July 6, 2012 — New to meditation
and already thinking about quitting? You may have simply chosen the
wrong method. A new study published online July 7 in Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing highlights
the importance of ensuring that new meditators select methods with
which they are most comfortable, rather than those that are most
popular.
If they do, they are likely to stick with it, says Adam Burke, the
author of the study. If not, there is a higher chance they may abandon
meditation altogether, losing out on its myriad personal and medical
benefits. Burke is a professor of Health Education at SF State and the
director of SF State's Institute for Holistic Health Studies.
"Because of the increase in both general and clinical use of
meditation, you want to make sure you're finding the right method for
each person," he said. Although meditation has become significantly more
popular in the U.S., Burke said, there have been very few studies
comparing multiple methods head to head to examine individual preference
or specific clinical benefits.
To better understand user preference, Burke compared four popular
meditation methods -- Mantra, Mindfulness, Zen and Qigong Visualization
-- to see if novice meditation practitioners favored one over the
others. The study's 247 participants were taught each method and asked
to practice at home and, at the end of the study, evaluate which they
preferred. The two simpler methods, Mantra and Mindfulness, were
preferred by 31 percent of study participants. Zen and Qigong had
smaller but still sizable contingents of adherents, with 22 percent and
14.8 percent of participants preferring them, respectively.
The results show the value of providing new practitioners a simpler,
more accessible method of meditation. But they also emphasize that no
one technique is best for everyone, and even less common methods are
preferred by certain people. Older participants, who grew up when Zen
was becoming one of the first meditation techniques to gain attention in
the U.S., in particular were more likely to prefer that method.
"It was interesting that Mantra and Mindfulness were found to be
equally compelling by participants despite the fact that they are
fundamentally different techniques," Burke said. Mindfulness is the most
recent meditation technique to gain widespread popularity, he added,
and is often the only one with which a novice practitioner or health
professional is familiar. Not surprisingly, Mindfulness was the method
most preferred by the youngest participants.
"If someone is exposed to a particular technique through the media or
a healthcare provider, they might assume because it's popular it's the
best for everyone," Burke said. "But that's like saying because a pink
dress or a blue sport coat is popular this year, it's going to look good
on everybody. In truth, different people like different things. One
size does not fit all."
If an individual is not comfortable with a specific method for any
reason, he said, they may be less likely to continue meditating and
would lose out on such benefits as reduced stress, lower blood pressure
or even treatment for addiction.
Burke hopes to see more comparative meditation studies, especially to
determine if particular methods are better at addressing specific
health issues, such as addiction. If that's the case, he said,
healthcare professionals would be able to guide patients toward
techniques that will be most effective for them. Additional studies are
also needed to determine if there is a way to predict which method will
be best suited for any particular individual, he said.
