Achtsamkeit
Dr. Kirstin Luppe
Vor einigen Jahren sind die Ergebnisse des Re-Source Project veröffentlicht worden, dem bisher größten Projekt zur Achtsamkeitsforschung, das durchgängig von Wissenschaftlern das Max-Planck-Institut für Kognition und Neurowissenschaften begleitet wurde.
Die positiven Effekte der Achtsamkeitsschulung können folgendermaßen zusammengefasst werden:
Im Folgenden finden Sie einige wissenschaftliche Studien zu verschiedenen Forschungen im Achtsamkeitsbereich:
Researchers at Ohio State University found that a workplace mindfulness-based intervention significantly reduced stress levels among staff working at an intensive care unit: as highly stressful an environment as any we can imagine. Participants were randomly assigned to either an eight-week mindfulness-based intervention or a control group with no mindfulness training. The saliva of participants from both groups was tested before and after the intervention, and, while there was no change in the control group, it’s significant decrease in the levels of salivary alpha-amylase (an index of sympathetic activation of the nervous system - also known as the ‘fight or flight’ response) what is measured in the group that received mindfulness training. Although the levels of stress did not change before and after the mindfulness intervention, the staff’s response to stress to change. Work-related stress cannot always or easily be eliminated, but this study shows that mindfulness can help people cope with work-related stress and its harmful effects in highly stressful work environments. One of the researchers concludes that a ’mindfulness-based’ intervention in the workplace could decrease stress levels and the risk of burnout.
Duchemin, A.M., Steinberg, B.A., Marks, D.R., Vanover, K. and Klatt, M. (2015). A small randomized pilot study of a workplace mindfulness-based intervention for surgical intensive care unit personell: Effects on salivary alpha-amylase levels. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 57 84), 393-399
In this study the research is set out to determine the relationship between burnout, job satisfaction, social support and mindfulness within a corporate organization. A total of 209 employees working in a financial corporate environment participated in the study. Of the variable is measured, mindfulness (as the one intrapersonal strategy) came just second to job satisfaction as the most significant predictor of burnout. The researchers conclude that 'mindfulness may in the long run provide organizations with a valuable tool to manage high burnout levels of employees within the workplace'.
Ismail, H.A.K., Coetzee, N., Du Toit, P., Rudolph, E.C. and Joubert, Y.T. (2013). Towards gaining a competitive advantage: the relationship beteween burnout, job satisfaction, social support and mindfulness. Journal of ContemporaryManagement, 10, 448-464
In a study published in the Journal of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, researchers at UCLA found that participants who were experienced in mindfulness practice had larger amounts of gyrification, or folding of the brains cortex, then people who didn’t practice mindfulness. These extra phones in the brain help mindfulness meditators to process information faster than others while also reducing the tendency to ruminate on past events (A common feature of stress), which can distort our thinking and decision-making process. Even just one 15-minute focused mindfulness breathing practice can get you out of your head, remove the bias from your brain and help you think with more clarity.
Luders, E., Jurth, F., Mayer, E.A., Toga, A.W., Narr, K.L. and Gaser, C. (2012). The unique brain anatomy of meditation practitioners: Alterations in cortical gyrification. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6 (34). doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00034
In a recent study*, researchers found that mindful compassion was more effective than other cognitive approaches in reducing the impact of harmful thinking (such as criticism) on our emotional state. A total of 207 under graduate students were randomly assigned to either the compassionate thinking condition or one of three other conditions (cognitive reappraisal, responsibility attribution or self-deflection) or a control group. Participants who engaged in compassionate thinking and cognitive reappraisal reported significantly lower levels of negative emotions compared to those in the other groups. However, even more interesting is the finding that the habitual use of self-compassion reduced negative emotions across all the conditions.
*Arimitsu,K. and S.G. (2015). Effects of compassion thinking on negative emotions. Cognition and Emotions.
In a study* carried out at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, researchers aimed to discover which specific mindfulness skills predicated creative performance. The study found that people with robust observation skills, whether inherent or learned through extensive mindfulness training, showed superior creativity levels compared to other participants. The researchers conclude that 'the ability to observe and attend to various stimuli consistently and positively predicted creativity'.
This is an interesting finding that helps to develop our understanding of the link between mindfulness and creativity. As you know, mindfulness practice is all about observing your present moment experience, in a particular way, without judgement or evaluation and so it would seem that turning the mind to this simple practice, again and again is a sure way to also booze your creative skills.
