Interventions
MM
On the day of the surgery, all patients in the test and control groups were instructed to arrive 20 min earlier than the surgery appointment hour in order to complete the forms (STAI-S, STAI-T, MDAS) and to record the baseline measurements (HR, SBP, DBP, CL, BIS). This period was standardized at 20 min for each participant. After the first 20 min of the pre-operative measurement period, the control group was taken into operation and the test group was taken into meditation.The participants of the test group were further informed about MM and they were reassured that the meditation would not have any direct impact on the surgical procedure and that they could discontinue the session at any given point. They were subjected to MM in a room specially allocated for study purposes. Care was taken to ensure that no disturbance occurred or that any third person entered the room throughout the intervention. Shortened guided body scan meditation adapted from the MBSR program by Jon Kabat-Zinn