Impact of Heartfulness meditation practice on anxiety, perceived stress, well-being, and telomere length

Frontiers in Psychology

Psychology

Jayaram Thimmapuram¹  Yogesh Patil²  Mansee Thakur²  Tahreem Hamdule²  Sanjana T. Philip²  Nishant Vyas³  Kapil Thakur⁴ 

[1] Department of Internal Medicine, Well Span York Hospital, York, PA, United States;Department of Medical Biotechnology, Central Research Laboratory, Mahatma Gandhi Mission School of Biomedical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi Mission Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai, India;Logical Life Science, Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India;SRCM Heartfulness Meditation Centre, Navi Mumbai, India;

关键词: anxiety;    cortisol;    Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ);    Heartfulness meditation;    RT-PCR;    stress;    telomere;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1158760

 received in 2023-02-04, accepted in 2023-05-08,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

ObjectiveExhaustion, stress, and burnout have all been found to be reduced using techniques like yoga and meditation. This study was carried out to check the effectiveness of Heartfulness practice (a form of meditation) on certain psychological and genetic variables.MethodsA total of 100 healthy individuals (aged 18–24) were recruited and randomized into two groups-Heartfulness intervention and control group. The intervention was carried out for 03 months. Participants from both groups were analysed for their cortisol levels and telomere length before and after the intervention. Psychometric measures of anxiety, perceived stress, well-being and mindfulness were carried out using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), WHO-Well-being Index (WHO-WBI) and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ).ResultsThe cortisol levels in the meditators group significantly decreased (p < 0.001) after the intervention as compared to the non-meditators group, whereas, the telomere length increased in the mediators group. This increase was not significant (p > 0.05). Anxiety and perceived stress also decreased post intervention, and well-being as well as mindfulness increased, as assessed by the questionnaire tools, although the decrease in perceived stress was statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). A negative correlation was observed between telomere length and cortisol (stress biomarker), whereas a positive correlation was found between telomere length and well-being.ConclusionOur data provide evidence that Heartfulness meditation practice can improve our mental health. Additionally, telomere length is shown to be affected by cortisol levels, and this meditation practice can also help to increase telomere length, and thereby slow down cellular aging. However, future studies with larger sample size are required to confirm our observations.

【 授权许可】

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Copyright © 2023 Thakur, Patil, Philip, Hamdule, Thimmapuram, Vyas and Thakur.