Supported in Research

The 10 Minute Journey to You is rooted in my personal life transition, a time when I felt out of touch and unsure of my desired next steps, but sure I wanted to do a project that supported social cohesion. Through my own approach to peace, presence, and intentional movement, coupled with consistency and grace, I created an efficient method that invites connection, discovery, joy, and a clear path forward no matter the season.

This approach is also supported by individualized scientific research that highlights the positive impact of these practices. If you value research-backed methods, you are invited to explore the supporting studies and findings that resonate with The 10 Minute Journey to You methodology.

The Presence, Alignment, and the Process
There are numerous studies that support The 10 Minute Journey to You’s approach using presence, alignment, and the details of the process.

Embodied Presence: Meditation reduces activity in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), which is associated with mind-wandering and self-referential thought. Excessive self-referential thought can be associated with depression and anxiety.

– Garrison, Kevin A., et al. “Meditation Leads to Reduced Default Mode Network Activity beyond an Active Task.” Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 15, no. 3, 2015, pp. 712–720. Springer, doi:10.3758/s13415-015-0358-3. PMC4529365.

Embodied Presence: Monks meditating have shown powerful increases in gamma activity, which creates more brain connections.

– Geirland, John. “Buddha on the Brain.” Wired, 1 Feb. 2006, www.wired.com/2006/02/dalai/

Embodied Presence: Interoceptive awareness (IA) and dispositional mindfulness (DM) are overlapping constructs, whereas greater DM is linked with greater IA and both appear to be associated with enhanced psychological well-being.

– Hanley AW, Mehling WE, Garland EL. Holding the body in mind: Interoceptive awareness, dispositional mindfulness and psychological well-being. J Psychosom Res. 2017 Aug;99:13-20. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.05.014. Epub 2017 May 18. PMID: 28712417; PMCID: PMC5522814.

Embodied Presence: Factors like IA and negative beliefs significantly contribute to the explanation of emotional states.

– Modzelewska A, Imbir KK. Interoceptive awareness and beliefs about health and the body as predictors of the intensity of emotions experienced at the beginning of the pandemic. PeerJ. 2021 Dec 21;9:e12542. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12542. PMID: 35036120; PMCID: PMC8706328.

Embodied Presence: Somatic Psychoeducation (SPE), which is the process of teaching individuals about the connection between their mind and body to aid healing, was shown to lower anxiety immediately by 30% and long term decrease the anxiety trait by 6.2 points and improve self-esteem 3.5 points.

– Lieutaud, Anne, Karine Grenier, and Danis Bois. “The Effects of a Mind–Body Approach, Somatic Psychoeducation, on Anxiety and Self-Esteem.” Alternative and Complementary Therapies, vol. 27, no. 4, 2021, pp. 176–86. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.,

Areas of Importance: Values clarification exercises have been shown to create higher feelings of preparation for decision making as well as lower levels of regret after a year + follow-up.

– Feldman-Stewart D, Tong C, Siemens R, et al. The Impact of Explicit Values Clarification Exercises in a Patient Decision Aid Emerges After the Decision Is Actually Made: Evidence From a Randomized Controlled Trial. Medical Decision Making. 2012;32(4):616-626. doi:10.1177/0272989X11434601

Personalization of Areas of Importance: Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) helps one move past negative thoughts and feelings with a specific approach that includes accepting that your thoughts and emotions are an appropriate response to certain situations and committing to making changes in your life that match your values.

– “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): What It Is.” Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, 30 Sept. 2024, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy-act-therapy

Areas of Importance: A 6-week values clarification and committed action training program (derived from ACT) increase academic performance and psychological flexibility.

-Paliliunas D, Belisle J, Dixon MR. A Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate the Use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to Increase Academic Performance and Psychological Flexibility in Graduate Students. Behav Anal Pract. 2018 May 7;11(3):241-253. doi: 10.1007/s40617-018-0252-x. PMID: 30363765; PMCID: PMC6182845.