*Baas, M., Nevicka, B. and Ten Velden, F.S. (2014). Specific mindfulness skills differentially predict creative performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 1092-1106
Firstly, you might find it interesting to note that practicing mindfulness does actually lead to changes in the brain that are associated with empathy for others. In one study*, researchers found such brain changes after reviewing the MRI scans of participants’ brains. It was found that both experienced and non-experienced meditators who practiced mindfulness with a particular focus and compassion showed more brain activity in brain regions linked with empathy while meditating compared to when they were not meditating. So, it would seem that practicing compassion-focused mindfulness will in fact help both you and others in your team to cultivate a more understanding, caring and empathic environment to work in.
*Lutz, A., Brefczynski-Lewis, J., Johnstone, T. and Davidson, R.J. (2008). Regulation of the neural circuitry of emotion by compassion meditation: effects of meditative expertise. PLoS ONE, 3(3)
Researchers at the University of Groningen and North Dakota State University were interested to explore their hypothesis that mindfulness practice could help to improve awareness and the filtering out of other unhelpful mental processes during creative tasks. In this large two-part study* (157 participants in total) the researchers found that mindfulness training predicted and improved 'insight problem-solving', which is theability to recognize and solve problems in a new way. Mindfulness training improved participants' ability to solve problems that require creative and non-habitual responses. This study was the first of its kind to document a direct relationship between mindfulness and creativity and is rather ground-breaking. It is often thought that our history and past experience limits our creative flow, and the authors of the study conclude that mindfulness practice may in fact be one way that we are able to 'overcome the inertia of our past' when it comes to the creation of novel ideas and solutions.
*Ostafin, B. and Kassman, K. (2012). Stepping out of history: Mindfulness improves insight problem solving. Consciousness and Cognition, 21 (2), 1031-1036
In a studie*, researchers were eager to investigate the effects that team supervisors (with a high rate of trait mindfulness) could have on team members' job-related performance and well-being. A total of 96 supervisors and their team members working across a variety of industries took part in the study and the results were really quite interesting.
The researchers found that the more mindful of the leader, the less emotional exhaustion was experienced by team members. Along with this, higher measures of mindfulness among leaders were also associated with better work-life balance and overall job performance ratings of the employees. In a replication of this study, the researchers also found that the more mindful of the manager, the more likely employees were to engage in acts of good citizenship, such as showing concern toward their colleagues and other team members and expressing opinions honestly even when others may disagree.
*Reb, J., Narayanan, J. and Chaturvedi, S. (2014). Leading mindfully: Two studies on the influence of supervisor trait mindfulness on employee well-being and performance. Mindfulness, 5(1), 36-45.
Positive relationships and feelings of warmth at work have also been shown to have a greater effect on employee loyalty than the size of their pay-check. In particular, a study* by Jonathan Haidt of New York University and colleagues shows that the more employees look up to their leaders and are moved by their compassion or kindness (a state he terms elevation), the more loyal they become to him or her. So, if you are more compassionate to do your fellow teammates (cultivated through the practice of mindfulness), not only will they be more loyal to you, but anyone else who has witnessed your behavior may also experience elevation and feel more devoted to you.
*Vianello, M., Galliani, E.M. and Haidt, J. (2010). Elevation at work: The organizational effects of leaders’ moral excellence, Journal of Positive Psychology, 5, 390-411.
In a study*, researchers investigated the impact that a compassionate working culture has on the overall performance of employees working in a long-term care setting. They found that a culture of compassion positively related to employee satisfaction and teamwork and negatively related to employee absenteeism and emotional exhaustion. The researchers were keen to discover if these same results could be found in other working cultures outside of the health-care industry. So they went on to a survey a total of 3201 employees across a range of other industries, including financial services, engineering and higher education among others, and they found that these findings held true. Employees who worked in a culture where they felt free to express affection, tenderness, caring and compassion for one another were more satisfied with their jobs, more committed to the organization and felt more accountable for their performance.
