active mindfulness and wellbeing stewart forsyth and holly dixon fx consultants june 2015 prepared...

Active Mindfulness and Wellbeing

Stewart Forsyth and Holly DixonFX Consultants June 2015

Prepared for the 2015 NZ Association for Positive Psychology Conference

Covering

• Why exercise + mindfulness?

• How does active mindfulness work?

• What impacts might be expected?

Exercise, like mindfulness, can be hard to get into and maintain

What helps?

• Social

• Goal-setting and contracting

• Personality – especially “conscientiousness”

Exercise, like mindfulness is likely

good for us• Even 15 min a day of walking improves longevity ( Wen et al, 2011)

• (Some proportion of) vigorous exercise best…(Gebel, 2015)

• More mindfulness practice appears to have more impact (Carmody and Baer, 2007), even short forms of mindfulness produce positive effects (Hutcherson, 2008)

• Practice of mindfulness enhances wellness – “d-effect” of .50 – Grossman et al. meta-analysis, (2004)

http://tinybuddha.com/blog/improve-your-life-7-reasons-and-5-ways-to-be-mindful/

Both Exercise and Mindfulness help us deal with stress

• Mindful individuals:– are less likely to appraise daily events as stressful (

Weinstein, N., Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M, 2009)

– have less heart rate reactivity in response to stress (Bullis et al., 2014)

• Mindfulness alters how we respond to daily experiences of stress (i.e. pain, interpersonal stress) (Garland et al., 2012; Davis et al., 2014; Barnes et al., 2007)

• Exercise has anxiolytic and antidepressant effects (for a review see: Salmon, (2001)

• Exercise reduces the stress response to psychosocial stressors (for a review see: Crews & Landers (1987))

What is “Active Mindfulness”?

• “Active” – warm up, alternating high(er) intensity and mild activity, stretching

• “Mindfulness” – focus on the breath – from at rest, extending to breathing between sets, and during walking; visualisation and loving kindness exercises

• Collecting measures – for motivation and evaluation

Measuring impacts? Before and after

Measured by:

“Active”:

• Heart rate – resting and maximum; a fitness indicator (eg, VO2)

“Mindfulness”:

• Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (before and after the programme)

• “momentary experience” (happiness) assessments (before and after sessions)

Where now?

• Open to further trials with organisations, community groups

• Stewart – stewart@fxc.co.nz

• Holly - hollyclairedixon@gmail.com

• The slides – and links to references are available:

https://www.facebook.com/ActiveMindfulness