A preliminary investigation on the effect of low-intensity mindfulness on repetitive negative thinking (RNT) was conducted. Undergraduate students with high ruminative tendencies were randomly assigned into three groups, namely, mindfulness and count RNT in daily life (mindfulness: M), count RNT only (self-monitoring: S), and non-count RNT (control: C) and compared RNT change. Analyses revealed that RNT measured by questionnaire was decreased only in the M group and was lower compared with the S and C groups in the long-term. Both findings present marginal significance. Although RNT count in daily life significantly increased in the S group, the M group demonstrated a decrease with marginal significance. However, there were no correlations between the amounts of change in RNT and mindfulness. Results are consistent with those of previous studies that illustrated that mindfulness procedure decreases RNT.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate whether “self-help” can be effective in maintaining the well-being of elderly people, especially in comparison to the prevalent concept of “mutual support” as obtained through social contact. In this study, we examined the effects of mindfulness as a type of “self-help” for the well-being of this population. First, we conducted a questionnaire survey of 76 elderly people. Then, we implemented a program, developed by us, introducing mindfulness to 33 of those 76 participants. The remaining 43 participants became the control group. We analyzed the effect mindfulness had on subjective well-being and K6 mental health scale in the 76 participants, while controlling for related variables. Our analysis suggested that mindfulness and financial conditions positively affect subjective well-being and K6. Social contact also had a positive impact on subjective well-being, whereas spouse and employment status had a negative effect. The results of the mindfulness intervention program suggested that subjective well-being increases in intra-group comparison before and after intervention. This effect was also seen in the inter-group comparison of before and one month after the intervention.

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Martial arts refer to physical and mental practices based on historical combat techniques, and have been suggested to involve components parallel to those of mindfulness. However, empirical studies involving Japanese practitioners of martial arts remain scarce. The present study aimed to examine dispositional mindfulness, interoceptive awareness, and psychological health outcomes in a continuous practitioner of martial arts and three non-practitioners. A heartbeat detection task, an original task to estimate the respiration rate, and a psychological scale were used to examine interoceptive accuracy. The results showed that the martial arts practitioner performed better than the non-practitioners in the heartbeat detection task. In addition, regarding the psychological scales, the practitioner obtained higher total and multiple subscale scores on mindfulness, higher multiple subscale scores on interoceptive awareness, and higher total and multiple subscale scores on subjective well-being compared with the non-practitioners. These preliminarily data support the idea that the continued practice of marital arts can increase multiple dimensions of mindfulness tendencies, interoceptive awareness, and psychological health.

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