The Mindfulness Practice Effect on the Cognitive and Psycho-Emotional Profile of Persons in the Social Isolation Setting

Abstract

The article presents a study of the mindfulness practice effect on the cognitive and psycho-emotional profile of two groups of people who have been in social isolation for 6 months. There are few interventions that affect significantly the reduction of the adverse impact of social isolation. Mindfulness practices that train skills for monitoring the present moment experiences have shown promising results. The study was conducted on a sample of 19 participants with 3–5 and 5–10 years of mindfulness practices. The purpose of the study is to investigate whether mindfulness practices can compensate for the negative impact of social isolation on the psycho-emotional and cognitive profile of participants. To test this hypothesis, the following methods were used: the Beck Depression Scale, the Rumination Scale, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory, the five-factor personality model, the Visual Analogue Scale for assessing the emotional state, and computerized cognitive tests. The results showed the potential value of mindfulness practices in reducing symptoms of depression and sleep disturbances.