Implications of Tamarkoz® on Stress, Emotion, Spirituality and Heart Rate

Overview

Depression, anxiety, hopelessness, poor sleep quality, somatic pain, high risk of substance abuse, and suicide ideation are positively correlated with perceived stress. Spirituality and positive emotions have profound, positive impacts on health and reduce perceived stress. The current study is an exploration of Tamarkoz®, a Sufi practice that is a method to concentrate, as a pathway by which spirituality and positive emotions effect perceived stress. Tamarkoz® incorporates physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of an individual. In its current form, it includes Movazaneh® which is movement balancing developed by the Sufi Master, Professor Nader Angha. Movazaneh® movements direct concentration of the mind to a state of collectiveness and activates electromagnetic centers in the body, which are said to develop spirituality in an individual. A national survey of college students indicated that over 80% have interest in spiritual development. Participants were recruited from the University of California, Berkeley for an 18-week quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and follow-up in three groups. Assessments were conducted with blood pressure, heart rate, the 10-item perceived stress scale, the 38-item dispositional positive emotions scale, and the 16-item daily spiritual experiences scale in a Tamarkoz® group, a wait-list control, and a third group utilizing the campus health center's stress management resources. Blood pressure and heart rate measurements were taken by the researcher using a validated home monitoring device. Additionally, all participants provided 3 diurnal saliva samples to determine changes in salivary immunoglobulin A and salivary cortisol. All data were collection was through non-evasive procedures and were assessed at baseline, end of the school semester (12 weeks) and 18 weeks. Participants, diverse university students, had no prior exposure to Tamarkoz®.

This study is quasi-experimental, waitlist control group design with pretest-posttest. It consisted of three groups: (a) the intervention group who learned Tamarkoz® Sufi meditation practices, (b) a second group of students who utilized self-care stress management resources at the Tang University Health Services Center, and (c) a third group who was the waitlist control group who did not receive Tamarkoz® and did not use the stress management resources at the Tang Center for the duration of the study. The design is represented in the following diagram. NR O(a) XT O(b) O(d) NR O(d) XS O(e) O(g) NR O(g) O(h) O(i) XT represents twelve weeks of Tamarkoz® training and XS represents twelve weeks of Tang Center stress management techniques. Each O represents one of three measurements in each group: (a) at baseline, (b) 12 weeks later, immediately after the intervention ends, and (c) six weeks post-intervention. The intervention group met twice a week for two and a half hours total for three months. One day of the week, they met for theoretical teachings of Sufism, and for the second day in the week they met to learn Tamarkoz® techniques. The self-care stress management group used the campus resources for stress management as needed for themselves.