Mind Over Stress

Discover and apply new research about the power of mindfulness to mitigate the experience of feeling cold. —In a recent study, researchers investigated if listening to a mindful paragraph being read could improve a person’s motor performance and cold tolerance in a low-temperature environment. The participants were exposed to cold by submerging their hand in 2°C, or about 36 degrees Fahrenheit, cold water while listening to a mindfulness passage read aloud. The control group was not given the reading.After the training, researchers put each person from each group to the test to see how well they could withstand cold exposure. In the motor task tests, both groups fared similarly. However, members of the mindfulness group were able to tolerate cold exposure for considerably longer than the other participants.How can you and I put these findings to use? First, you’re not likely to read a mindful based paragraph before going out into cold weather. But what you can do is use a simple affirmation such as, “I choos