Meditative Cognitive Therapies: A Literature Review

Abstract

Yoga has existed for centuries in the East, beginning in India, as a religious practice of meditation and mindfulness. In the West, however, yoga is more often a popular exercise-based practice with little to no emphasis on its religious or spiritual foundations. Curiously, the mindfulness aspect of yoga has become increasingly popular within the United States, particularly as a method for therapeutic treatments, such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapies (MBCT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These therapies have been useful for patients in the early stages of psychiatric disorders (e.g. Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Type 1 Bipolar Disorder), as some patients can supplement their medication in exchange for these forms of therapy. This paper investigates the origins of yoga from a Hindu perspective, explaining how recent trends in the U.S. have extracted elements of the traditional practice while adding other elements with a Western influence. This paper also investigates current symptoms and treatments for psychiatric disorders and explores how mindfulness can play an important role in future forms of therapy.

Keywords: yoga, mindfulness, brain, cognition, therapy, anxiety, depression, bipolar, religion, exercise