According to the journal, mindfulness-based stress reduction or MBSR, it is a form of meditation which has become effective for many physical and mental disorders. However, there has been less attention to the benefits of this meditation on people who are healthy. The aim of the journal is to further understand the usefulness of MBSR among healthy subjects while putting the focus on its benefits in reducing stress. There are some points that are found in the journal on the effectiveness of using MBSR on healthy people and the effectiveness of spirituality in reducing the levels of stress.
The Main Points
The main points of the journal are that there has been a big interest in the application of MBSR in the physically and mentally ill individuals. However, the research has noted that there has been less attention that has focused on the benefit of this method on people who are healthy in terms of it being a tool for reducing stress. According to the article, it is vital to analyze the effects of stress because continuous stress can result in unproductive rumination which can then lead to a consumption of energy. Stress also has a negative effect on the capacity to forgive and hope. The negative effects make it vital to determine the most effective ways of handling the issue (Chiesa, 2009).
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The next point in the article is the justification for using MBSR where the writer indicates that even though some level of stress tends to improve the performance of individuals, too much stress can have an adverse effect on the health of individuals. MBSR mainly teaches people to observe thoughts and situations in a non-judgmental manner without reacting impulsively. The process helps individuals in developing an awareness that reflects the inner and outer experiences and which could be an effective tool for stress reduction.
The article has also been able to identify the relationship between the decrease in stress and an enhancement in the spiritual values. It is also a crucial point because it indicates that an increase in the spirituality levels of individuals leads to improvements in the stress levels more specifically, the research argues that if more time is spent in a mind-full attitude then there would be a greater ability to overcome stressful situations. In addition, an enhancement in the mindfulness levels leads to a reduction in a trait, anxiety, rumination, perceived stress, and an increase in the amount of self-compassion. MBSR was found to be effective in terms of reducing anxiety and also it reduces the symptoms of depression.
From the study that was conducted in the journal, one important point to understand is that the findings indicated that MBSR consistently did not provide a major non-specific effect in the reduction of stress levels among healthy subjects when compared to when they do not get any treatment. The results supported the assumption that MBSR can also have a significant specific effect. It is evident when comparing MBSR to a nonspecific design that has been designed so that it can be structurally equal to a meditation program in terms of course modality and the instructor attention ( Lehrhaupt, 2017) . However, the article indicates that further investigations need to be done on the long-term effects of MBSR on the stress of people who are healthy such as doing a follow-up for a period that is not less than one year. It is important because the current analysis of the long-term effects of MBSR on people who are healthy only ends at a follow-up period of three months and its findings are contrasting. Some of the evidence indicates that there was a significant improvement after an eight-week program and thus, a long-term follow-up would be vital.
The next point that is particularly important relates to the findings of the study which shows that MBSR significantly improved the spiritual levels when compared to an inactive control buy not when there is a comparison to an active control. However, there is still no clear and shared model that relates the increase in the levels of spirituality and a reduction in the perceived stress.
The research in the journal also discovered another major point where MBSR can be used as a relaxation program in terms of decreasing the ruminative thinking too ( Rosenbaum, 2017) . In addition, more improvements in many psychological features such as an improvement in self-compassion, decrease in the trait anxiety, and an increase in empathy indicate that MBSR can be linked with non-specific improvements of most of the psychological symptoms other than stress even though specific effects have not yet been shown. However, it is vital to note that the study has a limitation in terms of quality because it mainly included Caucasian women in the study and also the study was not conducted for a longer period. The limitations make it necessary to conduct further analysis to ascertain the accuracy of the study that was conducted.
Conclusion
From the analysis of the journal, it is evident that there are many points that can be considered to be major such as the fact that the current evidence indicates that MBSR has a possible specific and non-specific effect in reducing stress among people who are healthy. However, there has not been an investigation on the effects of the program in the long-term and thus there is need to investigate larger samples, which are more heterogeneous to determine its effectiveness and also to determine specific effects on the meditation program.
References
Chiesa A., &. Serretti A. (2009). Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, pp. 593–600.
Rosenbaum, Elana. (2017). The Heart of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction: A Mbsr Guide for Clinicians and Clients . Pesi Pub & Media.
Lehrhaupt, L. M., & Meibert, P. (2017). Mindfulness-based stress reduction: The MBSR program for enhancing health and vitality . Novato, California: New World Library .
