Can a little loving kindness improve our mental health?
Mindfulness - an ancient Buddhist approach to meditation - is attracting increasing attention in the 21st century as a non-invasive treatment for stress and depression. But can it improve mental wellbeing in young people? View the video to find out more.
Using electroencephalography (EEG) – a non-invasive method of recording electrical activity in the brain along the scalp - Dr Ahmed Mohammed, from the School of Psychology at The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) is attempting to find out if loving kindness meditation can improve the wellbeing and mental health of young people.
Dr Mohammed said: “Mindfulness is free cost effective and non-invasive. The aim is to discover if mindfulness compared with active relaxation can improve the subjective wellbeing and brain measures in health young adolescents who have never been exposed to mindfulness training.”
After completing a psychological questionnaire, 30 students from UNMC, The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham in the UK and local Malaysians, take part in a two week mindfulness intervention to assess the impact on their subjective wellbeing, happiness, their sense of gratitude as well as hopefulness.
The mindfulness training being used in this research focusses on being friendly towards yourself and towards others. The research, funded by the Faculty of Science at UNMC will take six months to complete. The aim is to enhance the health of the young adolescent brain.
Dr Mohammed said: “I have always been interested in how psychology in general and neuroscience in particular can promote wellbeing in young adults and young adolescents and contribute to the betterment of society as a whole.”
After completing a psychological questionnaire, 30 students from UNMC, The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham in the UK and local Malaysians, take part in a two week mindfulness intervention to assess the impact on their subjective wellbeing, happiness, their sense of gratitude as well as hopefulness.
The mindfulness training being used in this research focusses on being friendly towards yourself and towards others. The research, funded by the Faculty of Science at UNMC will take six months to complete. The aim is to enhance the health of the young adolescent brain.
Dr Mohammed said: “I have always been interested in how psychology in general and neuroscience in particular can promote wellbeing in young adults and young adolescents and contribute to the betterment of society as a whole.”
One of the world's truly global universities, with campuses in Malaysia, the UK and China, 2015 marks the 15th year since setting up as UK's first full-fledged international campus in Malaysia and all three campuses continue to enrich the lives of students across the world through global education, ground-breaking research and community engagement.
—Ends—
More information is available from Dr Ahmed Dahir Mohamed at The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC), on+60 (3)8924 8399, ahmed.mohamed@nottingham.edu.my;or Josephine Dionisappu, PR & Communications Manager at UNMC, on +60(3)8924 8746, josephine.dionisappu@nottingham.edu.my;or Lindsay Brooke, Media Relations Manager in the Communications Office at The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 951 5751, lindsay.brooke@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors: The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham has 43,000 students and is ‘the nearest Britain has to a truly global university, with campuses in China and Malaysia modelled on a headquarters that is among the most attractive in Britain’ (Times Good 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ Guide 2014). It is also one of the most popular universities in the UK among graduate employers and the winner of ‘188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ Project of the Year’ at the THE Awards 2014. It is ranked in the world’s top one per cent of universities by the QS World 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ Rankings, and 8th in the UK by research power according to REF 2014.
The 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@ of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC) is holding events throughout 2015 to celebrate 15 years as a pioneer of transnational education.Based in Semenyih, UNMC was established as the UK's first overseas campus in Malaysia and one of the first world-wide.
Impact: The Nottingham Campaign, its biggest-ever fundraising campaign, is delivering the 188体育网址_188体育在线-【唯一授权网站】@’s vision to change lives,tackle global issues and shape the future.
