Mindfulness for Anxiety Management and Happiness: The Role of VR, Metacognition, and Hormones

Abstract

Chronic stress, even at a young age, has become a major health concern with the harmful effects on cognition, mood, and well-being largely underestimated. Mindfulness interventions are well-recognized as effective strategies in stress management. However, we know less about the impact of mindfulness on physiological indicators such as hormones/neurotransmitters. This review study aims to provide representative studies regarding the impact of mindfulness practices on hormones and neurotransmitters, which are responsible for stress regulation, positivity, and wellness. Taking into consideration the difficulties that many people have to follow a conventional mindfulness program, we also investigated the effectiveness of virtual reality as an assistive tool for mindfulness training. The results confirmed our initial hypothesis, according to which mindfulness training reduces stress hormones while increasing hormones/neurotransmitters which induce relaxation along with positivity and self-satisfaction. Virtual reality provides several advantages facilitating training conditions, optimizing the experience, and increasing the effectiveness of interventions. In addition, it strengthens self-control skills. These results indicate also that those physiological parameters, which are considered to be out of human control, can be modified with self-control practices. We conclude that mindfulness practices constitute a form of metacognitive training by which individuals can take control and balance the physiological processes that determine cognition, mood, and well-being. Virtual reality maximizes therapeutic outcomes, especially for people with disabilities or difficulties with conventional interventions.

Mindfulness, social evaluation anxiety, and self-regulation: exploring their association on impulsive behavior among athletes

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Capturing self‐regulated learning processes in virtual reality: Causal sequencing of multimodal data

“…However, as Azevedo (2020) highlights in a review of the current issues, challenges, and opportunities for the study of metacognition, there is a paucity of research examining metacognition within VR or other immersive learning environments. Much of the literature that does exist, examines therapeutic uses of VR such as for people with psychosis (Dietrichkeit et al, 2020; Olendzki et al, 2020) or those with autism spectrum disorder (Cox et al, 2017; Ke et al, 2022; Mitsea et al, 2022) and other special education needs (eg, Tourette Syndrome, Reese et al, 2015). These studies, however, have referred to metacognition or monitoring more generally, and do not situate their work within theoretical frameworks of self‐regulation or metacognition.…”

Greater usage and positive mood change for users of a dynamic VR app before and after the COVID-19 pandemic onset

“…While the literature is rich with studies exploring how VR may be an effective method for distraction in and out of the healthcare setting ( Hoffman et al, 2014 ; Small et al, 2015 ; Burns-Nadera et al, 2017 ; Boylan et al, 2018 ; Khadra et al, 2018 ; Piskorz and Czub, 2018 ; Soltani et al, 2018 ; Hoffman et al, 2019 ; Spiegel et al, 2019 ), it is more limited on the usage behavior and efficacy of VR apps with unique content features on psychological stress and anxiety reduction, excluding the growing literature on mindfulness and meditative practices ( Seabrook et al, 2020 ; Mazgelyte et al, 2021 ; Drigas et al, 2022 ; Kelly et al, 2022 ; Mitsea et al, 2022 , 2023 ). Moreover, the psychological effects of these content features and user app use have not been adequately investigated in the consumer user population during a pandemic setting.…”