Many contemplative traditions emphasize social benefits of contemplative practice, yet more research is needed to determine whether and how contemplative training supports social well-being. Recent advances in understanding social emotion regulation (SER) highlight the importance of both intrapersonal and interpersonal strategies, and offer exciting new approaches and methods for investigating social effects of contemplative practice. …
Continue reading “Effects of Mindful Compassion Training on social emotion regulation in daily life”
Imagine feeling intense stress: palms sweaty, heart racing, breathing shallow. Sensations of the body often come to the forefront when describing experiences of emotion or stress, yet these physiological changes are separate from the subjective ‘feeling’ of these states that we experience mentally. My previous work has shown that individuals whose subjective experience tracks strongly …
Continue reading “Is knowing the body knowing the mind? Mind-body coherence, interoception, and contemplative training”
Mindfulness is suggested to contribute to emotion regulation by enhancing a person’s mind-body-environment connection. Mindfulness has also been suggested to enhance awareness of distinct embodied states’ reward values – eg. people typically prefer joy over fear – and promote autonomous shifting towards more rewarding states, naturally contributing to emotion regulation. Our aim is to develop …
Continue reading “Linking embodiment with the neural circuitry of mindfulness and reward”
The Mindfulness-to-Meaning theory proposes that the established relationship between mindfulness and measures of wellbeing may be due to its effects on emotion regulation. More specifically, they argue that the practice of mindfulness evokes more flexible awareness and the ability to suspend our automatic thoughts, emotions, and actions in-the-moment. As such, it can help create distance …
Continue reading “Mindfulness-to-Meaning theory and eudaimonic appraisals of positive autobiographical events”
Emotion dysregulation, difficulties managing intense emotions, is common across many psychiatric disorders and is central to some of the most severe and difficult-to-treat populations in psychiatry. To immediately decrease suffering from emotions, individuals with emotion dysregulation often rely on destructive behaviors, including substance use and violence. Mindfulness may help prevent these problems, as it effectively …
Continue reading “Generalizing mindful emotion regulation: Toward a transdiagnostic approach to training emotion regulation with mindfulness”
Unpaid, or informal, caregivers of dementia patients are more likely to experience heightened stress and a variety of adverse psychological and physical health outcomes as well as disturbed sleep. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to identify interventions that can promote psychological and physical well-being of caregivers. The overarching goal of this proposed study is …
Continue reading “Eudaimonia and sleep: Effects of a mindfulness intervention in caregivers of people with dementia”
Conscious breathing is an aspect of all forms of meditation and yoga. Emerging research indicates that the effects of controlled breathing on the mind-body system and concomitant mental states warrants further investigation. We propose a two-phase investigation of breathing practices during which we will: (1) systematically review the literature on reported effects of voluntarily regulated …
Continue reading “Voluntarily regulated breathing practices and their effects on self-regulation, cognition, and problem solving under stress”
This ethnographic research will investigate contextual factors associated with contemplative practices in the nation of Bhutan. The motivation driving this research is twofold: firstly, the impact of contextual factors in the experience of contemplative practice has not been adequately studied; and secondly, Bhutan is experiencing an increase in the rate of suicide. Although the Bhutanese …
Continue reading “Intersections of Buddhism and Psychology: An ethnographic study of contextual factors and contemplative practices in Bhutan”
Minority and low-income couples tend to experience greater individual and relational stress compared to higher income and/or White couples, which is likely due to the unique challenges these populations face. Given that previous studies indicate mindfulness reduces both individual and relationship stress, it may be a particularly useful tool for these underserved populations. Unfortunately, low-income …
Continue reading “Is mindfulness only for the fortunate? The development and dissemination of a brief home-based mindfulness intervention to low-income couples”
Chronic pain is a major physical and mental health care problem, and is challenging to treat. In addition to pain, many patients feel bad about themselves and may experience guilt or shame. Self-compassion is an element of mindfulness-based interventions, and describes the skill of being kind and caring towards oneself. Thus, for patients with chronic …
Continue reading “How does self-compassion influence pain and self-related functioning in patients with chronic pain? A pilot RCT trial combining fMRI and experience sampling”
