Mindfulness training for Marines?...new research/studies

Elizabeth Stanley
Georgetown Univ.

Q.  i've heard that Marines are using meditation training, both for its effects in battle and in recovery. What do you know about this?  Is it useful for us?

G.  Yes, there are many state-of-the art brain research and psychological studies going on w/Marines and other military folk on whether meditation can help them deal w/their extreme challenges.   The work is focused on both surviving better "in combat" and on dealing w/aftereffects, like Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or traumatic injuries.  

As folk are serving longer and w/many "tours", the rates of physical and mental injuries, suicides and divorces have also climbed to alarming, almost "epidemic" levels.  More soldiers now die by suicide than from combat or vehicle accidents.  The divorce rate among Iraq/Afghanistan war vets increased 42%.  A RAND corp study of vets found that 1/3 were currently affected by PTSD or depression or report exposure to a traumatic brain injury.

These effects are acute now from a) these "redeployments" to Iraq and Afghanistan (some > 12 times), b) newer, deadlier weapons, like IEDs, which produce terrible brain injuries and PTSD, and, paradoxically c) big improvements in the ability to save lives after severe injuries so that more seriously-damaged folk, both physically and psychologically, are surviving and returning home.

Can tools like mindfulness-based-stress-reduction/meditation be useful for helping folk deal w/near crisis levels of physiological and psychological trauma?   Can we learn from that?   As you may recall, the Bhagavad Gita was set on a battlefield, a metaphor for the "battlefield" of everyday life.

A new concept for dealing w/these challenges, has been adopted, "resiliency", or a "person's ability to cope with stress and anxiety and bounce back when confronted with a hardship."  Many broadly-focused programs have been developed, like the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness  for "social, emotional, family, spiritual and physical" resilience and the "all services'" "Total Force Fitness" program which covers psychological, spiritual, social, environmental, behavioral, medical, physical and nutritional aspects.  The Center for Mind Body Medicine's program is the most comprehensive and has the strongest evidence that it works to reduce PTSD.    

Samurai Warrior

There is also "Warrior Mind Training", a meditation-based  training that is growing steadily, particularly for "elite" forces like Marines, Special Forces and SEALs.  It has developed from  meditation classes that a Marine attended in San Diego in 2005 into a Samurai-themed approach offered at many sites.  It is so successful that it is now part of the SEALs' preparation for their final physical and mental endurance test.  Using it, 33% of the SEALs candidates now pass, as compared to 25% before the training was used.  

One folk learned the training between Iraq deployments.  For ten minutes in the morning and for half an hour at night, he now uses music—Miles Davis, Joe Satriani, Mozart—as his meditation tool.  As he describes it, "the idea is to listen, really listen, to the wail of the guitar or the staccato tap of the drums instead of letting your mind wander...being in 'the zone.'"  This is similar to the approach described in the blogpost "Using simple chants meditatively for non-dual awakening".

He can now be on watch for hours, refocusing his attention when his mind strayed...in combat, he found new clarity...“you don’t let the overwhelming experience...get to you,” he says. “You’ve got stuff going on...those are explosions, but who’s shooting and where’s he at?...You’re able to break it down and focus, instead of everything just coming at you at once.”  He now uses it in his current work as a medic, identifying and treating the severest injuries w/o being distracted by what's happening around him.

The Marines are developing a "mindfulness-based training" program, which incorporates yoga-type stretching, called "Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training" or "M-Fit".  "Some...say these are Eastern-based religious practices but this goes way beyond that," said Jeffery Bearor, director of Marine training and education at headquarters in Quantico, Va.  "This is about mental preparation to better handle stress."

The 2011 study involved 160 Marines taught to focus their attention by concentrating on their body's sensations, including breathing, while immersed in a mock high combat stress situation.  The research leader is Naval Health Research Center scientist Douglas C. Johnson @ the University of California @ San Diego in the "Optibrain Center".  Johnson monitors the Marines' reactions by looking at blood and saliva samples, fMRI brain imaging and problem-solving tests. The latest study  compares M-Fit w/mental resilience training based on sports psychology techniques.  

Insula

Previous studies on SEALs showed more activation in the insula, which is also typically increasingly activated in meditation. (See video "No Thoughts, No Time I" and blogposts "Meditation Can Permanently Eliminate I-focused Narrative" and "Anorexia, bulimia...meditation...the neuroscience").  The insula plays a role in self-awareness, pain sensation and emotion.  It is also important in anticipating stress and preparing the body for dangerous situations.  Higher activity here makes one able to act  faster, more clearly and more deliberately in complex, chaotic situations. 

Carlos Lozano was in the study.  He  and fellow Marines were skeptical...why was their rigorous combat training being interrupted by a class asking them to sit in silence and stare at their combat boots, becoming aware of how their feet touched the classroom floor?  "I didn't want to do it...But the exercises...done while standing, stretching and lying down — had an effect."  

Carlos Lozano
Marine M-Fit Meditator

"M-Fit" was designed by former U.S. Army Capt. Elizabeth Stanley @ Georgetown University, a longtime meditation practitioner, who found relief doing yoga and meditation for her PTSD.   Her program is based on "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction" (MBSR) (described in the blogpost "Premature aging caused by mind wandering?...new research").  Stanley modified that proven program to focus attention, release mind wandering thoughts, and use awareness to help the body and mind self-regulate during and after stressful experiences.

The M-Fit Marines, Johnson reported "...showed a better recovery from stressful training, and their brain scans showed similarities with the neural patterns of the elite performers—the SEALs and Olympians". “These results,” Johnson says, “suggest that mindfulness training can produce changes at the level of brain, biology and behavior...”

Marines who practiced mindfulness techniques showed fewer signs of stress leading up to  deployment, and improvements in concentration and working memory which improve performance on complex cognitive tasks.  They also reported an improved ability to handle stress and both retain and regain focus.  

Amishi Jha
University of Miami

“This type of training has been considered soft, not hardening,” says Dr. Amishi Jha, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Miami who studied the effects of meditation on soldiers.  (Jha is also developing a  mindfulness-based training program.)   “That somehow it’s going to weaken instead of toughen, that it’s going to make people less precise and more passive...It’s the exact opposite for your mind. It’s being in the most alert and present state that you can imagine.”  

War is an awful thing, but these mindfulness/meditation approaches originally developed under very different conditions in very different times, have proven their value in the most hostile and terrifying situations imaginable including functioning at a high level in extreme, and repeated stress.  This is yet another definitive indication of the great value just a little meditation can bring to one's life, whether you're in traffic on the I-5, working in an office, or in combat.