We have arrived at a moment where the world’s circumstances can no longer afford the luxury of ignoring the inner life of the leader. Operating in contexts of accelerating speed and complexity, leaders are pressured to make more and faster decisions with ever-narrower margins of error and greater repercussions. With these come intellectual, emotional, perceptual …
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Master Lectures: Minding Mindfulness: Issues, Models, and Findings in the Scientific Study of Meditation
This talk will describe attentional, emotional and physiological processes modified over the course of three months of full-time training in, and practice of, meditative quiescence (Shamatha) and beneficial aspirations for self and others (loving kindness, compassion, empathetic joy and equanimity). This multidisciplinary longitudinal, randomized wait-list controlled study is known as The Shamatha Project. Scientific measures …
Contemplative peacebuilding in Colombia: A contemplative practice-based psychosocial support program for Colombian ex-combatants
Colombia has recently made unprecedented progress towards ending one of the longest armed conflicts in the world, entering a peacebuilding process which includes the reintegration of ex-combatants into society. However, psychosocial support is currently a small though critical component for ex-combatant reintegration. Our project aims to deliver and evaluate a contemplative-practice based psychosocial support program …
SHAPE JOY: A program to nurture empathic happiness in children through contemplative parenting practices
Young children seem to be wired to notice and enjoy the happy experiences of others, but this tendency to experience “empathic happiness” seems to fade in later childhood when it is replaced by self-doubt, envy, and worry. This process of losing the natural inclination for empathic happiness is exacerbated for some children who become dysregulated …
Can emotional acceptance promote political action? