Nottingham: Mindfulness - an ancient Buddhist
approach to meditation - is attracting increasing attention in the 21st
century as a non-invasive treatment for stress and depression. But can
it improve mental wellbeing in young people? View the video to find out
more. Using electroencephalography (EEG) – a
non-invasive method of recording electrical activity in the brain along
the scalp - Dr Ahmed Mohammed, from the School of Psychology at The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) is attempting to find out if loving kindness meditation can improve the wellbeing and mental health of young people.
Dr Mohammed said: “Mindfulness is free
cost effective and non-invasive. The aim is to discover if mindfulness
compared with active relaxation can improve the subjective wellbeing and
brain measures in health young adolescents who have never been exposed
to mindfulness training.”
After completing a psychological
questionnaire, 30 students from UNMC, The University of Nottingham in
the UK and local Malaysians, take part in a two week mindfulness
intervention to assess the impact on their subjective wellbeing,
happiness, their sense of gratitude as well as hopefulness.
The mindfulness training being used in
this research focusses on being friendly towards yourself and towards
others. The research, funded by the Faculty of Science at UNMC will take
six months to complete. The aim is to enhance the health of the young
adolescent brain.
Dr Mohammed said: “I have always been
interested in how psychology in general and neuroscience in particular
can promote wellbeing in young adults and young adolescents and
contribute to the betterment of society as a whole.”