*Barsade, S. and O’Neill, O.A. (214), What’s love got to do with It? A longitudinal study of the culture of companionate love and employee and client outcomes in a long-term care setting, Administrative Science Quarterly, 59(4), 551-598
In one study*, researchers continued to explore this link between mindfulness and workplace autonomy. A total of 259 participants were assessed for their ability to pay attention for long periods of time, and similar traits associated with mindfulness, as well as how much autonomy they perceived themselves to have within their team work (as opposed to facing a more controlling managerial style). As in the previous study feeling less empowered at work was associated with lower levels of well-being and health amongst team members, but the researchers found that these effects were moderated by mindfulness. In other words, the more mindful employees were, the less they felt frustrated even when their managers were more controlling and less promoting of the autonomy while on the job. The researchers conclude, 'mindfulness does appears to act as a protective factor in controlling work environments'. So, it would seem that along with enhancing the well-being and performance of members in a work team, mindfulness can also buffer against the negative impact of certain undesirable team dynamics.
*Schultz,P.Ü., Ryan, R.M., Niemiec, C.P., Legate, N. and Williams, G.C. (2014). Mindfulness, work climate, and psychological need satisfaction in employee well-being. Mindfulness
In another study, the aim was to determine in what way mindfulness could actually help people cope with the multiple and simultaneous demands flying at them within a busy office environment and what effect mindfulness has on our attempts to multitask. Thirty-eight human resources professionals participated in this study and were separated into three groups: one group received eight weeks of mindfulness training, another group eight week of relaxation training and a third acted as a control group (no relaxation or mindfulness intervention). To test the workers in these three groups against one another, they were asked to perform a series of standard office tasks within a certain time frame while being disrupted with unrelated demands and other interruptions. Although the mindfulness group didn't perform the tasks any faster than the relaxation or control group, they were able to sustain attention on individual tasks for a longer time and were 20 per cent less likely to jump around from one task to another. The researchers conclude that mindfulness meditation increased focus and ‘reduced task-switching’ – an admirable ability to enhance productivity when we think about trying to get stuff done at work while having to contend with so many other irrelevant competing demands and irritation interruptions.
Levy, D.M., Wobbrock, J.O., Kaszniak, A.W. and Ostergren, M. (2012). The effects of mindfulness meditation training on multitasking in a high stress information environment. Proceedings of Graphics Interface Conference 2012, 45-52
Ein Smartphone auf dem Tisch reduziert die Gesprächsqualität, selbst wenn es ausgeschaltet ist. Andrew Przybylski und Netta Weinstein haben 2013 eine bemerkenswerte Studie durchgeführt*.
Fremde Personen wurden eingeladen, sich jeweils zu zweit zu unterhalten. In manchen Fällen lag ein ausgeschaltetes Smartphone auf dem Tisch. In genau diesen Fällen fanden die Gesprächspartner die Unterhaltung nachher weniger empathisch und vertrauensvoll als in den Fällen ohne Smartphone. Offensichtlich hat sich das Smartphone in unser Gehirn eingebrannt als die ständige Erinnerung daran, dass wir permanent auf Abruf sein müssen und uns nur ja nicht zu sehr auf den gegenwärtigen Moment einlassen sollten.
Zahlreiche Studien warnen mittlerweile auch, dass das blaue Licht von Bildschirmen und Screens unser Gehirn und Nervensystem durcheinanderbringt und den Hormonhaushalt beeinflusst**.
Die Folge davon: die Schlafqualität sinkt, und wir bekommen Schwierigkeiten beim Einschlafen, Durchschlafen, oder wir waren zu früh auf. Deshalb brauchen wir Leerlauf zwischen Bildschirmarbeit und dem zu Bett gehen.
*Przybylski, Andrew, K./Weinstein, Netta: „Can You Connect With Me Now? How the Presence of Mobile Communication Technology Influences Face-to-Face Conversation Quality” in: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Mai 2013, S 237-246**Christensen, Matthew A. u.a. “Direct Measurements of Smartphone Screen-Time: Relationships with Demographics and Sleep” in: PLoS ONE. November 2016, S. 1-14.
It's all well and good to know that mindfulness can help reduce stress and even prevent burnout on the job but what about helping us with a typically frantic and demanding work environment? Well, one study* set out to investigate just that and specifically if and how mindfulness could actually help employees cope while working within such a chaotic environment. A total of 98 restaurant waiters took part in this study and their managers were asked to rate them in terms of their individual job performance. Those measured to have higher mindfulness scores were also rated as having a better job performance. Interestingly, workplace mindfulness contributed to job performance, irrespective of how engaged the waiters were on the job. This research suggests that mindfulness enhances cognitive resources to help people attend to the range of tasks even if they are less engaged with the job. This is one of the first studies that shows how mindfulness can enhance cognitive performance even in a rapidly changing and highly demanding work environment.
