Sunday, June 28, 2015

Week 8 Assignment 2

The last Hello Readers!


The literature review process is very thorough and it has made me realize that I must be patient and compare and contrast each of piece of literature that I feel is relevant to my research. Of course I felt some of the literature review process was difficult. I felt like I should have been more organized when obtaining literature and categorizing them by relevance to my topic. Because the review was so thorough, I was able to understand my topic in more depth by reviewing each of the literatures by comparing and contrasting them. I did feel as though I had even more questions that my topic didn’t cover but related to my topic. For instance consciousness is related to my topic so going more in depth into consciousness is something I feel I should have expanded on more. All I can think of now regarding my topic is, is consciousness a part of mindfulness. Can unconsciousness be effected by mindfulness practices? Therefore, Is stress unconscious or conscious? I am most grateful for the thorough assignments that have gotten me out of my comfort zone so I am able to provide my instructor and the world with my findings with my learned research strategies.

Thank you for reading!

Raquel

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Week 7 assignment 2

Hello Readers!!!!!


I included two new sources to my annotated bibliography. The both covered relevant studies that showed the effects of mindfulness. Both sources enhanced my understanding of MBSR, mindfulness Stress Reduction, practices. I used the CRAAP test to determine their credibility. First I took into consideration the dates which are both current 2012 and 2014. The author’s credentials were listed as well. The information was based on studies that were performed by qualified doctors. The information in the text was to inform the reader. I found there to be no biases with either source. I used the advanced google search to locate open access journals for my last two sources. I think I covered the main aspects of my topic however I could have gone more into depth of the origins of mindfulness and how to practice mindfulness. I think that a wide audience would appreciate knowing the simplicity of mindfulness. How easy it is to be mindful and practice meditation consistently, will also be beneficial to my audience.
Annotated bibliography:
 
 
Does the Practice of Mindfulness/Meditation Reduce Stress Level?
 
1.     Fjorback, L.O.; Walach, H. Meditation Based Therapies—A Systematic Review and Some Critical Observations. Religions 2012, 3, 1-18.
Throughout the article different studies surrounding the topic of mindfulness based stress reduction and mindfulness based cognitive therapy were compared and contrasted. The results for these studies were beneficial to the subjects that participated in the practices. “Mindfulness interventions don’t focus on symptoms but on conscious attitude toward them” (Fljorback, Walach, 2012). This line has made me understand my topic more deeply. Being mindful is a way of life not a temporary answer to our problems. This article stressed the importance of consistency when seeking results from this method of treatment.
 
2.     Grossman, Paul, et al. "Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis." Journal of psychosomatic research 57.1 (2004).
Within this article are methods of stress management exercises. It describes studies that were conducted within a population that followed a 6-12 week course of mindful practices. The conclusions that were made was that mindful practices, when used consistently, were beneficial to overall mental well-being of the subjects.  The article gave great description of the methods used. It also described the Buddhist and their psychological theory of mind and the importance of mindfulness. MBSR, mindfulness based stress reduction, as described in the article, is a program that implements mindful practices to reduces physical pain and improve mental health.
 
3.    Edited by Kirk Warren Brown, J. David Creswell, and Richard M. Ryan, (2015).Handbook of Mindfulness; Theory, Research, and Practice Available from http://www.guilford.com/books/Handbook-of-Mindfulness/Brown-Creswell-Ryan/9781462518906/contents
 
In this 2015 volume, this research is the most recent information available. There are several authors and contributors to the book. The site that I visited had the names of the authors, editors, and publishers along with their credentials. This book combines “Buddhist scholarship and western science together to clarify our understanding of what mindfulness is, its cognitive expressions, and the psychological effects” (Brown, Creswell, Ryan 2015), therefore it will assist me understand my topic in depth. This book stated that “mindfulness concerns consciousness” (Brown, Creswell, Ryan, 2015); this sparked my interest in consciousness and unconsciousness states that are effected by mindfulness.
 
4.     Nyklíček, I., & Kuijpers, K. F. (2008). Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction intervention on psychological well-being and quality of life: is increased mindfulness indeed the mechanism?. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 35(3), 331-340.
The information published is relatively current because it was published in 2008. Being that the topic of mindfulness meditation in western society, is a relatively new phenomena, current information is needed for my topic. The information in the article describes psychological well-being and quality of life that are effected by meditation, therefore I am comfortable citing tis source in my research paper.
            The authors’ credentials are sufficient with being a qualified contributor to this article. There are no grammatical errors I found within the 10 pages of the articles. I even investigated a few of the listed sources and they are legitimate. The article seems unbiased because no “feelings” are made apparent within the article. The purpose of this article seems to show the findings of research done by their findings.
 
5.     R Benn, T Akiva, S Arel, R Roeser, J Eccles BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012, P02.24. Reducing stress and cultivating well-being in educators and parents with special needs children: effects of a mindfulness training program12(Suppl 1):P80 (12 June 2012)
 
This article will enhance my understanding of my topic because it places my topic of research in and in a setting that is relatable to readers. It discusses various perspectives and scenarios of mindfulness. It provides an outline for people in the MBSR field, Mindfulness based stress reduction, techniques to better serve their clientele. This article combines known psychological perspectives and compares and contrasts with recent mindful practices.
 
