“Letting Go” (Implicitly): Priming Mindfulness Mitigates the Effects of a Moderate Social Stressor

Abstract

This experimental study investigated whether implicitly priming mindfulness would facilitate psychological and cortisol recovery after undergoing a standardized psychological stressor. After completing baseline measures of well-being, all participants (N = 91) completed a public speaking stress task, were implicitly primed with “mindfulness” or “neutral” concepts using a scrambled sentence task, and finally, reported their situational well-being and provided cortisol samples. Simple moderation regression analyses revealed that the implicit mindfulness condition had significant beneficial effects for participants with low trait mindfulness. These participants reported higher situational self-esteem as well as less negative affect, perceived stress, and self-reported physiological arousal than their counterparts in the control condition. Cortisol analyses revealed that participants in the implicit mindfulness condition, regardless of level of trait mindfulness, showed a greater decline in cortisol during the early recovery stage compared to those in the control condition. Overall, results suggest that implicitly activating mindfulness can mitigate the psychological and physiological effects of a social stressor.

Brief mindfulness training for negative affectivity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

“…Finally, the studies in this meta-analysis were categorized as having relatively low (Buffart et al, 2012) methodological quality overall (mean Delphi score = 3.23, SD = 1.09), which may be attributed to a lack of clarity in reporting study design characteristics. To improve study quality, future reports should not only explicitly describe their study designs (e.g., participant blinding is particularly important; Bergeron, Almgren-Doré, & Dandeneau, 2016), but also adhere to guidelines for conducting high quality RCTs (e.g., CONSORT; Rennie, 2001).…”

Relationship of Mindfulness to Distress and Cortisol Response in Adolescent Girls At-Risk for Type 2 Diabetes

“…Complimentary research on mindfulness and stress response in adults indicates that state mindfulness is related to quicker cortisol recovery during an interpersonal laboratory stressor in healthy adults (Laurent, Hertz, Nelson, & Laurent, 2016). Similarly, a brief mindfulness manipulation experimentally induced faster decline in cortisol following a social stressor, as compared to a neutral control condition, among adults in good general health (Bergeron, Almgren-Dore, & Dandeneau, 2016). Faster cortisol recovery and decline reflect mitigation of the physiological impact of the stressor among those who are more mindful in the moment, which would purportedly have positive effects on health and well-being (Bergeron et al, 2016).…”

“…Similarly, a brief mindfulness manipulation experimentally induced faster decline in cortisol following a social stressor, as compared to a neutral control condition, among adults in good general health (Bergeron, Almgren-Dore, & Dandeneau, 2016). Faster cortisol recovery and decline reflect mitigation of the physiological impact of the stressor among those who are more mindful in the moment, which would purportedly have positive effects on health and well-being (Bergeron et al, 2016). In a small body of existing studies evaluating the effects of mindfulness-based interventions on cortisol in adults, the effects have been mixed (O'Leary, O'Neill, & Dockray, 2016).…”

Effects of a Brief Strange Loop Task on Immediate Word Length Comparison: A Mindfulness Study on Non-striving

“…In contract, the practice of acceptance and non-judgmental awareness within the mindfulness approach downplays problem eradication as mindfulness practice typically involves an observation mode, mere labeling of emotions, and distancing from mental content (Hinton et al, 2013). Suffice to say, the notion of “letting go” captures the sense of non-judgmental acceptance sufficiently well, as seen in previous literature (e.g., Frewen et al, 2008; Bergeron et al, 2016; Ruskin et al, 2017; Blackie and Kocovski, 2018). Thus, it can be assumed that implicit within the mindfulness approach is a sense of “letting go” or non-striving orientation which serves to obliterate the usual sense of resistance and judgmental stance toward undesired (or even desirable) circumstances and emotions.…”