Efficacy of Rajayoga Meditation on Positive Thinking: An Index for Self-Satisfaction and Happiness in Life

Ramesh, M G; Sathian, Brijesh; Sinu, E; Kiranmai, S.

doi:10.7860/jcdr/2013/5889.3488

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Previous studies on BKRY practitioners have reported an increase in positive thinking and happiness in life (Ramesh, Sathian, Sinu, & Kiranmai, 2013), reduction in middle latency auditory evoked potentials during meditation (Telles & Naveen, 2004) and improvement in respiratory functions, diastolic blood pressure and lipid profile Vyas & Dikshit, 2002). An early study on the effect on autonomic changes was inconclusive, mentioning both sympathetic and parasympathetic activations (Telles & Desiraju, 1993), while a more recent study showed a parasympathetic dominance in BKRY practitioners with more than 5 years of experience .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

What contributes to wellbeing gains – proficiency or duration of meditation related practices?

Nair¹,

John²,

Mehrotra³

et al. 2018

Intnl. J. Wellbeing

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Several studies have shown physical and mental health benefits associated with different schools of meditation. However, reviews have recommended interpretation of study outcomes in the context of school specific traditional practices. In the literature, practice proficiency is often conflated with hours or years of meditation practice and it is difficult to attribute wellbeing gains directly to the proficiency of practice. We carried out two studies to examine wellbeing, practice proficiency, and duration of practice amongst Brahma Kumaris Rajayoga (BKRY) practitioners from India. In Study 1, we surveyed participants (n = 1009) to record the socio-demographics, spiritual lifestyle components, and wellbeing enhancement attributed to their spiritual practice. We developed new measures for evaluating proficiency of BKRY practice and for assessment of progress in wellbeing attributed to BKRY practice. Both measures had high internal consistency scores (alphas 0.95, 0.93). Block-wise hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that after accounting for demographic variables, BKRY practice proficiency strongly predicted progress in wellbeing, explaining over 51.6% of the total variance. In Study 2, we took three well-matched groups (n = 86) that were distinct on the basis of duration of practice (long term, short term and zero term). We examined wellbeing differences in these three groups and the extent of correlation of wellbeing with practice proficiency, progress in wellbeing and duration of practice. We conclude that meditation practice does improve wellbeing and that proficiency of practice is better correlated with most aspects of wellbeing than duration of practice but there are a few aspects of wellbeing that increase with sustained practice over a long time. We recommend that studies involving other schools of spiritual/religious practice incorporate tradition-specific proficiency assessment (instead of using years of practice as a proxy) and also use the Progress in Wellbeing scale for assessing practiceaided improvements in wellbeing.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

What contributes to wellbeing gains – proficiency or duration of meditation related practices?

Nair¹,

John²,

Mehrotra³

et al. 2018

Intnl. J. Wellbeing

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show abstract

“…A Persian translated version of the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was used to measure happiness (Ramesh et al, 2013) which was validated previously for use in Persian speaking populations. This questionnaire consists of 29 items and responses are being given on a 6 points Likert-type scale from 'strongly disagree' to 'strongly agree'.…”

Section: Happinessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Happiness and its relation to psychological well-being of adolescents

Heizomi

Allahverdipour

Jafarabadi

et al. 2015

Asian Journal of Psychiatry

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“…Ramesh et al investigated the relationship between meditation and happiness by using the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire. They pointed out that there were significant differences between meditation groups’ and non-meditation groups’ sense of happiness [ 31 ]. The definitions of happiness are very varied, depending on different cultures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Evaluation of Physical Stillness with Wearable Chest and Arm Accelerometer during Chan Ding Practice

Chang

Chun

Chen

et al. 2016

Sensors

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Chan Ding training is beneficial to health and emotional wellbeing. More and more people have taken up this practice over the past few years. A major training method of Chan Ding is to focus on the ten Mailuns, i.e., energy points, and to maintain physical stillness. In this article, wireless wearable accelerometers were used to detect physical stillness, and the created physical stillness index (PSI) was also shown. Ninety college students participated in this study. Primarily, accelerometers used on the arms and chest were examined. The results showed that the PSI values on the arms were higher than that of the chest, when participants moved their bodies in three different ways, left-right, anterior-posterior, and hand, movements with natural breathing. Then, they were divided into three groups to practice Chan Ding for approximately thirty minutes. Participants without any Chan Ding experience were in Group I. Participants with one year of Chan Ding experience were in Group II, and participants with over three year of experience were in Group III. The Chinese Happiness Inventory (CHI) was also conducted. Results showed that the PSI of the three groups measured during 20–30 min were 0.123 ± 0.155, 0.012 ± 0.013, and 0.001 ± 0.0003, respectively (p < 0.001 ***). The averaged CHI scores of the three groups were 10.13, 17.17, and 25.53, respectively (p < 0.001 ***). Correlation coefficients between PSI and CHI of the three groups were −0.440, −0.369, and −0.537, respectively (p < 0.01 **). PSI value and the wearable accelerometer that are presently available on the market could be used to evaluate the quality of the physical stillness of the participants during Chan Ding practice.

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Efficacy of Rajayoga Meditation on Positive Thinking: An Index for Self-Satisfaction and Happiness in Life

Cited by 20 publications

References 17 publications

What contributes to wellbeing gains – proficiency or duration of meditation related practices?

What contributes to wellbeing gains – proficiency or duration of meditation related practices?

Happiness and its relation to psychological well-being of adolescents

The Evaluation of Physical Stillness with Wearable Chest and Arm Accelerometer during Chan Ding Practice

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