Meditation Boosts Emotional Regulation among the Naturally Less Mindful
Practising mindfulness has been touted as a very effective form of mental exercise. It is linked to a wide range of health benefits, from lowered stress levels to better sleep and well-being. But how about for people who are not naturally mindful? Would a more focused, deliberate effort like meditation be a great strategy? In the latest research, a group of researchers sought to find out.
The study, published in the Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, has found that people who practise meditation are able to tame their negative emotions effectively as those who were naturally mindful.
They assessed 68 participants for mindfulness using a scientifically validated survey. The participants were then randomly assigned to engage in an 18-minute audio guided meditation or listen to a control presentation of how to learn a new language, before viewing negative pictures (such as a bloody corpse) while their brain activity was recorded.
For the study, some of the participants were instructed to look at the gruesome photos "mindfully" (be in a mindful state of mind) while others received no such instruction. Interestingly, the people who viewed the photos "mindfully" showed no better ability to keep their negative emotions in check.
The participants who meditated had varying levels of natural mindfulness. Nonetheless, they showed the same level of "emotion regulatory" in their brain activities after meditating as people with high levels of natural mindfulness.
The results suggest that the emotional benefits of mindfulness might be better achieved through meditation, rather than "forcing it" as a state of mind, according to Jason Moser, associate professor of clinical psychology at Michigan State University and co-author of the study.
"If you’re a naturally mindful person, and you’re walking around very aware of things, you’re good to go. You shed your emotions quickly," He said.
"If you’re not naturally mindful, then meditating can make you look like a person who walks around with a lot of mindfulness. But for people who are not naturally mindful and have never meditated, forcing oneself to be mindful ’in the moment’ doesn’t work. You’d be better off meditating for 20 minutes."
Source of this article:
Deconstructing the Emotion Regulatory Properties of Mindfulness: An Electrophysiological Investigation
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