David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Differential Effects of Mindful Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Loving-Kindness Meditation on Decentering and Negative Reactions to Repetitive Thoughts
by Brian Thompson, Ph.D.
October 21, 2010
"Decentering" is a term used to describe a process in which individuals learn to take a step back and observe a thought more objectively as content, rather than perceiving thoughts as accurate reflections of reality. For example, a non-decentered stance might be something like, "I'm too anxious to attend thw party," believing the thought, and canceling plans to attend, even though one would like to go. A more decentered stance is, "I'm having the thought, 'I'm too anxious to attend the party,'" and attending anyway. Decentering came out of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy camp (other SM MBCT posts), and is similar to "defusion" in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (other SM ACT posts).
In a recent study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, Dr. Greg Feldman of Simmons College and colleagues examined the impact of a 15 minute intervention on decentering, as measured by the Toronto Mindfulness Scale.
As Simmons College is an all girls' school, all participants were female. They were randomly assigned to one of three 15 minute guided exercises:
This finding adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that mindfulness shift the way people respond to negative thoughts and feelings, making them less aversive. (Similarly, the MBRP study we recently wrote about had a similar finding with depression and relapse.)
Several years ago, I never would have thought we could find signficant changes from only 15 minutes of mindfulness, but there is a growing body of research using similarly short interventions. We still need to be careful of other confounds, such as demand characteristics (e.g., people responding a certain way because they feel expected to), but the research is very promising.
Reference
Feldman, G., Greeson, J., & Senville, J. (2010). Differential Effects of Mindful Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Loving-Kindness Meditation on Decentering and Negative Reactions to Repetitive Thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 1002-1011.
by Brian Thompson, Ph.D.
October 21, 2010
"Decentering" is a term used to describe a process in which individuals learn to take a step back and observe a thought more objectively as content, rather than perceiving thoughts as accurate reflections of reality. For example, a non-decentered stance might be something like, "I'm too anxious to attend thw party," believing the thought, and canceling plans to attend, even though one would like to go. A more decentered stance is, "I'm having the thought, 'I'm too anxious to attend the party,'" and attending anyway. Decentering came out of the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy camp (other SM MBCT posts), and is similar to "defusion" in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (other SM ACT posts).
In a recent study published in Behaviour Research and Therapy, Dr. Greg Feldman of Simmons College and colleagues examined the impact of a 15 minute intervention on decentering, as measured by the Toronto Mindfulness Scale.
As Simmons College is an all girls' school, all participants were female. They were randomly assigned to one of three 15 minute guided exercises:
- mindful breathing, adapted from a MBCT script;
- a Buddhist loving-kindness meditation, adapted from Insight Meditation by Buddhist teachers Sharon Salzburg and Joseph Goldstein; and
- progressive muscle relaxation, a decades old relaxation practice that is just like it sounds.
This finding adds to a growing body of literature suggesting that mindfulness shift the way people respond to negative thoughts and feelings, making them less aversive. (Similarly, the MBRP study we recently wrote about had a similar finding with depression and relapse.)
Several years ago, I never would have thought we could find signficant changes from only 15 minutes of mindfulness, but there is a growing body of research using similarly short interventions. We still need to be careful of other confounds, such as demand characteristics (e.g., people responding a certain way because they feel expected to), but the research is very promising.
Reference
Feldman, G., Greeson, J., & Senville, J. (2010). Differential Effects of Mindful Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Loving-Kindness Meditation on Decentering and Negative Reactions to Repetitive Thoughts. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 1002-1011.
