The Science of Mindfulness and the Practice of Law

Strikingly, like physical exercise, the more time servicemembers spent engaging in mindfulness exercises, the more they benefited. [...]while stress may degrade well-being, mindfulness training protects against this. Strikingly, the benefits from KabatZinn's exercises were maintained for more than a year after the program's formal end, and patients reported continuing the exercises on their own. Since that pioneering study, hundreds of studies have been conducted on MBSR and are now being aggregated into "metaanalyses" to compile results from thousands of participants. Reductions in physiological ailments and symptoms of chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and arthritis have been reported. [...]there is growing evidence that mindfulness training improves wellness in the body. [...]Epel suggested in her paper that "A present attentional state may promote a healthy biochemical milieu and, in turn, cell longevity" (Elissa S. Epel, Eli Puterman, Jue Lin, et al., "Wandering Minds and Aging Cells," Clinical Psychological Science, 2013 (1:1), at 75-83)

Mindfulness Training for Judges: Mind Wandering and the Development of Cognitive Resilience

The benefits of mindfulness practices for lawyers have been the subject of broad discussion within the profession for a number of years. Increasingly, this discussion has expanded to include judges and the work of the judiciary. In this article we explore more deeply the relevance of mindfulness to judges, and in particular, how it can support their resilience, health, and well-being, as well as their cognitive functioning. We hope to educate and support judges who would like to gain greater mastery over their cognitive capacity and emotional well-being. Recognizing that the full breadth of this subject is beyond an article of this length, we focus on a primary vulnerability to which we are all susceptible but which can be especially consequential for judges in their high-stakes world of decision making: mind wandering. We consider some ways this vulnerability may limit judges’ performance and well-being and review a growing body of scientific research, which examines the benefits of mindfulness training to mitigate this vulnerability by helping to bolster attention and working memory capacity. We then offer simple mindfulness practices, which have been found to be useful in developing attention and working memory capacity, which we term “skills” as they may be developed through ongoing mindfulness practice

Deploying Mindfulness to Gain Cognitive Advantage: Considerations for Military Effectiveness and Well-being

Mindfulness involves paying attention to present moment experience without discursive commentary or emotional reactivity. Mindfulness training (MT) programs aim to promote this mental mode via introduction to specific mindfulness exercises, related in-class discussion, and ongoing engagement in mindfulness exercises. MT is being increasingly offered to high-demand, high-stress military/uniformed and civilian cohorts with a wide array of reported benefits. Herein, we begin by discussing recent theoretical models regarding MT’s mechanisms of action from a cognitive training/cognitive neuroscience perspective, which propose that MT engages and strengthens three key processes [e.g., 1]. These are: 1) attentional orienting, which is the ability to select and sustain attention on a subset of information while remaining undistracted; 2) meta-awareness, which is the ability to monitor one’s ongoing experience with an awareness of doing so; and 3) decentering, which is the ability to view one’s experience at a psychological distance so that biases, mind-sets, and interpretations are viewed as mental processes rather than accurate depictions of reality. Next, we review evidence of MT’s beneficial effects on cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions of human behavior, which are aligned with military frameworks describing the human dimension [e.g., 2]. We then discuss attitudinal impediments to broad adoption of MT in military settings, and propose counterarguments so as to facilitate its implementation. We end by arguing that MT should be considered a key cognitive training tool by which to achieve cognitive advantage in the service of improved operational readiness and effectiveness, as well as greater resilience and well-being in military/uniformed cohorts

Cultivating Forgiveness and Compassion Through a Mindfulness-based Program for Teachers: Results from Two Field Interventions

The aim of this research was to determine if a mindfulness-training (MT) program for teachers cultivated habits of mind (e.g., mindfulness, emotion regulation, compassion and forgiveness) conducive to effective teaching. Data were gathered in two randomized control trials. Results from pre- to post-test and follow-up showed that MT was associated with increases in mindfulness, efficacy for regulating emotion on the job, and the tendency to forgive others. Linguistic analyses revealed that teachers who underwent MT expressed more positive affect when discussing their most challenging student than those in the waitlist control group. Results warrant further investigation using behavioral-, observational-, and third-person measures of these habits of mind in the target individual

