Pre Departure Research Critique 1
While studying abroad in India, I am interested in exploring holistic approaches to enhance one’s well-being and physical, emotional, and mental health, using yoga and mindfulness meditation. I would like to explore holistic approaches within young men and women and see how they perceive and incorporate holistic health into their daily lives. I would like to learn more about how mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety are treated and if it is treated holistically. I wonder if they use yoga and meditation as treatment, and how they perceive yoga and meditation versus our perceptions from the United States. My assumption is that yoga and meditation is prevalent in India and that they view it as a spiritual practice. I have visited and practiced at yoga studios in the United States, and I have had yoga teachers who have practiced in India, learned more, and brought knowledge back. This has led me to assume that yoga is prevalent. I can tell that yoga has become more popular in the United States because I have been hearing about it more and about new studios and workshops being offered. In some yoga studios I have gone to, they focus on the physical practice as well as some of the spiritual aspects and benefits of clearing the mind and reducing stress. I would like to learn more about the similarities and differences between how these holistic approaches are perceived globally.
Yoga has originated in India thousands of years ago as a philosophical and spiritual discipline to relieve suffering, or disease (duhkha) (Jeter, Slutsky, Singh & Khalsa, 2015). Yoga practice incorporates coordinated breathing (pranayama), movement (asana), and meditation (dyana) to unify the mind and body (Jeter et. al. 2015). This practice has been known to promote a healthy well-being and reduce stress. Sri Kuvalayananda started documenting the history of the therapeutic benefits of yoga in the first journal for yoga research in India, entitled Yoga Mimamsa, which started in 1924 (Jeter et. al. 2015). Since then, many yoga studies have shown the positive healing effects on a variety of health domains, such as physiological factors and psychological well-being, such as with depression and anxiety, and with the stress response (Jeter et. al. 2015).
In the United States context, Jeter et. al. (2015) stated that yoga has become more popular in the last several decades in the United States. More practitioners and the rise of yoga studios are seen as a holistic wellness approach. The United States Department of Health and Human Services indicated that the practice of yoga has doubled among adults between 2002 and 2012 (Jeter et. al. 2015). Because of the growing popularity, yoga research has emerged in the United States within integrative medicine. The National Institutes of Health in the United States established the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health in 1998 in order to study the role and safety of alternative therapies, such as yoga, for helping to improve the nation’s health (Jeter et. al. 2015). Jeter et. al. (2015) completed a bibliometric analysis of yoga therapy. In this analysis, they found 258 publications on yoga as a therapeutic intervention in India between 1967 and 2013. During the same time period, they found 135 publications in the United States and Canada (Jeter et. al. 2015). There has been an increase in the total number of publications seen in the last decade. There were 28 total publications between 1999 and 2003, then it increased to 76 total publications between 2004 and 2008. Between 2009 and 2013, there was an almost triple increase with 243 total publications (Jeter et. al. 2015). This shows how much yoga research has undergone substantial growth and interest. Using yoga as a complementary therapy in clinical practice may lead to health benefits beyond traditional treatment alone, but in order to produce changes in health care policy, more evidence-based and good quality research is needed (Jeter et. al. 2015).
One aspect of yoga practice, as mentioned earlier, is meditation, and “mindfulness” is a new buzz word that has emerged in the literature as one way to describe a type of meditation. Just like yoga research, interest in mindfulness interventions has increased substantially in the past three decades (Creswell, 2017). This increase may be because of scientific reports and media coverage that discusses the potential benefits of mindfulness interventions for a variety of outcomes, such as mental and physical health outcomes, as well as cognitive, affective, and interpersonal outcomes (Creswell, 2017). Mindfulness intervention is being used in more institutional settings, such as in clinical treatment, the workplace, schools, the military, and prisons. A working definition of mindfulness is, “the process of openly attending, with awareness, to one’s present moment experience” (Creswell, 2017). This process is different than our usual daily experience because we often unintentionally let our minds wander, run on automatic pilot, or suppress unwanted experiences and thoughts. One study showed that our minds wander approximately 47% of the time, and mind wandering can predict later unhappiness (Killingsworth & Gilbert, 2010; Creswell, 2017). If we are able to be mindful, it is associated with higher well-being in daily life. Psychological scientists have been studying mindfulness for the past three decades, which is not much time compared to the 2,500 year tradition of knowledge and practice of mindfulness in numerous Buddhist traditions (Creswell, 2017). Psychological scientists have used Buddhist scholarships to help them with their research on mindfulness. Most of the mindfulness interventions used in the scientific literature are secular (Creswell, 2017). Being mindful is something that can be developed and deepened over time with mindfulness interventions. Since our default methods of attending to experience are usually letting our minds wander, criticizing ourselves, ruminating about the past, or worrying about the future, mindfulness interventions can be challenging and effortful. In one study by Wilson, Reinhard, Westgate, Gilber, Ellerbeck et al., (2014; Creswell, 2017), participants would rather receive mild electric shocks than be left alone with their thoughts. I think this study implies that one’s thoughts can be anxiety provoking and mentally painful for people. These mindfulness training exercises can be one way to help train the mind and foster insight, learning, and self-regulation skills. A review conducted by Creswell (2017) on mindfulness interventions showed that randomized controlled trials demonstrate promising evidence that they can improve mental and physical health, cognitive and affective factors, and interpersonal outcomes.
While I am studying in Mysore, India at the PHRI, I would like to learn more about the Indian perspective of yoga and mindfulness and how they use it with the holistic approach. I think I can do this by talking to yoga teachers in India and practicing yoga myself to see how it is taught and practiced in this context. Luckily, I will have the opportunity to practice yoga here 6 days a week! I think I would like to try to talk to spiritual teachers or healers to learn more about their practice and approach, as well as experts on Ayurveda. This topic of yoga and mindfulness meditation is interesting to me because I became interested in yoga about three years ago. I enjoy practicing yoga and think it can help others. In addition to researching and learning more about yoga and mindfulness here in India, I want to continue researching holistic approaches while in graduate school. My goal is to go to a graduate program, in which I can have the opportunity to conduct research in yoga and mindfulness meditation as a complementary treatment to alleviate depression, anxiety, stress, as well as promote optimal functioning and an overall positive well-being. As far as my personal concerns about exploring this research in India, I am just excited to learn more especially because yoga originated here. I can broaden my perspective on this holistic approach to encompass more than my assumptions from the United States. I think it will allow me to learn about this research topic on a deeper level.
References
Creswell, J. D. (2017). Mindfulness interventions. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 491-516.
Jeter, P. E., Slutsky, J., Singh, N., & Khalsa, S. B. S. (2015). Yoga as a therapeutic intervention:
A bibliometric analysis of published research studies from 1967 to 2013. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 21(10), 586-592.
Killingsworth, M. A., Gilbert, D. T., (2010). A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Science,
330(6006), 932.
Wilson, T. D., Reinhard, D. A., Westgate, E. C., Gilbert, D. T., Ellerbeck, N. et al., (2014). Just think: The challenge of the disengaged mind. Science, 345 (6192), 75-77.