*Dane, E. and Brummel, B.J. (2014) Examining workplace mindfulness and its relations to job performance and turnover intention. Human Relations, 67, 105-128
In another study* researchers at Ben-Gurion University, Israel, were eager to discover what impact mindfulness training would have on cognitive rigidity and whether it could in fact improve cognitive flexibility. A total of 76 participants were randomly assigned to two groups, either an eight-week mindfulness training group or a wait-list group (control). All the participants were given a set of logic problems to solve. The first set of these problems required complicated solutions, involving several steps, while the second set of problems could be solved with the same complicated solution or with a much simpler solution, using just two steps. The next and last batch of problems could only be solved with the same simple, two-step solution. The researchers found that the participants from the mindfulness training group were able to notice and use the simple solution more often and more quickly than the participants from the control group. The control group continued to use the more complex method, seemingly out of habit and appeared to be blinded by their past experience. The researchers conclude that mindfulness practice ‘reduces cognitive rigidity via the tendency to overlook simple novel solutions to a situation due to rigid and repetitive thought patterns formed through experience'. This study demonstrates that mindfulness can enhance problem-solving skills and help us to notice novel ways of overcoming problems so that we are not limited by our past experiences.
*Greenberg, J., Reiner, K. and Meiran, N. (2012). ‚Mind the trap’: Mindfulness practice reduces cognitive rigidity. PLoS ONE, 7(5)
In another study*, researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands were keen to explore the effect that two different types of meditation might have on creativity, and specifically two separate types of creative thinking, namely, divergent thinking (the ability to generate lots of ideas) and convergent thinking (the ability to connect those ideas into one amazing concept or, in other words, conjure up a solution to a particular problem). Following participation in each of the different types of meditation sessions, the 16 participants were asked to complete a series of creative tasks to measure the effects of mindfulness practice on both divergent and convergent thinking. This study found that mindfulness meditation significantly improved both divergent and convergent thinking. Interestingly, the type of meditation performed had an impact on which type of creative thinking was improved. For example, open-monitoring meditation (i.e. open the mind to any occurring thought or sensation, with a non-judgemental attitude) improved divergent thinking more than focused-attention meditation (i.e. focus attention to particular parts of the body). Nwo don't panic, as both of these types of meditation and implicated in common forms of mindfulness training so you're good to go with mindfulness.
*Colzato, L.S. Ozturk, A. and Hommel, B. 82012). Meditate to create the impact of focused-attention and open-monitoring training on convergent and divergent thinking. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, 116, 1-5.
Untersuchungen am medizinischen Zentrum der Universität Groningen in den Niederlanden haben ergeben, dass sich ein erhöhtes Maß an Achtsamkeit bei alltäglichen Routinetätigkeiten, wie es durch verstärkte Fokussierung auf die gewöhnlichen Dinge des Lebens und weniger automatisiertes Handeln erreicht wird, unmittelbar in einer positiveren Stimmung und einem verbesserten individuellen Wohlbefinden äußert. Ebenfalls konstatiert wurde ein enger Zusammenhang zwischen der Abnahme von negativen Stimmungen und der urteilsfreien Akzeptanz von Gedanken und Emotionen sowie dem Erlernen einer offenen, neugierigen Haltung gegenüber schmerzhaften Empfindungen.
hroevers, M.J., und Brandsma, R. (2010), “Is learning mindfulnessassociated with improved affect after mindfulnessbases cognitive therapie?”, British Journal of Psychology
Researchers* at the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan recruited 139 working adults into a randomized controlled trial and found that those who were taught in practice loving-kindness (compassion) meditation experienced increased positive emotions as well as feeling a greater sense of purpose and satisfaction in life, more social support, reduce depressive symptoms and improved health. some of the findings of this study are corroborated by a further study -22- which found that more altruistic, prosocial individuals were less prone to cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and neuroplastic diseases.
*Fredrickson, B.L., Cohn, M.A., Coffey, K.A., Pek, J. and Finkel, S.M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045-1026
