Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

The Contribution of Mind-Body Practices to Emotional Health


Publishing date
01 Dec 2021
Status
Closed
Submission deadline
06 Aug 2021

Lead Editor

1Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

2University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

3University of Arizona, Tuscon, USA

This issue is now closed for submissions.

The Contribution of Mind-Body Practices to Emotional Health

This issue is now closed for submissions.

Description

Emotional health is a state of positive psychological functioning and is vital for living a life of balance and contentment. People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their moods and behaviour, which helps them to meet the challenges of career difficulties, family conflict, or life dilemmas. However, many individuals have experienced emotional disturbances and disorders during their life. Emotional disorders are highly intertwined with leading causes of illness and disability, such as heart disease or stroke, leading to a high family and social burden due to increased healthcare costs. Therefore, it is an important public health issue to encourage more research into the field of mental health.

It is well established that mind-body practices, as an alternative and complementary treatment, have shown beneficial effects in the alleviation of anxiety, depression, and other psychopathologies. Recently, considerable efforts have been devoted to the field of mind-body training-induced emotional effects, to unravel the significance of alternative and complementary techniques in the prevention and treatment of emotional disturbances and disorders. These mind-body practices include Tai Chi Chuan, yoga, Baduanjin, and Qigong. Given the accessibility of mind-body practices among individuals of all ages, there is potential in the application of regimens with empirical evidences to prevent and manage mental health disorders. Currently, mind-body integrative techniques have been utilised in the general healthy population, as well as in patients with emotional disorders.

In this Special Issue, we call for contributions on the effect of mind-body practices on emotional health in both healthy populations and patients with physical or mental health problems. These effects are expected to be emotion-related outcomes, including but not limited to positive mood, depression, and anxiety. Longitudinal studies or interventions are encouraged. We encourage all studies that advance our understanding of the association between mind-body practices and human emotions and offer new insights for developing new strategies for treating emotional disorders. We welcome both original research and review articles.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Intervention of mind-body practices on patients with emotional disorders
  • The effects of mind-body practices in promoting emotional health in healthy populations
  • Longitudinal studies on mind-body practices on depression in adult and elderly populations
  • The interactive effects of cognitive ability and emotional processing induced by acute exercise of mind-body practices
  • Mind-body training alleviating emotional disturbances such as examination anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents
  • Negative emotions alleviated by mind-body practices in illnesses such as chronic heart disease, digestive tract disease, breast disease, cardiovascular disease, and fibromyalgia
  • The influence of acute or chronic mind-body exercise on physical or mental pain-induced negative emotions
  • Brain imaging techniques used to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying mind-body practice-induced emotional health
  • Mind-body practices optimising brain functions related to emotional circuits
  • The effects of exercise, mindfulness, or mind-body practices in reshaping brain structures, including amygdala, thalamus, cingulate cortex, and frontal cortex
  • Reviews and perspectives on the effect of mind-body practice on emotional health

Articles

  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2022
  • - Article ID 1727479
  • - Research Article

The Effects of Foot Reflexology for Smoking Cessation on Brain Activities with Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI): A Pilot Study

Pisit Wattanaruangkowit | Sombat Muengtaweepongsa | ... | Tharadol Kengganpanich
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2022
  • - Article ID 9951693
  • - Research Article

Effects of Jie Yu Wan on Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Xue Li | Sisi Zheng | ... | Hongxiao Jia
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2021
  • - Article ID 8600443
  • - Research Article

The Feasibility of Tai Chi Exercise as a Beneficial Mind-Body Intervention in a Group of Community-Dwelling Stroke Survivors with Symptoms of Depression

Ruth E. Taylor-Piliae | Helena W. Morrison | ... | Michael Grandner
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2021
  • - Article ID 5596111
  • - Research Article

On Mindfulness Training for Promoting Mental Toughness of Female College Students in Endurance Exercise

Yi Wang | Jing Tian | Qingxuan Yang
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2021
  • - Article ID 5924040
  • - Research Article

Effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Deep Breathing, and Guided Imagery in Promoting Psychological and Physiological States of Relaxation

Loren Toussaint | Quang Anh Nguyen | ... | Fuschia Sirois
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2021
  • - Article ID 5585239
  • - Review Article

TaiChi and Qigong for Depressive Symptoms in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure: A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

Wei Jiang | Shaojun Liao | ... | Weihui Lu
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2021
  • - Article ID 6633658
  • - Research Article

Examining the Effects of Brief Mindfulness Training on Athletes’ Flow: The Mediating Role of Resilience

Fengbo Liu | Zhongqiu Zhang | ... | Nan Zhang
  • Special Issue
  • - Volume 2021
  • - Article ID 5549006
  • - Review Article

The Effect of Tai Chi Chuan on Emotional Health: Potential Mechanisms and Prefrontal Cortex Hypothesis

Ying Yao | Likun Ge | ... | Gao-Xia Wei
Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
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