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Recovery from stress: an experimental examination of focused attention meditation in novices

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Abstract

Identifying strategies that aid in recovery from stress may benefit cardiovascular health. Ninety-nine undergraduate meditation novices were randomly assigned to meditate, listen to an audio book, or sit quietly after a standardized stressor. During recovery, meditators’ heart rate variability and skin conductance levels returned to baseline, whereas only heart rate variability returned to baseline for the audio book and control groups. Positive and negative affect were no different than baseline following meditation, whereas, both audio book and control groups had lower positive affect and higher negative affect following the intervention. Findings suggest that the sympathetic nervous system is uniquely affected by meditation, and novices may benefit emotionally from meditating after a stressor. Further research is needed to determine meditation’s utility in recovering from stress.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by a grant through the Department of Psychology, Ohio University. The authors thank Stephen M. Patterson for feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript and Christopher R. France for his support and feedback. We thank all of the undergraduate researchers that assisted with data collection. The authors thank the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine for use of their "Bring relaxation to your life" script.

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  1. Amy R. Borchardt

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Mercer University, 1501 Mercer University Drive, Macon, GA, 31207, USA

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  1. Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, USA

    Amy R. Borchardt & Peggy M. Zoccola

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Correspondence to Amy R. Borchardt.

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Amy R. Borchardt and Peggy M. Zoccola declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Borchardt, A.R., Zoccola, P.M. Recovery from stress: an experimental examination of focused attention meditation in novices. J Behav Med 41, 836–849 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-018-9932-9

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