 
6.     Tan LBG, Lo BCY, Macrae CN (2014) Brief Mindfulness Meditation Improves Mental State Attribution and Empathizing. PLoS ONE 9(10): e110510. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110510
This article emphasizes that the practice of mindfulness meditation does have a significant impact on the brain and daily performance. It is explained that consistent and small periods of time of mindful practice regulates emotions and thoughts. One’s mental state of mind can be enhanced through mindful practices. This article covered a study that tested individuals who performed mindful practices and the effects.  
... I'll end with this,

Raquel Estrada

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Week 6 Assignment 2

Hello Readers!!!


In week six’s reading and preparations we were introduced to the ethics regarding academic integrity and open access journals. If we copy down information without citing the source is stealing. Each reader of a material that intends to refer to it must interpret the research in their own words and thoughts on it while citing the original idea. Open access journals are full text free reliable sources of academic research findings. These are made accessible to the public. I think when I conduct research I will copyright my findings using Creative Commons, which puts the authors personal choosing of limitations on the work. This will protect my original ideas while allowing others to expand on my findings or to reuse it for what I allow.  Professionally, I will pursue information on open access journals so my audience from all walks of life may access my sources. My only confusion I have, somewhat, is regarding common knowledge. Certain audiences have certain knowledge while other knowledge is foreign to others; if there was information that was clarified as universal knowledge we can all agree upon, that would clear up the gray areas in that aspect.
Thanks for reading until next week!
 

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Week 5 assignment 2


Hello Readers!
 
Through mindfulness (mindful practices), we are able to get off of auto-pilot and actually engage in the moment resulting in enhanced experiences in life. I think I’ve narrowed down my topic as much as I’ve could, however I am interested in learning why we are on autopilot and don’t pay so much attention to surrounding information. I understand that if we were to pay attention to all of the stimuli that we are surrounded with we’d never be able to focus on something. Buddhist practices were mentioned in various article I’ve read. They stress mindfulness as crucial in their psychological theory of mind. I think this theory is something I will also research more. I think my research skills are improving. I am able to navigate through search engines to locate and determine what articles will be beneficial to my research findings.
Until next week!

Monday, June 1, 2015

Week 4 Assignment 2

Hello readers!

Throughout researching my topic for this week’s assignment, I was able to get various viewpoints of a psychological perspective of mindfulness. Some new strategies the course text provided, that I used, was not using too many keywords. Badke specifically says that rarely will a researcher will ever need more than three keywords. Also when using an AND search, which I did do so this week, may eliminate data from my results (Badke, 2014). I found it difficult that we had to find a journal and then go through the articles within it to find our narrowed down topic. It was worth it though it was time consuming because only a small bit of information is relevant to my narrowed down topic. I’m hoping to find out if practicing mindfulness meditation will reduce high stress levels. I also hope to learn specific mindful techniques that have been shown to reduce stress and combine article findings to best enhance the benefits of mindfulness.
Thanks for reading, until next week!

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Week 3 Assignment 2

Hello once again,

I gained a lot of knowledge about my topic, such as mindfulness fundamentally concerns consciousness. This sounds obvious, but this sparked my interest in conscious and unconscious behaviors that are effected by mindfulness. Also, reading that Buddhism and western science come together in text to clarify the understanding of mindfulness and how it is shown in cognitive expressions and its psychological effects, was exciting because it emphasizes the importance of utilizing the practice. The strategy that I found most significant was keywords and truncations. Utilizing these skills narrowed my search and I was able to find exactly what I was looking for.  One frustration I had was so many books came up if they just had mindful in the text. When Badke mentioned that keywords are flat he was definitely right. I had to piece together the right keywords in order to get the results I was looking for. I hope to continue to narrow my search as much as possible and have as much depth as I can. I say narrow relative to the topic’s expansive content and knowing my topic’s hierarchy.   

All in all this assignment, although extensive, was not done in vain but rather mindfully.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Week 2 Assignment 2


I gained knowledge of the psychological approach of mindfulness and the use of it to obtain and maintain a higher quality of life. Mindful meditation has to be consistent, just like anything worth evaluating the results of. Also, stress reduction was an effect of mindfulness. The most appalling information I found was that meditation is a “2500-year-old Buddhist meditation practice”.

               Using a familiar search engine, Google, I was able to access the Scholar engine to review articles. Using the CRAAP model I was able to bypass any information that didn’t seem legitimate and seemed to provide biased information. Making note of the year the articles were published was crucial because my topic is relatively recent in our western domain, therefore researching relevant articles is a must. Also, being aware of the authors and their credentials was important to determine if they were qualified to write on the topic.

Going more in depth of the stress reduction mindfulness meditation can provide, is an aspect of the topic I’d like to research further.