated hospital they tested combining exposure therapy with mindfulness mediation. MRI brain scans and fear-conditioning tasks were used to see changes in neural networks in relation with memory and attention following mindfulness training.
The research found that mindfulness training improved emotion regulation and when placed in a fear-based situation the respondent was able to turn to a safe thought from the training and handle the thoughts in an easier way.
This is awesome because, once again it demonstrates that our thoughts have power and we can change the situation we are in by rethinking it.
Therapy should come before medication for ADHD
Rather than immediately turning to medication to help children with ADHD they are suggesting doing behavioral therapy. If the child is still struggling they then suggest they do it alongside taking medications.
By reducing medications taken and working on a child's mental health will be highly beneficial and not start a child out with a lifestyle dependent upon medications.
I am not putting down families that do use medications and know that their are benefits to the use of it. My opinion is that the mind is healing and that it should not be forgotten when looking for options to heal.
Comments