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assess the feasibility of incorporating a single-session
meditation-training program into the daily activities of
healthy employees of a tertiary-care academic medical
center. The study also assessed the most preferred
duration of meditation and the effect of the meditation
program on perceived stress, anxiety, and overall quality
of life (QOL). POPULATION: Seventeen healthy clinic
employees were recruited for this study.
INTERVENTION: After an initial group instruction
session covering basic information about meditation,
Paced Breathing Meditation (PBM) was taught to the
participants. Participants were instructed to self-practice
meditation with the help of a DVD daily for a total of 4
weeks. The DVD had three different programs of 5, 15,
and 30 minutes with a menu option to choose one of the
programs. OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Patient diary,
(2) Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), (3) Linear Analogue
Self-Assessment (LASA), (4) Smith Anxiety Scale
(SAS). Primary outcome measures were compared using
the paired t-test. RESULTS: All participants were female;
median age was 48 years (range 33-60 y). The 5-minute
meditation session was practiced by 14 participants a
total of 137 times during the 4-week trial period, the 15minute
session by 16 participants a total of 223 times,
and the 30-minute session by 13 participants 71 times.
The median number of days practiced was 25 (range 10-
28 d); the average total time practiced was 394 minutes
(range 55-850 min). After 4 weeks of practice, the scores
of the following instruments improved significantly from
baseline: PSS (P < .0001), SAS (P = .0005), LASA (P
= .0005). No relationship was noted between the length
of time practiced and improvement of PSS, SAS, and
LASA scores. CONCLUSION: This pilot study
indicates the feasibility of teaching meditation in a single
training session to health care employees. The study
shows that 15 minutes once or twice a day is the most
feasible duration of meditation practice. The study also
provides promising preliminary efficacy data of this
program for improving stress, anxiety, and QOL.
Meditation experience is associated with differences
in default mode network activity and connectivity.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Dec 13;108(50):20254-
9. By Brewer JA, Worhunsky PD, Gray JR, Tang YY,
Weber J, Kober H. from Department of Psychiatry, Yale
University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511.
Many philosophical and contemplative traditions
teach that "living in the moment" increases happiness.
However, the default mode of humans appears to be that
of mind-wandering, which correlates with unhappiness,
and with activation in a network of brain areas associated
with self-referential processing. We investigated brain
activity in experienced meditators and matched
meditation-naive controls as they performed several
different meditations (Concentration, Loving-Kindness,
Choice-less Awareness). We found that the main nodes
of the default-mode network (medial prefrontal and
posterior cingulate cortices) were relatively deactivated
in experienced meditators across all meditation types.
Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis revealed
stronger coupling in experienced meditators between the
posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and
dorsolateral prefrontal cortices (regions previously
implicated in self-monitoring and cognitive control),
both at baseline and during meditation. Our findings
demonstrate differences in the default-mode network that
are consistent with decreased mind-wandering. As such,
these provide a unique understanding of possible neural
mechanisms of meditation.
(Compiled by Kevin W Chen)
Kevin Chen, Ph.D., MPH
is an associate professor at
the Center for Integrative
Medicine and Department
of Psychiatry, University
of Maryland School of
Medicine (USA). Dr.
Chen was educated in the
universities of both China
and the United States, and has years of experience and
training in blending eastern and western perspectives,
and in the practice of life-nurturing methods. As a longtime
practitioner of Qigong Yang Sheng, he is one of the
few scientists in the U.S. to have both hands-on
knowledge of mind-body practice, and an active research
career in mind-body medicine, which is funded through
grants by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and
various foundations. Dr. Chen devotes his career and life
to the practice of Yang Sheng, and promotion of selfhealing
and mind-body-spirit integration through the non
-profit organization, World Institute for Self Healing
(WISH) (http://www.wishus.org).
36 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) Volume 2, Issue No. 1