Mindfulness is related to being aware of the present moment without too much emotional reaction or judgment.
In a new study, researchers found that some people are more mindful than others, and those people may feel less pain.
The research was conducted by a team from Wake Forest School of Medicine.
In the study, the team analyzed data that compared mindfulness meditation to non-mindfulness.
They wanted to determine if dispositional mindfulness, an individual’s innate or natural level of mindfulness, was linked to lower pain sensitivity.
A total of 76 healthy volunteers who had never meditated were tested.
The team used a reliable clinical measurement of mindfulness to determine their mindfulness levels.
These people completed pain tests while scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging.
The team found that mindful people during pain had a greater deactivation of part of the brain network involved in feelings of self and mind wandering.
Previous research has shown that the brain network deactivates whenever people are performing any kind of task, such as reading or writing.
The network is reactivated whenever people stop performing a task and reverts to self-related thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
The current finding showed that mindful individuals are seemingly less caught up in the experience of pain, which was linked to their lower pain reports.
On the other hand, people with lower mindfulness ratings had greater activation of this brain network and also felt more pain.
The team says that it is possible to increase mindfulness through short periods of mindfulness meditation training.
This may work as an effective way to provide pain relief.
The lead author of the study is Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the medical school.
The study is published in the journal PAIN.
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