Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in the Army

Description

Stress is a major factor affecting human performance and health in many situations. In combat situations military personnel can be exposed to extremes of stress that can result in a wide range of performance issues, some good, some bad. Some stressful experiences can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, affecting their subsequent lives. In many work situations employee performance can be compromised because of high levels of stress. Strategies for effective stress reduction are important to many situations. In this talk, the results from four large studies conducted by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory on Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction will be presented. The talk will especially focus on explaining the 'tie' between Human Factors/Ergonomics and meditation (improving human performance, human resilience etc.). Since everyone who worked on this research with Dr. Rice had to go through mindfulness training, as well as do the research on it, she will also share with the audience her own experiences with the training, and practice meditation techniques with the audience.

Track(s)

• Keynote