Brain Health With Inner Engineering- Longitudinal Study of Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya Meditation (BLISS)
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Summary
This study will explore whether a 21-minute meditation practice called Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya leads to changes in brain health and explore how it affects cognitive and physiological function.
Description
Meditation has been linked to improved brain health and lower brain age. Brain age has been successfully estimated from structural MRI and more recently, EEG Sleep data using Brain Age Index (BAI) derived by machine learning algorithms. Patients with significant neurological or psychiatric disease exhibit a mean excess BAI of about 4 years. Higher BAI is a predictor of mortality. Long term meditation has been associated with lower Brain Age in MRI studies. However, the EEG sleep measure of Brain Age has not been reported in meditators. This project aims to quantify the progressive impact of m…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 20–65 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Individuals between the ages of 20-65 years. * Subjects will be required to be able to understand study instructions and provide informed consent. * Currently residing in Massachusetts. Exclusion Criteria: * Non-English Speaking. (Justification: Meditation and cognitive assessment instruments are not validated in a sufficient range of languages, and the research team lacks polylingual capabilities or the financial resources to hire interpreters for the duration of all proposed assessments.) * Practicing meditation regularly for the past 6 months (3 or more times per we…
Interventions
- BehavioralShambhavi Madamudra Kriya
The intervention is taught at the Inner Engineering program offered by non-profit Isha Foundation as online as well as in-person formats. It incorporates a combination of different breathing patterns and meditative components. The intervention training provides precise, step by step and easy to follow instructions on how to perform this practice. Performed in a seated posture, this is a simple, safe and accessible intervention that requires no previous experience of meditation. The intervention selected for this study was shown to significantly reduce perceived stress, enhance self-reported general well-being, improve positive emotions, mindfulness, sleep, engagement, relationships, and may promote enhanced Heart Rate Variability and Sympathovagal balance.
Location
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical CentreBoston, Massachusetts