Intervention group
SESSION
The breathing-based meditation intervention occurred in 4-week blocks and comprised four group sessions, one session per week, conducted by a senior meditation teacher with 20 years of experience in mind–body interventions (A.C.) [Session one focused on learning breathing techniques to calm one’s mind. Session two added learning how to still one’s body, silence one’s speech, and open one’s mind. Session three added learning to stay deeper in one’s connection through mindfully maintaining and deepening the connection through breathing with more openness and awareness and connecting to one’s qualities of warmth. Session four included expanding the warmth of one’s heart with loving kindness for others without forgetting oneself and an overview of the previous sessions, practice of the entire program, and an opportunity to ask questions. The meditation intervention was developed from the Tibetan tradition of the three doors which includes the body, speech, and mind [