Practicing Mindfulness the Marine Corps Way Leads to Mental Resilience

As we all know, the first name in relaxation and mindfulness is the United States Marine Corps (please don't email me about that joke). Yet, the Marine Corps really did pilot a mindfulness program in 2013, intended to address rising suicide rates among Marines and instances of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans.

Amid the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, officials told NBC News they had been looking for a way to help U.S. troops deal with the stress of combat deployments to those regions. The result was a pilot program called "Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training," (MMFT) and if it achieved positive results, would be integrated into regular Marine Corps training regimens.

The eight-week course, tested at Camp Pendleton, California, had its roots in Zen Buddhist practices, but the Marine Corps stated its training course was not tied to any religion. It was inspired by a decades-old mindfulness program called "Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction" that had already been tailored to at-risk populations like cancer patients. In 2013, it had yet to be tested on Marines training for combat.

When units of Marines go through combat training, it's a kind of "stress inoculation," physically and mentally preparing them for the battles to come, but this kind of exposure can harm their mental resilience. The MMFT was designed to augment the Corps' stress inoculation and subsequent deployments by using mindfulness techniques and actually increasing mental resilience.

At the time, studies had shown these techniques increased reactivity and advanced physical recovery after training. It also showed improved attention spans, faster mental processing and reaction times, higher pain tolerances, better immune function, reduced negative moods and fewer symptoms of burnout.

Two Marine Corps infantry battalions were subjected to the study. Within those battalions, four platoons each experienced the mindfulness training while four others went through training as usual. Individuals were subjected to two hours of instruction over eight weeks, with a four-hour workshop, silent training and 30 minutes of daily exercises to perform.

The two groups were then assessed three times throughout the eight weeks of training for heart rate, breathing and blood draws. They were also given neurological scans. The results found heart rate and breathing recovery were improved and mindfulness training "affects brain structures that are important in integrating information about the internal physiological state and the body's response to stress."

Elizabeth Stanley, a professor at Georgetown University, is an Army veteran who was diagnosed with PTSD during her service. She helped develop and test the Marine Corps' MMFT program study. Although mindfulness is still working to gain traction in military circles, Stanley still lectures and writes about MMFT.

She says that mindfulness can not only reduce the number of American warriors seeking professional help after service, it can help reduce the burnout among chaplains and health-care workers following deployments.

"Mind fitness training's beneficial effects could continue long after the deployment is over," Stanley writes, "increasing the likelihood that warriors will be ready, willing, and able to deploy again when needed.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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