It has been known for some time that mindfulness-type meditation practices can be beneficial in stress reduction.
Recent research has demonstrated benefits of yoga, mindfulness and meditation for a variety of ADHD-related cognitive tasks as well.
(And incorporating mindfulness practices into your daily life isn’t as tough as you might think – see below for information about an upcoming class I will be offering.)
- A study reported in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health demonstrated improved speed and accuracy on tests of working memory and inhibitory control among 30 young women following a 20 minute session of Hatha yoga.
- A study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience found that volunteers experiencing only “normal” daily anxiety reported as much as 39 percent decrease in anxiety after four 20-minute sessions of mindfulness training. Brain imaging before and after the training also showed changes in areas associated with executive functioning.
- Research – reported in the Journal of Child and Family Studies – on an 8-week mindfulness training for children aged 8–12 with ADHD and parallel parent training demonstrated significant reductions in parent self-ratings of ADHD symptoms as well as ratings of ADHD symptoms in their children pre-to post trainging and from pre-training to a later follow-up. Parents also reported a significant reduction in stress and overreactivity from pre-training to the follow-up. Although teacher-ratings showed non-significant effects on ADHD ratings for children, stress within the home appeared markedly reduced.
- Research reported in the Journal of Attention Disorders demonstrated positive impacts for 8 adolescent and 24 adult participants in an 8-week mindfulness training course on self-reported ADHD symptoms, test performance on tasks measuring attention and cognitive inhibition, and measures of anxiety and depressive symptoms,
Interested in exploring the benefits of mindfulness for yourself or your teen? Dr. Lydia Zylowska’s book The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD offers information and exercises to help you build easy mindfulness practices into your daily life with ADHD.
I offer a convenient 9-session tele-class based on Dr. Zylowska’s work. For more information, or to sign up for the next session, see: http://www.lizahmann.com/mindfulness.html
Related blog post:
Managing Stress and Breathing
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