1. Stress and Meditation By J. Seppala, C. Adams, J. Knudson

2. The Problem Research 1 has shown that stress is associated with Muscle soreness Depression Negative mood Fatigue Lowered immune response Leaky Gut Syndrome When looking at this evidence it is important to look at different ways that can help lower stress and improve overall health. theproductivitypro.com

3. The Effects of Brief and Sham Mindfulness Meditation on Mood and Cardiovascular Variables 2 The method of this study took 82 undergraduates and divided them into 3 groups; Mindful meditation, Sham meditation, and a control group The experiment took place over 3 sessions of meditation Results showed the mindful meditation group had a bigger decrease in negative mood, depression, fatigue, confusion, and heart rate compared to the other groups The reduction in heart rate suggests that the mindful meditation does show cardiovascular improvement. technorati.com

4. Breathing-control lowers blood pressure 3 The side effects and costs of anti-hypertensive drugs has prompted a search for a natural, non pharmacological approach to controlling blood pressure 1 This study shows that doing simple breathing exercises at home for 10 minutes daily had significant blood pressure reductions This study was done over a 2 month period Results show that this method of non drug therapy as well as it’s home monitoring can be maintained for at least 2 months fikrifishoul.blogspot.com

5. The Experiment Purpose Statement ~ The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between meditation and stress Hypothesis ~ We hypothesize that practicing meditation for 10 minutes will reduce stress. meditationandpsychotherapy.org Dependent Variable ~ stress Independent Variable ~ meditation

6. Participants Inclusion: People who do not meditate and are full time students at Bastyr University Exclusion: People who already regularly meditate, People with kids Instruments: Survey/questionnaire BP using digital scale Participants Gender: Male and Female Age: 18-35 yogameditation.com

7. Methods ~ Meditating Group Came to room 284 at 12 pm on 2/15/2011 and 2/22/2011 They filled out a survey They took their blood pressure and heart rate using a digital wrist cuff They recorded all results Participated in a guided meditation for 10 minutes Filled out the same survey Took blood pressure and heart rate again interactioninstitute.org

8. Methods ~ Non- Meditating Group Came to room 184 at 12 pm on 2/15/2011 and 2/22/2011 They filled out a survey They took their blood pressure and heart rate using a digital wrist cuff They recorded all results Participants were restricted from doing anything school related but were allowed to talk and eat Filled out the same survey Took blood pressure and heart rate again nataliedee.com

9. Results Compared Perceived Stress Blood Pressure Heart Rate 7 Participants Group of 4 Group of 3 Pic.1 yogaearth.com pic. 2 amigosbandb.com

10. Meditating Group

11. Non-Meditating Group

12. Blood Pressure Comparison MeditatingNon-Meditating Participants Before BPAfter BP 1104/62110/65 2113/68103/63 397/61102/63 490/5393/50 5119/86123/80 6100/52117/56 7110/68111/60 Participants Before BPAfter BP 1127/80112/74 2110/70109/69 3106/61106/63 499/4595/57 5114/79115/77 693/5793/51 7102/7295/66

13. Heart Rate Comparison MeditatingNon-Meditating

14. Mean ± Standard Deviation BEFORE Mean ± Standard Deviation AFTER Mean ± Standard Deviation Meditating Stress Level 63.7 ± 34.449.4 ± 30.3 Non-Meditating Stress Level 88.6 ± 23.876.7 ± 26.1 Meditating Heart Rate 73.1 ± 13.072.3 ± 13.7 Non-Meditating Heart Rate 72.4 ± 19.372.6 ± 15.3

15. Conclusions Overall blood pressure of the meditating group decreased, while the majority of the non-meditators’ blood pressure increased. The stress level of the meditating group decreased overall but stress level of non-meditating group also decreased. Heart rate went down in a small amount on average in the meditating group, while heart rate stayed the same in non- meditating group. The results were inconclusive, because of all of the limitations such as self reporting data and the electric blood pressure cuff.

16. Discussion LIMITATIONS -Amount of participants -Participant compliance -Blood pressure and heart rate cuff possible error -Human Error -Survey -Time frame -Meditation time takver.com

17. What We Learned? Research is hard :/ The process was lengthy and a lot of work Very difficult controlling participants & all variables Self reporting data allows for large margin or error notravelmlms.blogspot.com

18. Sources 1. Grossman P, Neimann L, Schmidt S, Walach H. Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. J Psychosom Res. 2004; 57: 35-43. 2. Zieden, Fadel, Susan Johnson, Nakia Gordon, and Paula Goolkasian. Effects of Brief and Sham Mindfulness Meditation on Mood and Cardiovascular Variables. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16 (2010): 867-73. 3. Grossman, E., A. Grossman, R. Zimlichman, and B. Gavish. Breathing-control lowers blood pressure. Journal of Human Hypertension 15 (2001): 263-69.