| 1. |
- Lymeus, Freddie, et al.
(författare)
-
A natural meditation setting improves compliance with mindfulness training
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Journal of Environmental Psychology. - : Elsevier. - 0272-4944 .- 1522-9610. ; 64, s. 98-106
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The setting matters in meditation, but most research has neglected it. Many mindfulness-based health interventions emphasize effortful attention training exercises in sparsely furnished indoor settings. However, many beginners with attention regulation problems struggle with the exercises and drop out. In contrast, restoration skills training (ReST) – a five-week course set in a garden environment – builds on mindfulness practices adapted to draw on restorative processes stimulated effortlessly in nature contacts. Expecting that the ReST approach will facilitate the introduction to mindfulness, we compared drop-out and homework completion records from four rounds of ReST vs. conventional mindfulness training (N = 139). Randomly assigned ReST participants had lower drop-out and more sustained homework completion over the course weeks. Supporting the theoretical assumptions, higher restorative environmental qualities and state mindfulness mediated the compliance differences. The improved acceptability with ReST means that more people can enjoy the long-term benefits of establishing a meditation practice.
|
|
| 2. |
- Lymeus, Freddie, et al.
(författare)
-
Attentional Effort of Beginning Mindfulness Training Is Offset With Practice Directed Toward Images of Natural Scenery
- 2017
-
Ingår i: Environment and Behavior. - : SAGE Publications. - 0013-9165 .- 1552-390X. ; 49:5, s. 536-559
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mindfulness involves curious and detached attention to present experience. Long-term mindfulness practice can improve attentional control capabilities, but practice sessions may initially deplete attentional resources as beginners struggle to learn skills and manage distractions. Without using skills or effort, people can have mindful experiences in pleasant natural environments; natural scenery may therefore facilitate mindfulness practice. Twenty-seven participants completed an 8-week mindfulness course; 14 served as waiting-list controls. We tested participants’ attention every other week before and after 15-min sessions of conventional mindfulness practice, mindfulness practice with nature images, or rest with nature images (controls). Mindfulness practice incurred attentional effort; it hampered performance gains seen in controls during practice/rest sessions, and attentionally weak participants completed fewer course exercises. Viewing nature images during practice increasingly offset the effort of mindfulness practice across the 8 weeks. Bringing skill-based and nature-based approaches together offers additional possibilities for understanding and facilitating mindfulness and restorative states.
|
|
| 3. |
- Lymeus, Freddie, et al.
(författare)
-
Building mindfulness bottom-up : Meditation in natural settings supports open monitoring and attention restoration
- 2018
-
Ingår i: Consciousness and Cognition. - : Elsevier BV. - 1053-8100 .- 1090-2376. ; 59, s. 40-56
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mindfulness courses conventionally use effortful, focused meditation to train attention. In contrast, natural settings can effortlessly support state mindfulness and restore depleted attention resources, which could facilitate meditation. We performed two studies that compared conventional training with restoration skills training (ReST) that taught low-effort open monitoring meditation in a garden over five weeks. Assessments before and after meditation on multiple occasions showed that ReST meditation increasingly enhanced attention performance. Conventional meditation enhanced attention initially but increasingly incurred effort, reflected in performance decrements toward the course end. With both courses, attentional improvements generalized in the first weeks of training. Against established accounts, the generalized improvements thus occurred before any effort was incurred by the conventional exercises. We propose that restoration rather than attention training can account for early attentional improvements with meditation. ReST holds promise as an undemanding introduction to mindfulness and as a method to enhance restoration in nature contacts.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Lymeus, Freddie, PhD
(författare)
-
Individual Differences in Cognitive Functioning Predict Compliance With Restoration Skills Training but Not With a Brief Conventional Mindfulness Course
- 2022
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media S.A.. - 1664-1078. ; 13
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mindfulness training is often promoted as a method to train cognitive functions and has shown such effects in previous studies. However, many conventional mindfulness exercises for beginners require cognitive effort, which may be prohibitive for some, particularly for people who have more pronounced cognitive problems to begin with. An alternative mindfulness-based approach, called restoration skills training (ReST), draws on a restorative natural practice setting to help regulate attention effortlessly and promote meditative states during exercises. Previous research has shown that a 5-week ReST course requires less effort and is attended by higher compliance with practice recommendations than a conventional mindfulness course, without compromising long-term outcomes. Here, we compare ReST and a formally matched conventional mindfulness course regarding the role that initial individual differences in cognitive functioning play in determining practice compliance and long-term improvements in dispositional mindfulness and cognitive functioning. In line with expectations, ReST participants who had more pronounced cognitive problems to begin with practiced more during the course, which in turn explained much of their improvement in dispositional mindfulness and cognitive functioning. In contrast, initial cognitive functioning did not explain practice and improvement in the conventional mindfulness course. The results provide further support for the potential utility of ReST as a low-effort method for enhancing cognitive functioning among people who would struggle with the demands of conventional mindfulness training. With careful integration of mindfulness practices with a restorative natural setting, these people can develop mindfulness and self-regulation capabilities without relying on effortful training.
|
|
| 9. |
- Lymeus, Freddie, et al.
(författare)
-
Mindfulness-Based Restoration Skills Training (ReST) in a Natural Setting Compared to Conventional Mindfulness Training : Psychological Functioning After a Five-Week Course
- 2020
-
Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-1078. ; 11
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Restoration skills training (ReST) is a mindfulness-based course that draws on restorative nature experience to facilitate the meditation practice and teach widely applicable adaptation skills. Previous studies comparing ReST to conventional mindfulness training (CMT) showed that ReST has important advantages: it supports beginning meditators in connecting with restorative environmental qualities and in meditating with less effort; it restores their attention regulation capabilities; and it helps them complete the course and establish a regular meditation habit. However, mindfulness theory indicates that effortful training may be necessary to achieve generalized improvements in psychological functioning. Therefore, this study tests whether the less effortful and more acceptable ReST approach is attended by any meaningful disadvantage compared to CMT in terms of its effects on central aspects psychological functioning. We analyze data from four rounds of development of the ReST course, in each of which we compared it to a parallel and formally matched CMT course. Randomly assigned participants (total course starters = 152) provided ratings of dispositional mindfulness, cognitive functioning, and chronic stress before and after the 5-week ReST and CMT courses. Round 4 also included a separately recruited passive control condition. ReST and CMT were attended by similar average improvements in the three outcomes, although the effects on chronic stress were inconsistent. Moderate to large improvements in the three outcomes could also be affirmed in contrasts with the passive controls. Using a reliable change index, we saw that over one third of the ReST and CMT participants enjoyed reliably improved psychological functioning. The risk of experiencing deteriorated functioning was no greater with either ReST or CMT than for passive control group participants. None of the contrasts exceeded our stringent criterion for inferiority of ReST compared with CMT. We conclude that ReST is a promising alternative for otherwise healthy people with stress or concentration problems who would be less likely to complete more effortful CMT. By adapting the meditation practices to draw on restorative setting characteristics, ReST can mitigate the demands otherwise incurred in early stages of mindfulness training without compromising the acquisition of widely applicable mindfulness skills.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
