SATURDAY, June 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Can mindfulness meditation be good medicine for both mental and physical ills? Yes, says one expert who explains the practice and what conditions it might help. A particular form of mindfulness that focuses on pleasure has been shown to work as well as a starting dose of a narcotic for pain and better than traditional psychotherapy for substance abuse, said , director of the University of Utah's . But the meditation style may work for more than just chronic pain and addiction.
“The techniques that we teach are also very likely effective treatments for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and simply increasing resilience in people without any diagnosable mental health conditions,” Garland said in a university news release. So, how does it work? As a form of therapy, mindfulness is a kind of mental training for cultivating awareness, Garland explained. To do that, it focuses attention on your thoughts, emotions and body sensations as you’re experiencing them.
The goal is “watching your experience as if you were a witness,” he said. “It's a practice of wakefulness, of becoming awake to the way your mind works and becoming aware of how you're operating in life.” In a Garland and his team conducted several years ago, 15 minutes of mindfulness meditation reduced pain by nearly 30%.
That equals the amount of pain relief provided by a starting dose of 5 milligrams of oxycodone, he noted. Mindfulness also helps pe.