Cultivating Forgiveness and Compassion Through a Mindfulness-based Program for Teachers: Results from Two Field Interventions

The aim of this research was to determine if a mindfulness-training (MT) program for teachers cultivated habits of mind (e.g., mindfulness, emotion regulation, compassion and forgiveness) conducive to effective teaching. Data were gathered in two randomized control trials. Results from pre- to post-test and follow-up showed that MT was associated with increases in mindfulness, efficacy for regulating emotion on the job, and the tendency to forgive others. Linguistic analyses revealed that teachers who underwent MT expressed more positive affect when discussing their most challenging student than those in the waitlist control group. Results warrant further investigation using behavioral-, observational-, and third-person measures of these habits of mind in the target individual

Investigating the protective effects of mindfulness-based attention training on mind wandering in applied settings

IntroductionMind wandering, a phenomenon in which attention drifts away from the task-at-hand, is associated with deleterious effects on performance and well-being. As such, efforts to curb mind wandering are warranted. Recently, mindfulness training (MT) has been found to protect against mind wandering. Yet, many MT programs are at risk of falling off the implementation cliff due to challenges implementing these programs in applied settings. To mitigate against this, early-stage research in small convenience samples may be necessary to spur stakeholder engagement and collaboration. Herein, the effects of MT on mind wandering were examined via an internal meta-analysis of early-stage studies of a manualized, context-adaptable short-form MT program, referred to as Mindfulness-Based Attention Training (MBAT).MethodsFive longitudinal studies (N = 304) were conducted in a variety of organizational cohorts. Self-reported mind wandering and meta-awareness, as well as accuracy (A’) and response time variability (intra-individual coefficient of variation, ICV) during performance of the sustained attention to response task (SART) were assessed at baseline (T1) and 4 weeks later (T2) in MBAT and no-training participants.ResultsStandardized mean change (SMC) from T1 to T2 significantly differed between MBAT and no-training groups for mind wandering (ΔSMC = −0.387, p < 0.001), meta-awareness (ΔSMC = −0.374, p < 0.001), and ICV (ΔSMC = −0.376, p = 0.043), suggesting potential protective effects in self-reported and performance-based metrics of mind wandering.DiscussionThese results serve as preliminary proof-of-concept support for MBAT’s protective effects on mind wandering. Further, they suggest that MBAT is amenable to implementation across a variety of applied and organizational settings and warrants additional research employing larger sample sizes in randomized controlled designs

Impact of mindfulness training and yoga on injury and pain-related impairment: a group randomized trial in basic combat training

IntroductionService members are at risk for pain-related difficulties in functioning and physical injury. Previous studies suggest that mindfulness training (MT) and yoga may prevent these outcomes. The present study was designed to determine the impact of MT and yoga on the health, pain, and injury of Army trainees completing 10 weeks of basic combat training (BCT).MethodsPlatoons (≈40 trainees per platoon) were randomized to MT and yoga or training-as-usual in October to December 2020 at a large installation in the US. Self-reported outcomes were health, pain level, and pain impact on training, sleep, mood, and stress. Objective outcomes were injury-related medical encounters and number of diagnoses. The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials. Gov (NCT05550610).ResultsIntervention trainees reported significantly better health (OR = 1.05, 95% CI [1.00, 1.10]) and less impact of pain on training (OR = 0.81, 95% CI [0.74, 0.90]), sleep (OR = 0.88, 95% CI [0.81, 0.95]), mood (OR = 0.86, 95% CI [0.78, 0.96]), and stress (OR = 0.88, 95% CI [0.79, 0.98]). There was no significant difference in injury-related medical encounters (AOR = 0.70, 95% CI [0.48, 1.03]), but intervention trainees had fewer diagnoses (OR = 0.67, 95% CI [0.47, 0.95]) and were 30% less likely to have a first medical encounter at any time during BCT. This difference emerged 3 weeks into BCT.DiscussionA combined MT and yoga intervention resulted in better trainee health. The US Army and other organizations requiring resilience under extreme stress should consider implementing MT and yoga to offset risks to employee health