Physiological impacts of Ajapajapa Yogic Meditation on HRV index, RMSSD, PNN50, Heart Rate and GSR following three-month training course in comparison to F.G. Meditation

Abstract

The findings of this study is based on following, comparing and contrasting certain physiological effects of two types of meditation;Ajapajapa Yogic Meditation (AYM) in combination with Anapanasati on one hand and Farshad's Geometric Meditation (FGM) on the other hand,on practitioners of these sets of meditative techniques.<br /> To assess physiological impacts of Ajapajapa Yogic Meditation (AYM) on the treatment of psychological stress and anxiety in comparison to FGM, we initially recruited 72 St. Aloysius College students to take part in this meditation research program. Then they were randomly assigned into 3 groups including AYM, FGM and control group. Prior to and following the AYM and FGM courses, the pre and post experimental physiological data were collected using Vilistus to register Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Root Mean Square of Successive Differences (RMSSD), Proportion derived by dividing NN50 by the total number of NN (PNN50), Heart Rate and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) signals. The total number of volunteers from whom the post experimental data were collected was 62. For each meditation group we conducted a three-month meditation program, 3 one-hour sessions per week.<br /> In both experimental groups, statistically significant reduction in the heart rate and GSR and also increase in RMSSD, PNN50 and HRV index were seen in comparison to the control group. <br /> Since AYM and FGM both seem to be effective methods for the reduction of psychological stress and anxiety, they could be adopted in clinical populations. Moreover, the implementation of these methods for stress management can also be suggested.