Effects Of Shimgishin Meditation On Physiological Stress

PURPOSE: ‘Shimgishin‘ Meditation Program is a traditional Korean training method applied by companies that relieves mental and physical fatigue and pain through stimulation, movements and meditation that based on 12 meridian. This study investigates the stress relief effects of this program through physiological indicators such as heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones. METHODS: A total of 10 people participated in a healthy office worker who did not experience meditation, three male (28.7 ± 4.0 yrs, 176.3 ± 84.2 cm, 78.0 ± 8.7 kg) and seven female (35.6 ± 11.7 yrs, 161.7 ± 4.8 cm, and 52.3 ± 11.7 kg). The participants ran a total of six programs twice a week. The program consisted of simple stretching movements and meditation for a total of 50 minutes. Blood pressure, Salivary Cortisol(SC) and questionnaires were measured before and after the program, and heart rate was measured in real time all six times. For validate the single effect of the program The SC was measured at before and after on last program. RESULTS: Shimgishin program showed a significant decrease in heart rate and SC. The heart rate of the sixth meditation session showed a significant decrease compared to the first (78.03 ± 9.81 vs. 72.66 ± 9.09 1beat/min, p < 0.05). After program SC was significantly reduced compared to pre-program (3.58 ± 1.42 vs. 2.77 ± 1.86 ng/ml, p < 0.05). This means that a single program will also have a meaningful effect. Seemkisin program showed a significant decrease in awareness of stress (19.0 ± 5.33 vs. 15.1 ± 5.99, p < 0.05) and burnout (51.1 ± 21.81 vs. 39.8 ± 20.19, p < 0.02), but did not improve blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Overall results show that Shimgishin program improved physiological indicators of stress. In particular, it suggests that short-term programs can also be expected to reduce stress. Future research should aim to extend the current results, increase the sample size, expand the results and evaluate additional indicators. The study showed that it could benefit aspects of corporate health care.