Mindfulness exercises linked to improved mental fitness

Mindfulness is described as the calm awareness of one’s body functions, consciousness, and the present moment without demonstrating emotional volatility.

Study details
To come up with this finding, a research team from the University of Pennsylvania focused on 48 high-stress U.S. military personnel, aged 25, preparing for deployment to Iraq being trained.

In order to study the efficacy of mindfulness training, the subjects were split into two cohorts; 31 participants were provided MT, while the remaining 17 were treated as controls.

For the study, researchers had designed an eight-week mindfulness training program to gauge participants’ working memory capacity, and their emotional reactivity to the present moment’s situation, positive or negative.

The program, called Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT), aimed at cultivating greater psychological resilience or "mental armor" by strengthening mindfulness in the individuals.

The researchers used a system called Operation Span Task to analyze the effect of the program on the working memory of the individuals, and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, or PANAS to evaluate the impact of the training on the cognitive control of emotions in the participants.

Outcome of the study
On analyzing their psychological health, the researchers found that those who spent more time in the daily mindfulness exercises were shown to have better mood, working memory, problem solving abilities, and control over their emotions.

However, those who were in the control group reported declining working memory capacity, as well as increased instances of negative mood.

Similar patterns were observed in those individuals who spent lesser time in the mindfulness exercises.

Cognitive neuroscientist Amishi Jha of the Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Penn., and lead author of the study said, "Our findings suggest that, just as daily physical exercise leads to physical fitness, engaging in mindfulness exercises on a regular basis may improve mind-fitness.

"Working memory is an important feature of mind-fitness. Not only does it safeguard against distraction and emotional reactivity, but it also provides a mental workspace to ensure quick-and-considered decisions and action plans.

"Building mind-fitness with mindfulness training may help anyone who must maintain peak performance in the face of extremely stressful circumstances, from first responders, relief workers and trauma surgeons, to professional and Olympic athletes."

The study has been published in the Journal Emotion.