“Waving your thoughts goodbye”: A two-minute and instant mindfulness approach for decreasing female body dissatisfaction

Manoli, Aikaterini (2018) “Waving your thoughts goodbye”: A two-minute and instant mindfulness approach for decreasing female body dissatisfaction. University of Glasgow. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Body dissatisfaction is prevalent in females, leading to detrimental physical and psychological outcomes. Mindfulness might successfully reduce body dissatisfaction through decentering, the metacognitive aspect of viewing thoughts as transient mental events. Most previous research has examined the effects of extended acceptance-based mindfulness interventions on body dissatisfaction, with very few studies considering the effectiveness of brief decentering approaches. This study examined whether radically short (two-minute or “instant”) mindfulness interventions could decrease body dissatisfaction compared to a control condition in 102 females (18-30 years), after exposure to “ideally thin” body dissatisfaction trigger-stimuli. It was hypothesised that both two-minute and instant approaches would decrease body dissatisfaction, while being equally effective. Results supported the prediction that both interventions would decrease body dissatisfaction. Additionally, Bayesian analysis provided anecdotal evidence that both interventions were equally effective. In addition to demonstrating that brief decentering interventions can protect from body dissatisfaction, the study is the first to support the feasibility of an instant mindfulness approach, opening the way for future research.