A pilot study on the impacts of lung-strengthening Qigong on wellbeing.

BACKGROUND: Qigong embraces a range of self-care exercises originating from China. Lung-Strengthening Qigong (LSQ) is a specific technique for maintaining and improving physical and mental wellbeing. METHODS: We recruited 170 practitioners and 42 non-practitioner/control samples to investigate the impacts of LSQ practice on body, mind, thoughts, and feelings. This is a pilot study pursued to plan for an adequately powered, non-clinical randomized controlled trials (RCT) on overall wellbeing and health and to evaluate the adequacy of delivering the physical activity intervention with fidelity. Self-evaluation-based data collection schemes were developed by regularly requesting completion of a questionnaire from both practitioner and control group, and an online diary and end of study survey (EOS) completion only from the practitioners. Diverse types of analyses were conducted, including statistical tests, machine learning, and qualitative thematic models. RESULTS: We evaluated all different data resources together and observed that (a)the impacts are diverse, including improvements in physical (e.g., elevated sleep quality, physical energy, reduced fatigue), mental (e.g., increased positivity, reduced stress), and relational (e.g., enhanced connections to self and nature) wellbeing, which were not observed in control group; (b)measured by the level-of-effectiveness, four distinct clusters were identified, from no-effect to a high-level of effect; (c)a majority (84 %) of the LSQ practitioners experienced an improvement in wellbeing; (d)qualitative and quantitative analyses of the diary entries, questionnaires, and EOS were all found to be consistent, (e)majority of the positively impacted practitioners had no or some little prior experience with LSQ. CONCLUSIONS: Novel features of this study include (i)an increased sample size vis-à-vis other related studies; (ii)provision of weekly live-streamed LSQ sessions; (iii)integration of quantitative and qualitative type of analyses. The pilot study indicated that the proportion of practitioners who continued to engage in completing the regular-interval questionnaires over time was higher for practitioners compared to the control group. The engagement of practitioners may have been sustained by participation in the regular live LSQ sessions. To fully understand the impacts of LSQ on clinical/physiological outcomes, especially for specific patient groups, more objective biomarkers (e.g. respiratory rate, heart rate variation) could be tracked in future studies.

An exploratory study of the application of mindsight in email communication.

RESEARCH PROBLEM: Email communication is a type of virtual communication with specific characteristics: - it is a form of written communication; it is asynchronous, i.e. not occurring at the same time for the sender and recipients. Email does not include face to face communication and thus the capacity to develop a sense of connection, shared knowledge and trust are distorted due to the lack of interpersonal cues and may become a problem. Communication is a process where one mind affects another, and it is through the process of communication that individuals develop shared perceptions and coordinate their behaviours. This implies creating social worlds rather than disseminating information between people. The fact that communication is not a mere means of disseminating information but also a means of developing social entities for co-creation of understanding requires that individuals approach communication with a sense of awareness of themselves and others. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS: In this article the theory of Mindsight is proposed as an approach of mindful observation of the act of communication resulting in deeper awareness, reflection and potential impact on behaviour. Although Mindsight has been extensively used in addressing self-awareness and communication in real spaces, there is a gap in the existing relevant literature about the application of Mindsight in virtual/email communication. METHODS: A Mindsight Utility for Virtual Communication (MUVC) was developed for use in engaging with email. The MUVC is a set of exercises enabling users to identify and manage their email habits over a period of time. The utility was developed to engage users in experiencing self-awareness and awareness of others and provides an aid to formulate personal guidelines in email communication. It was implemented with nineteen participants as part of action research allowing each individual to develop their own guidelines grounded in the experience of using the observation practice. DATA: Qualitative data was collected in the form of diaries for a period of 6 days from two group of participants: -university students; - employees of a social enterprise. Ethics approval was granted from Northumbria University prior to data collection. Thematic analysis was used. RESULTS: The study uncovered potential problems and solution strategies, inhibitors and facilitators of communication. Problems with email were perceived as: not knowing one another, difficulties in connecting, lack of trust, lack of interpersonal clues, reduction in communication quality, emotional and psychological discomfort. Solution strategies included: open-mindedness, empathy, compassion, attention focus, clear language, awareness practice, addressing physical and emotional discomfort.