Areas of Importance – Activities: Behavioral activation, an intervention typically used for treating depression that promotes engagement in reinforcing and personally meaningful activities, and emphasizes approach rather than avoidance behaviors, also improves social isolation and loneliness in the homebound and elderly experiencing functional declines and preliminary empirical evidence shows its effectiveness for youth depression.

– Pepin R, Stevens CJ, Choi NG, Feeney SM, Bruce ML. Modifying Behavioral Activation to Reduce Social Isolation and Loneliness Among Older Adults. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2021 Aug;29(8):761-770. doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2020.09.004. Epub 2020 Sep 5. PMID: 32980253; PMCID: PMC7933361.
– Kennedy MA, Stevens CJ, Pepin R, Lyons KD. Behavioral Activation: Values-Aligned Activity Engagement as a Transdiagnostic Intervention for Common Geriatric Conditions. Gerontologist. 2024 Apr 1;64(4):gnad046. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnad046. PMID: 37068017; PMCID: PMC10943502.
– Malik K, Ibrahim M, Bernstein A, Venkatesh RK, Rai T, Chorpita B, Patel V. Behavioral Activation as an ‘active ingredient’ of interventions addressing depression and anxiety among young people: a systematic review and evidence synthesis. BMC Psychol. 2021 Oct 7;9(1):150. doi: 10.1186/s40359-021-00655-x. PMID: 34615559; PMCID: PMC8494510.

Reflection in the Process: Higher reflection scores are connected to a higher commitment to change.

– Ratelle JT, Wittich CM, Yu RC, Newman JS, Jenkins SM, Beckman TJ. Relationships Between Reflection and Behavior Change in CME. J Contin Educ Health Prof. 2017 Summer;37(3):161-167. doi: 10.1097/CEH.0000000000000162. PMID: 28767541.

Personalized Activities in the Process: Individualized recommendations created great interest in the recommendations as well as readiness to change and receive preventive services.

– Taksler GB, Hu B, DeGrandis F Jr, Montori VM, Fagerlin A, Nagykaldi Z, Rothberg MB. Effect of Individualized Preventive Care Recommendations vs Usual Care on Patient Interest and Use of Recommendations: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Nov 1;4(11):e2131455. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.31455. PMID: 34726747; PMCID: PMC8564576.

Cycles, Reflection, and Adjustments in the Process: “True change is messy, nonlinear, and full of unexpected detours. The problem isn’t lack of effort or discipline. It’s that our society’s current approaches to behavior change work against groundbreaking new science on our brain…Iteration is the process of continuously experimenting, assessing, and adjusting our efforts based on real-time feedback. It’s about treating behavior change as a never-ending series of better versions that keep us going long-term—rather than the win-or-lose of fixed goals or tracking. With each tweak and tinker, we learn, improve, and hone our next version—all while keeping our motivation alive.”

– Bobinet, Kyra, M.D., MPH. “How Permanent Behavior Change Really Works.” Psychology Today, 29 May 2024, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/unstoppable-brain/202405/how-permanent-behavior-change-really-works

Cycles in the Process: Habit formation shows the mean time to reach formation ranges from 59-66 (median) and 106-154 (mean).

– Singh B, Murphy A, Maher C, Smith AE. Time to Form a Habit: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Health Behaviour Habit Formation and Its Determinants. Healthcare (Basel). 2024 Dec 9;12(23):2488. doi: 10.3390/healthcare12232488. PMID: 39685110; PMCID: PMC11641623.

Graceful Tracking in the Process: Self-monitoring can reduce undesirable behaviors as shown in a meta-analysis.

– Compernolle S, DeSmet A, Poppe L, Crombez G, De Bourdeaudhuij I, Cardon G, van der Ploeg HP, Van Dyck D. Effectiveness of interventions using self-mon-itoring to reduce sedentary behavior in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2019 Aug 13;16(1):63. doi: 10.1186/s12966-019-0824-3. PMID: 31409357; PMCID: PMC6693254.