The Healthy Quality of Mindful Breathing: Associations With Rumination and Depression

Abstract

The present study examines the relationships between mindfulness and rumination, repetitive negative thinking, and depressive symptoms, employing a newly developed paradigm for the assessment of mindfulness. Derived from a central exercise of mindfulness-based interventions, 42 undergraduates were asked to observe their breath for about 18 min. Within this time period, they were prompted 22 times at irregular intervals to indicate whether they had lost mindful contact with their breath as a result of mind wandering. The results show negative correlations between the degree of the ability to stay mindfully in contact with the breath and measures of rumination, repetitive negative thinking, and depression. Moreover, positive associations with self-report data of mindfulness and a negative relationship to fear of bodily sensations support the construct validity of our new approach for the assessment of mindfulness. In summary, findings suggest the healthy quality of mindful breathing regarding depression-related processes.

Mindful attention regulation and non-judgmental orientation in depression: A multi-method approach

“…We found that currently depressed patients experienced fewer mindful phases during the MBE than never-depressed controls, indicating that they had deficits in regulating their attention to the present moment experience of their breathing. While Burg and Michalak (2011) had already observed that MBE scores were associated with depressive symptoms in a non-clinical sample, we were the first to use this assessment method to demonstrate a deficit in the regulation of attention during mindfulness in currently depressed patients.…”

“…A negative relationship was observed between these measures (r (42) = −.31, p < .05): participants who were more fearful of bodily sensations were less mindful during the MBE. Moreover, negative correlations were found between the MBE score and variables related to depression, such as rumination and depressive symptoms (Burg & Michalak, 2011), self-esteem stability , and reduced heart rate variability (Burg, Wolf, & Michalak, 2012). It should be noted that the MBE, however, does not eliminate all ambiguities related to self-report measures and thus is not totally free of biases.…”

“…It is thus important to develop alternative approaches that reduce at least some of the biases found in questionnaires. Burg and Michalak (2011) employed a task that is based on one of the most central mindfulness exercises (e.g., breathing meditation) to assess mindfulness without using questionnaires. During the Mindful-Breathing Exercise (MBE), participants were instructed to observe their breathing for approximately 18 min while auditory signals sounded occasionally at varying points of time.…”

“…This measure is henceforth called the MBE score. Burg and Michalak (2011) found that MBE scores provided a complementary assessment of the regulation of attention. Psychometric properties of the MBE score have been proven.…”

The impact of mindfulness on emotion dysregulation and psychophysiological reactivity under emotional provocation.

“…Burg, Wolf, and Michalak (2012) suggested this may be due to deep states of relaxation created by mindfulness which would be expected to be associated with higher parasympathetic influence and therefore higher HRV. However, Burg and colleagues (2012) went on to demonstrate that HRV was positively correlated with mindfulness as measured by the mindful breathing exercise (MBE; Burg & Michalak, 2011), which assessed mindfully staying in contact with the breath through selfregulated attention during a breathing meditation exercise. This finding suggests that the relationship between mindfulness training and higher HRV is not due merely to relaxation, but to self-regulated attention to the present moment, a central mindfulness practice (Burg, Wolf, & Michalak, 2012).…”