Avila professors test mindfulness training to encourage wise decision-making
The Kansas City Star, Mo. – September 18, 2007Sep. 18–Just saying no may be easier said than done when it comes to drinking, smoking, drug use and overeating.
But can a regimen of brain training, stretching and martial arts strengthen resolve and lead to healthier decision-making?
Two Avila University psychology professors want to find out whether mindfulness training, used for decades to help people deal with stress, can be tailored to the decision-making process.
The professors, Maria Hunt and Delany Dean, say that much like a weightlifter repeatedly pressing a dumbbell to strengthen a bicep, repeating certain mind-control exercises along with meditation and goal setting might help students, faculty and staff resist cravings and impulsive behavior. And help students focus better on academics.
The two professors got the idea after taking some mindfulness training earlier this year. Now, with a grant from the Menorah Legacy Foundation, Avila has launched a pilot program that marries mindfulness-based stress-reduction training with yoga, tai chi and instruction in setting goals. Throughout this school year, Hunt and Dean will measure the technique’s effect on decision-making.
Mindfulness training originated more than 25 years ago at the University of Massachusetts. Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn developed the practice for dealing with stress, pain and illness.
More than 6,000 health-care professionals have participated in mindfulness-based stress-reduction training programs in the U.S. and Europe. More than 200 clinics around the world, including one at the University of Missouri-Columbia Student Health Center, offer programs based on the Kabat-Zinn model. MU psychologist Lynn Rossy has taught classes in mindfulness-based stress reduction for nearly a decade.
The classes focus on how to bear stress or pain and let it pass.
“We don’t have to find some external means for fixing it,” Rossy said.
In a softly lighted room, 24 students who have signed up for Avila’s mindfulness program meet weekly for 75-minute classes.
They also meet each week with one of five mindfulness-based wellness coaches. Nearly every day these students are engaged in some mindfulness practice.
About 40 other students in the research control group are involved in classes under the mindfulness-based program umbrella, such as yoga and tai chi. But they won’t get mindfulness training.
Both groups answered a battery of questions about lifestyle choices at the start of the semester. When the program ends in December, they will answer the questions again.
Both Avila professors took classes in mindfulness this spring and summer.
“I lost seven of the 15 pounds I wanted to lose, and I did it painlessly,” Hunt said. “I learned I could live with the intense urges (to eat sweets), and that they go away.
“What makes the program really rock is we train the brain to pay attention, we train the brain to intentionally choose what to pay attention to, and we teach compassion to self and others, which keeps the negativity (over choices made) from escalating.”
Here’s how it works:
Students are told to sit quietly and comfortably, without moving, and to concentrate on their breathing. Invariably, students will become distracted by thoughts, physical sensations and impulses. For example, someone’s head might itch. The immediate impulse would be to scratch it. But instead, students are taught to recognize the itch and continue concentrating on breathing.
“What this does is recondition the brain to become more intentional and not reactive,” Dean said.
“When we become distressed and want, let’s say a cigarette, an area in the middle of the brain called the amygdala becomes anxious and signals distress. The amygdala is saying, ‘Gotta have a cigarette, gotta have a cigarette.’ It’s the frontal lobe that is supposed to calm the amygdala down, to create a soothing influence.”
Psychologists know the frontal lobe is underdeveloped in college-age students, so the capacity for wise decision-making is weak.
The pathway between their frontal lobe and the amygdala is easily affected by outside stimulants. So the students may be more susceptible to temptations.
“Mindfulness training strengthens the pathways between the frontal lobe and the amygdala simply through usage,” Dean said.
The belief is that if students practice mindfulness training repeatedly, then when temptations to drink and use drugs arise, the brain will be conditioned to say no.
To reach Mara Rose Williams, call 816-234-4419 or send e-mail to mdwilliams@kcstar.com.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Kansas City Star, Mo.