Mindfulness Training Supported by a Restorative Natural Setting
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Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences 171 Mindfulness training supported by a restorative natural setting Integrating individual and environmental approaches to the management of adaptive resources FREDDIE LYMEUS ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS ISSN 1652-9030 ISBN 978-91-513-0735-0 UPPSALA urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-391661 2019 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Sydney Alrutz-salen, Blåsenhus, von Kraemers Allé 1, Uppsala, Friday, 18 October 2019 at 10:15 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Associate Professor Mathew P. White (European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, UK). Abstract Lymeus, F. 2019. Mindfulness training supported by a restorative natural setting. Integrating individual and environmental approaches to the management of adaptive resources. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Social Sciences 171. 159 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-0735-0. This thesis integrates restorative environments research and mindfulness research: two disparate but related approaches to managing the demands of modern living. Both offer ways to improve attention regulation by detaching from routine mental contents and engaging with present experience. However, restoration works bottom-up, from supportive environmental features, while mindfulness meditation works top-down, through effortful training. Complementarities between the two are the foundations of restoration skills training (ReST), a five-week mindfulness-based course that uses mindful sensory exploration in a natural setting to build a meditative state effortlessly. As in conventional mindfulness training (CMT), ReST involves a learning structure to teach versatile adaptive skills. Data were collected in four rounds, with successively refined versions of ReST given in a botanic garden and formally matched CMT given indoors. Data were collected to test short-term outcomes of practice sessions and long-term course outcomes. Four papers aim to determine whether ReST confers similar health benefits as CMT and has specific advantages related to lower effort and enhanced restoration. Paper I shows that on repeated measurement occasions across the course weeks, attention tests obtained before and after ReST practice sessions showed restorative effects (improved performance) consistently for general attention and increasingly for executive attention. In contrast, CMT practice indoors incurred increasing effort (deteriorated performance) seen in general attention. Despite these different short-term outcomes, ReST and CMT conferred similar generalized improvements over the course weeks. Paper II shows that ReST compared with CMT had higher course completion and better establishment of a regular practice. Compliance was mediated through perceived restorative qualities in the meditation setting and state mindfulness during the classes. Paper III shows that ReST was attended by at least similar benefits for general psychological functioning as CMT. Ratings of dispositional mindfulness and attention problems remained improved six months after ReST. After CMT, only attention problem ratings remained improved. However, chronic stress ratings were not lastingly improved with either course. Paper IV shows that with ReST, participants with higher initial ratings of attention problems subsequently completed more homework practice during the course. Homework practice in turn explained part of the improvement in dispositional mindfulness and attention problems. With CMT, homework practice was unrelated to initial attention problems and improvement. In conclusion, ReST is a promising alternative for people who struggle under heavy attention demands; effortful training is not necessary to improve attention regulation in early stages of mindfulness training. The theoretical and practical integration can guide further exchange between these related research fields. Keywords: Mindfulness, Restorative, Environment, Meditation, Setting, Training, Attention, Adaptation, Attention, Resource, Integration, Individual, Environmental Freddie Lymeus, Department of Psychology, Box 1225, Uppsala University, SE-75142 Uppsala, Sweden. © Freddie Lymeus 2019 ISSN 1652-9030 ISBN 978-91-513-0735-0 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-391661 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-391661) Till min vän Hannes Mau Jaensson (1982 – 2010), obesegrad mästare i den vilsamma levnadskonsten List of Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. I Lymeus, F., Lindberg, P., & Hartig, T. (2018) Building mindful- ness bottom-up: Meditation in natural settings supports open monitoring and attention restoration. Consciousness and Cogni- tion, 59:40–56 II Lymeus, F., Lindberg, P., & Hartig, T. (2019) A natural medita- tion setting improves compliance with mindfulness training. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 64: 98-–106 III Lymeus, F., Ahrling, M., Apelman, J., Florin, C., Nilsson, C., Vincenti, J., Zetterberg, A. Lindberg, P., & Hartig, T. (submitted) Mindfulness-based restoration skills training (ReST) in a natural setting compared to conventional mindfulness training: A ran- domized trial with six-month follow-up (preliminary title). IV Lymeus, F. (submitted) Mindfulness meditation training in a nat- ural setting particularly helps people with attention problems (preliminary title). Reprints were made with permission from the respective publishers. The contribution of Freddie Lymeus to the papers included in this thesis was as follows: Paper I: Main responsibility for study conception, design, data analyses, and manuscript preparation in collaboration with co-authors. Main responsi- bility for data collection. Paper II: Main responsibility for study conception, design, data analyses, and manuscript preparation in collaboration with co- authors. Main responsibility for data collection. Paper III: Main responsibil- ity for study conception, design, and data analyses in collaboration with co- authors T.H. and P.L. Main responsibility for data collection and manuscript preparation in collaboration with co-authors. Paper IV: Main responsibility for study conception, design, data collection, data analyses, and manuscript preparation. Contents Preface .......................................................................................................... 13 The Linnaean Collaboration for Studies in Nature, Health, and Sustainability ............................................................................................ 13 The Studies in Context ............................................................................. 14 Introduction ................................................................................................... 16 Going Back To Get By ............................................................................. 16 Overview of the Text ................................................................................ 18 Adapting To Challenges ........................................................................... 19 Section summary and relevance .......................................................... 19 A quick look back at human evolution in nature ................................. 19 A really brief history of stress ............................................................. 20 Adaptation as an ongoing process ....................................................... 21 Pathways to disease and health ............................................................ 22 What People Tend to Do When There’s Nothing Else to Do ................... 24 Section summary and relevance .......................................................... 24 The default mode network ................................................................... 24 Mind-wandering .................................................................................. 25 Perseverative cognition ........................................................................ 26 Boredom .............................................................................................. 27 Transcending the Automatic and Habitual ............................................... 28 Section summary and relevance .......................................................... 28 Inhibition, directed attention, and self-regulation ................................ 28 Resource investment, effort, and fatigue ............................................. 29 Mitigating the Challenges of Modern Living ........................................... 31 Section summary and relevance .......................................................... 31 A new way of life ................................................................................ 31 Characteristic stressors ........................................................................ 32 Efforts to bring nature to urban populations ........................................ 34 Efforts to strengthen suffering individuals .......................................... 39 The Restorative Environment: An Environmental Approach to Mitigating the Challenges of Modern Living ........................................... 41 Section summary and relevance .......................................................... 41 Basic premises in restorative environments research .......................... 41 Attention restoration theory ................................................................