Impact of Heartfulness meditation practice on anxiety, perceived stress, well-being, and telomere length

Mansee Thakur; Yogesh Patil; Sanjana T Philip; Tahreem Hamdule; Jayaram Thimmapuram; Nishant Vyas; Kapil Thakur

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1158760

Impact of Heartfulness meditation practice on anxiety, perceived stress, well-being, and telomere length

Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 5:14:1158760. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1158760. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Mansee Thakur¹, Yogesh Patil¹, Sanjana T Philip¹, Tahreem Hamdule¹, Jayaram Thimmapuram², Nishant Vyas³, Kapil Thakur⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Medical Biotechnology, Central Research Laboratory, Mahatma Gandhi Mission School of Biomedical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi Mission Institute of Health Sciences, Navi Mumbai, India.
² Department of Internal Medicine, Well Span York Hospital, York, PA, United States.
³ Logical Life Science, Pvt. Ltd., Pune, India.
⁴ SRCM Heartfulness Meditation Centre, Navi Mumbai, India.

Abstract

Objective: Exhaustion, stress, and burnout have all been found to be reduced using techniques like yoga and meditation. This study was carried out to check the effectiveness of Heartfulness practice (a form of meditation) on certain psychological and genetic variables.

Methods: A total of 100 healthy individuals (aged 18-24) were recruited and randomized into two groups-Heartfulness intervention and control group. The intervention was carried out for 03 months. Participants from both groups were analysed for their cortisol levels and telomere length before and after the intervention. Psychometric measures of anxiety, perceived stress, well-being and mindfulness were carried out using Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), WHO-Well-being Index (WHO-WBI) and Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ).

Results: The cortisol levels in the meditators group significantly decreased (p < 0.001) after the intervention as compared to the non-meditators group, whereas, the telomere length increased in the mediators group. This increase was not significant (p > 0.05). Anxiety and perceived stress also decreased post intervention, and well-being as well as mindfulness increased, as assessed by the questionnaire tools, although the decrease in perceived stress was statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). A negative correlation was observed between telomere length and cortisol (stress biomarker), whereas a positive correlation was found between telomere length and well-being.

Conclusion: Our data provide evidence that Heartfulness meditation practice can improve our mental health. Additionally, telomere length is shown to be affected by cortisol levels, and this meditation practice can also help to increase telomere length, and thereby slow down cellular aging. However, future studies with larger sample size are required to confirm our observations.

Keywords: Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ); Heartfulness meditation; RT-PCR; anxiety; cortisol; stress; telomere.