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  • Dec 16, 2024

Listening to Your Body: New Research on Mindfulness Unlocks Path to Behavior Change

Custom mindfulness program shows promise in managing depression and chronic illness together

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Cambridge Health Alliance's Center for Mindfulness and Compassion (CMC) has released research findings published by Psychiatry Research that highlight the effectiveness of CMC's Mindful Behavior Change program in supporting health behavior change for individuals managing chronic medical and mental health conditions.

The study, which analyzed data from 274 people in Cambridge Health Alliance’s primary care practices in Cambridge, Somerville, and Boston’s metro-north communities, demonstrated that mindfulness-based interventions enhance self-regulation partly by increasing capacity to appreciate body sensations in a way that the body can become a welcome source of wisdom and motivation, thereby providing a catalyst for behavior changes that can improve overall health and mental well-being. While this has long been reported by practitioners of mindfulness and yoga, this is the first study to demonstrate the link between mindfulness's impact on body awareness and successful initiation of health behavior change. 

"We found that mindfulness catalyzes health behavior change partially through increasing people's appreciation of their body sensations," said lead author and CMC Director Zev Schuman-Olivier, MD. "While this may seem intuitive to those who practice mindfulness or yoga, it has never been directly studied with a large clinical trial in research before, and this was a large study of more than 250 people in primary care."

This study funded by the National Institutes of Health Science of Behavior Change Initiative investigated Mindfulness Training for Primary Care (MTPC) groups, which used the Mindful Behavior Change (MBC) program curriculum, and were specifically designed for primary care settings and chronic illness management. MBCs focus on trauma-informed practices, health behaviors and managing chronic illness, and integration into primary care is a distinctive application of mindfulness interventions.

In multiple clinical trials, the MBC program has repeatedly demonstrated that it results in three times the odds of participants initiating a health-related behavior change. This current study proves that mindfulness catalyzes behavior change in part because of the way it helps some people increase trust in their body sensations and really learn how to listen to what their body is telling them.

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