Mindful Meditation Practice and Theory
Part 2: Sitting Meditation
Sharon M. Theroux, PhD
Disclosures
Sharon M. Theroux, PhD
Licensed Psychologist
Board Certified Clinical Neuropsychologist
Certified MBSR instructor
Mindful Eating Teacher
Board member, TCME
Program Director, International Seminars Group (ISG)
CP
Learning Objectives
◼ Describe a mindful sitting meditation practice
◼ Summarize the neurological underpinnings of
the sitting meditation that can enhance
mindful eating.
Part 1 Review: Body Scan
◼ Sequentially moving attention throughout body
◼ Strengthening connections between brain (S1) and body
◼ May reduce reducedepression by increasing our ability to
◼ Observe our surroundings
◼ Act with Awareness
◼ Helpful for emotional eating
Inquiry
What did you notice?
Mindful Sitting Meditation
• Paying attention with an openhearted, curious,
nonjudgmental awareness
• Bringing your attention back to the object of focus,
whenever it wanders
Practice
CP
Inquiry
What did you notice?
SMT
Mindful Sitting meditation
Two main styles of mindful sitting meditation
Focused attention (FA)
Moment by moment selective attention on a particular
object
• Breath
• Body Sensations
• Sounds
Mindful Sitting meditation
Two types of mindful sitting meditation
Open monitoring (OM)
An open awareness of any stimuli that occurs in the
present moment
• Mind states (thoughts and emotions)
• Choiceless Awareness
How do these
Formal meditation practices
Improve well-being?
Public Library of Science, 2014, 9 (10)
Method
45 healthy adults randomly assigned to 2 groups
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
Wait list control
MRI scans pre and post MBSR class
Psychological measures pre and post
• Toronto Alexithymia Scale
• Penn State Worry Questionnaire
• State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
• Beck Depression Inventory II
• Mindful Attention Awareness Scale
Results
Psychological Measures
MBSR group significant pre-post decreases in
• Alexithymia
• Worry
• Anxiety
• Depression
Control group had no pre-post change
Results
Physical Measures
MBSR meditators had strong coupling among
• Somato-sensory strip
• Insular cortex
• Lateral prefrontal cortex
Neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield
Surgeries of patients with intractable
epilepsy
Stimulation of certain parts of the
motor strip always elicited
movement of a particular body part
Mapped the motor, and then sensory
strip of the brain
Size of various regions of the body is
related to number of sensory or
motor neurons devoted to it
Penfield et al (1950), The Cerebral Cortex of Man.
1950
SMT
2012, Neuroscience Media Publishers, LLC
Insular Cortex
• Multimodal sensory
processing
• Body awareness
• Emotional regulation
• Self-perception
2012, Neuroscience Media Publishers, LLC
Insular Cortex
• Posterior Insula
• Raw sensory
perception
• Anterior
• Self-perceptions
Dorsolateral
Prefrontal
cortex (2)
• Working memory
• Mental flexibility
• Planning
• Inhibitory control
Medial Prefrontal cortex
(3)
Implicated in:
Self-referential activity
Mind wandering
Part of Default Mode Network
The Body Scan and Mindful Breathing
Among Veterans with PTSD: Type of
Intervention Moderates the Relationship
Between Changes in Mindfulness and Post-
Treatment Depression
102 Veterans with PTSD
Randomly assigned to 4 groups
• Body scan meditation
• Mindful Breathing
• Slow Breathing
• Sitting Quietly
Groups met weekly for 6 weeks for 20-minute practice
Daily home practice recommended
2016
Colgan, et al, 2016
Measures
3 Self-report questionnaires given pre and post
treatment
• Beck Depression Inventory II
• PTSD checklist
• Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
Baer, et al (2008), “Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire in Meditating and non Meditating Samples”. Assessment, 15 (3), 329-342
Results:
1. Those in Body Scan and Mindful Breathing groups were less depressed
post treatment, compared to Slow Breathing or Sitting Quietly groups.
2. Reductions in depression in the Body scan group was predicted by
the “Observing” and “Acting with Awareness” facets of FFMQ
3. Reductions in depression in the Mindful Breathing group was
predicted by the “Non-Reacting” facet of FFMQ
Colgan, et al, 2016
Being with the unpleasant, without wanting to change anything
Non-reacting mind
Calm, in the midst of chaos
Summary
1. The cultivation of formal meditation practices, such as mindful sitting
meditation, increases connectivity within brain regions responsible for
body awareness and impulse control, and reduces connectivity to default
mode network pathways in the brain that lead to mind wandering and self-
referential thinking.
2. This reduces depression and anxiety, which can reduce our need to
soothe ourselves with food.
Colgan, et al, 2016
Viktor Frankl
Between stimulus
and response there is
a space. In that space
is our power to choose
our response. In
our response lies our
growth and our
freedom.
Thank you!
Bibliography
◼ Baer, et al (2008), “Construct Validity of the Five Facet Mindfulness
Questionnaire in Meditating and non Meditating Samples”. Assessment, 15 (3),
329-342
◼ Brewer, Judson (2015), “Practice as Science Retreat”. A presentation at the
Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society Annual
Conference.
◼ Colgan, D. D., Christopher, M., Michael, P., & Wahbeh, H (2016). The Body
Scan and Mindful Breathing Among Veterans with PTSD: Type of Intervention
Moderates the Relationship Between Changes in Mindfulness and Post-
Treatment Depression, Mindfulness, 4, 372-383.
◼ Penfield, W. & Rasmussen, T. (1950). The cerebral cortex of man : a clinical
study of localization of function. New York : Macmillan.
Bibliography
➢ Farb N.A., Segal Z.V., Mayberg H., Bean J., McKeon D., Fatima, Z., &
Anderson, A. (2007) Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals
distinct neural modes of self-reference. Social Cognitive and Affective
Neuroscience, 2: 313–322 10.1093/scan/nsm030 [doi]. [PMC free article]
[PubMed]
➢ Farb, N.A., Anderson, A., & Segal, Z. (2012). The Mindful Brain and emotion
regulation in mood
disorders. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 57 (2), 70-77.
➢ Santarnecchi, E., Arista, S., Egiziano, E., Gardi, C. Petrosino, R., Vatti, G.,
Reda, M. & Rossi, A. (2014). Interaction between Neuroanatomical and
Psychological Changes after Mindfulness-Based Training. PLoS One, 9 (10):
e108359. doi: 10.137/journal.pone.0108359.
•> Judson A. Brewer, 20254–20259, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1112029108
