Recruiting

Inner Engineering

Sponsor:

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Code:

NCT07173608

Conditions

Meditation

Cognitive Reappraisal

Emotional Regulation

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 15 - 18

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

Inner Engineering Program

Study Details

Brief summary:

This study will evaluate how a comprehensive meditation-based program, Inner Engineering, supports teens ages 15-18 in becoming more joyful, focused, resilient, and better equipped to manage stress and thrive. Through this study, researchers will examine whether practices like meditation, yoga, and cognitive reframing can help adolescents view and respond to challenges with greater clarity and balance. The study will assess mental and physical impacts through self-report, physiological, and neuroimaging methods.

Conditions

Meditation

Cognitive Reappraisal

Emotional Regulation

Study ID

NCT07173608

Start date

May 1, 2026

Status verified date

Apr, 2026

Completion date

Mar, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Feb, 2028

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 15 - 18

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Individuals between15-18 years of age
  • Ability to understand study instructions and provide informed consent/assent. (parental consent for minors)
  • Access to internet and a device to complete online study activities
  • Currently residing in the United States
  • Willing and able to travel to the hospital location in Boston for study procedures.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-English speaking (Justification: the intervention and assessment instruments are not validated in a sufficient range of languages, and the research team lacks polylingual capabilities or the financial resources to hire interpreters for the duration of all proposed assessments.)
  • Practicing meditation regularly in the past 6 months (4 or more times per week for 4 weeks or more in the past 6 months)
  • History of psychiatric illness such as severe anxiety, severe depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
  • Current use of cognition enhancing drugs
  • Current management for chronic pain
  • History (within past 5 years) of seizure, brain surgery or any condition causing cognitive decline.
  • Active history (within the last 5 years) of alcohol or drug abuse.
  • Current pregnancy or planning to become pregnant in the next 6 months
  • Currently enrolled in another interventional study that could impact the primary outcome, as determined by the PI
  • Significant visual impairment
  • Subject has previously learned the intervention.
  • Subject has contraindications for MRI (Detailed in the eligibility screening questions)

Study Design

Enrollment

96 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Intervention

Intervention participants will take the Inner Engineering program and are asked to practice meditation daily for the duration of the study.

no intervention: Control

Control participants will be asked to continue their daily routine

Interventions

Inner Engineering Program

The intervention is a comprehensive secular training called Inner Engineering (IE), offered by the international non-profit Isha Foundation. This program combines cognitive reappraisal and emotion regulation strategies, breath-based meditation and simple yoga practices. The training provides precise, step by step and easy to follow instructions on how to perform the practices. No previous experience of yoga and meditation is required. By fostering health, exuberance and awareness, one can "engineer their inner climate the way they want it" to lead a joyful, fulfilling life. Previous research shows improved wellbeing, mindfulness, joy, sleep, relationships, psychological capital, and work engagement, compassion, and parent-child relationships. Evidence suggest it may promote enhanced Heart Rate Variability and Sympathovagal balance.

Primary outcome measure

  • Emotional Wellbeing [ Time Frame: Measured at Baseline, 6 weeks and 3 months ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Sepideh Hariri, PhD

617-278-8082sadhgurucenter_research@bidmc.harvard.edu

Balachundhar Subramaniam, MD, MPH

617-667-2721sadhgurucenter_research@bidmc.harvard.edu

Locations

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Recruiting

Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02445

More Information

Sponsor

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Last update posted

Jul 21, 2026

Last verified

Apr, 2026

Keywords

  • meditation
  • Inner Engineering
  • Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya
  • EEG
  • Functional MRI
  • MRI
  • Cognition
  • Mindfulness
  • Mental Health
  • Adolescent

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on 2026-07-21.