Abstract
BackgroundMindfulness has demonstrated strong utility for enhancing self-management and health outcomes in chronic illness. However, sensation-focused mindfulness techniques may not be appropriate for clinical populations with neurological injury. This study aimed to identify how expert mindfulness teachers with sensory loss/impairment naturalistically adapt and experience mindfulness. We aimed to highlight the rationale for and barriers to mindfulness practice when living with sensory loss.MethodsA qualitative, semi-structured interview design was used, analysed via Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Eight (5 females, 3 males) mindfulness teachers with neurological injury were recruited via a national registry of Mindfulness for Health teachers. Interviews (range: 50–93 min) were completed, transcribed verbatim and analysed idiographically for descriptive, linguistic and conceptual themes, before a cross-case analysis was completed.ResultsTwo superordinate themes were identified: (1) Overcoming a disrupted biography; and (2) Proactive self-management. These themes considered the challenge of reconciling, through grief, a past health status with the present reality of living with sensory loss due to Spinal Cord Injury, Multiple Sclerosis or Functional Neurological Disorder. Mindfulness was experienced as a method by which proactive choices could be made to maintain control and autonomy in health, reducing perceptions of suffering, psychological distress, cognitive reactivity and rumination.ConclusionsMindfulness was found to support the self-management of health after neurological injury/impairment. Mindfulness meditation presented an initial challenge as trauma and grief processes were (re-)activated during mindfulness sessions. However, mindfulness was found to support the resolution of these grief processes and encourage adaptive approach-based coping and acceptance of health and neurological impairment/injury.
Highlights
Mindfulness has demonstrated strong utility for enhancing self-management and health outcomes in chronic illness
Analysis of transcripts resulted in two superordinate themes: (1) Overcoming a disrupted biography; and (2) Proactive self-management
Findings from the current study generated two superordinate themes; Overcoming a Disrupted Biography and Proactive Self-management, which together reflect the challenge of using mindfulness to facilitate self-management of health in conditions associated with sensory loss
Summary
Mindfulness has demonstrated strong utility for enhancing self-management and health outcomes in chronic illness. Mindfulness is widely employed as an adjunctive strategy for health self-management in people with chronic health conditions [1]. Mindfulness-based practices employ strategies that promote acceptance of (ill-)health through non-judgemental observation of thoughts and feelings [1]. This can interrupt cycles of rumination and catastrophizing linked with poor quality of life and reduced psychological wellbeing in people with chronic health conditions [6, 7]. The utility of mindfulness for chronic illness management is wide-ranging: mindfulness has been shown to have positive psychological and physical health benefits for a significant number of chronic health conditions, including Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) [8], Multiple Sclerosis (MS) [9], Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease [10], Parkinson’s Disease [11], stroke and traumatic brain injury [12]. Mindfulness has been increasingly recommended for consideration in the rehabilitation and management of chronic illness [13]
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