Abstract
BackgroundEmpirical data have suggested that mind-body practices that originated in Eastern traditions can cause desirable changes to psychological traits, the brain, somatic physiological functions, etc. Martial arts in Japan refer to the physical/mental practices that were developed based on historical combat techniques. Today, martial arts are considered activities that seek embodiment and/or mind-body unity, as well as sports. Empirical studies involving practitioners of Japanese martial arts to date remain scarce.MethodsWe conducted a questionnaire survey using a cross-sectional design to examine whether the practice of martial arts based on Japanese traditions are associated with mindfulness and psychological health. Participants included a population of practitioners of martial arts with a practice period of 0.6–35.0 years, and non-practitioners matched for demographic variables.ResultsCompared with the non-practitioners, the practitioners of martial arts had significantly higher scores for mindfulness and subjective well-being and lower scores for depression. Among the practitioners of martial arts, a longer period of practice or a higher frequency of daily practice significantly predicted higher mindfulness and psychological health.ConclusionsThe results obtained are consistent with those previously obtained for other populations of Japanese contemplatives, and support the view that practice of multiple Eastern mind-body practices might be associated with similar desirable psychological outcomes. A cross-sectional design has limitations in that it is difficult to determine the effect of continued practice, so that a longitudinal study that follows the same practitioners over time is desired in the future enquiry.
Highlights
Empirical data have suggested that mind-body practices that originated in Eastern traditions can cause desirable changes to psychological traits, the brain, somatic physiological functions, etc
We found no statistically significant difference between groups for the remaining three subscales
Practitioners of martial arts self-reported significantly higher mindfulness and subjective well-being and lower depression compared with the nonpractitioners
Summary
Empirical data have suggested that mind-body practices that originated in Eastern traditions can cause desirable changes to psychological traits, the brain, somatic physiological functions, etc. Increasing amounts of empirical data during recent decades have demonstrated that mind-body practices that originated in Eastern traditions including Buddhist meditation can cause desirable changes to psychological traits, the brain, somatic physiological functions, etc. .b (dot-be) program is a mindfulness program developed for school children [9] and have proven effective for enhancing psychological health outcomes such as reduced stress and anxiety and increased psychological well-being Despite this accumulated evidence, in Japan, relatively little empirical data exist regarding practice-induced changes in the psychological status and/or somatic physiological states of practitioners of traditional mindbody and/or contemplative practices. Miyata and Sasaki [12] studied trainees of the ParkSasaki method of speed-reading, a meditation-based technique in Japan to cultivate efficient reading strategies, and found that the trainees exhibited higher reading speeds and higher mindfulness and psychological health than untrained participants. Given the consistency of results obtained from multiple populations, an important challenge is to examine the extent to which comparable psychological outcomes are observed for practitioners of various Japanese mind-body practices
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