Mindfulness Exercises Reduce Acute Physiologic Stress Among Female Clinicians.
Critical care explorations November 1, 2024 Amy H J Wolfe, Pamela S Hinds, Adre J Du Plessis et al.
Mindfulness exercises—grounding, deep breathing, and body scan—each improved heart rate variability (HRV), an objective measure of stress, in a pilot study of 13 female pediatric clinicians. The body scan exercise produced the most consistent changes, increasing parasympathetic (relaxation) activity and decreasing sympathetic (stress) activity. Subjective stress, measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, dropped from 44.6 to 27.2 after a one-day workshop. Those with the largest reduction in subjective stress also showed the greatest HRV improvement during the body scan. Monitoring HRV during specific exercises may help identify which techniques most effectively reduce physiologic stress for individual clinicians.