The proposed research will investigate the role of mindfulness in mother-infant relationships and how this impacts biological aging. Telomeres, the repeated nucleotide sequences at the end of chromosomes, protect chromosomes from deterioration and enable cellular integrity. Age, relational stress, and inflammation degrade telomeres, which in turn is thought to relate to a range of health …
Continue reading “Impacts of maternal mindfulness on mother-infant biological integrity”
In this experimental intervention, 121 adults participated in a randomized control trial testing whether daily reflection on social and nonsocial aspects of wellbeing is beneficial for mental and physical health. Every day for seven weeks, participants randomly assigned to the social wellbeing condition were asked to reflect on daily social interactions and rate how close …
Continue reading “How do thoughts about social closeness promote health and well-being?”
The chronic stress of caregiving can lead to experiences of chronic fear, and impair relationships, creating frequent conflict and mistrust. We developed a tailored mindfulness-based intervention, (Health Enhancement and Resiliency Training (HEART) for caregiving mothers of children with autism and mothers of neurotypical children. HEART aims to promote awareness, reduce experiential avoidance, promote acceptance of …
As Compassion meditation specifically fosters positive feelings such as equanimity, joy, and compassion towards others, it may be ideally suited to reduce the stress and negative emotions related to stressful encounters. Pilot data for a neuroimaging dataset obtained with a prior Varela Award shows that Compassion training, more than Relaxation training, increased positive ratings of …
This project examined the extent to which meditation can promote compassion and well-being, even in the face of conflict. Specifically, we examined whether compassion and mindfulness training can produce compassionate tendencies that act as an enduring inoculation against the negative effects of anger, using measures of subjective experience (e.g., anger, compassion, well-being) in daily life …
Remembering autobiographical memories of personal past experiences is very common during our daily life. When remembering these memories, the lack of contextual specificity (where and when the event happened) because of an exacerbated self-absorption by overwhelming feelings may lead to increased emotional distress. In contrast, increasing specificity by promoting a focus on contextual aspects instead …
Mindfulness is associated with positive psychosocial, physical and mental health outcomes prompting research to investigate mindfulness as a tool for smoking cessation. However, there remains sparse evidence on the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in underserved populations, such as low-income, female smokers, who often have elevated levels of daily stress and greater barriers to …
Encountering social, economic, or family adversity early in life can exert lifelong consequences on stress systems that contribute to health and well-being. On the cellular level, early life adversity can negatively impact telomeres, which are repetitive DNA sequences that protect chromosomes from instability and degradation. Telomeres typically shorten slowly with age, but are shorter in …
Despite decades of school reform, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disproportionality in student academic opportunities and discipline continues to be a significant concern throughout the education system. The University of Southern California (USC), the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), and Mindful Schools (MS) are collaborating on bringing mindfulness training to K-5 teachers/staff to foster an …
Continue reading “Cultivating mindful schools to promote an equitable climate of learning”
The goal of this project is to attempt to create a safe “non-invasive” intervention for adolescents that counteract changes in blood flow seen in the brain that are associated with cumulative and repetitive non-concussive head impacts after participating in a year of American football. There is concern that accumulation of a lifetime of participation could …
