Brianna Suggs

Dr. Jizi
UWRT 1102
1 March 2016

Double Entry Journal

Mindfulness in Medicine By: David S. Ludwig, Jon Kabat-Zinn
Mindfulness Quote:
Mindfulness involves attending to relevant
aspects of experience in a nonjudgmental
manner

The goal of mindfulness is to maintain

awareness moment by moment, disengaging
oneself from strong attachment to beliefs,
thoughts, or emotions

Thus, mindfulness may promote a more

participatory medicine by engaging and
strengthening an individuals internal resources
for optimizing health in both prevention of and
recovery from illness.
psychological stress has been linked to
numerous medical conditions.

disposition toward mindfulness was

associated with widespread prefrontal cortical
activation and reduced bilateral amygdala
activity

Response:
The key word in all of that is nonjudgmental.
The biggest problem with meditation in this
day and age is getting people to let go of the
judgments and looking at situation while
unbiased. We are so trained to take sides.
When you tie yourself to a particular side, you
adapt a mentality that requires supporting and
fighting for that side. One of my favorite
aspects of mindfulness is looking at a situation
as if disengaged. The paragraph continues to
comment that it is when you leave your beliefs
behind, you can truly gain a sense of wellbeing. Being separate from a ideology is
feeing. I believe being separate allows for a
more stress fee environment which is
ultimately the key to its benefits.
As said inn previous journals, attitude is
everything! If there is the right mindset, one is
more willing to fight than if they are bogged
down by negativity.
Point above proven! Stress has more than
mental effects. My anxiety, for example,
causes me to throw up and pass out. A strange
physical reaction but a reaction nonetheless.
Meditation has legitimate effects on brain
waves/brain activity. If the studies prove this,
why is this not a more popular and
incorporated into long-term treatment options?

Conclusion: The article discusses various research conducted with varying illnesses and how
mindfulness, which was incorporated into treatment, affected the patients symptoms, ability to

overcome it, and stress. Tests measured the brain activity relevant to the illness; therefore
observing changes in the stress levels, pain receptors, and overall mood. All of the research
concluded the mindfulness does in fact have an application in medicine as it decreased pain and
boosted mentality.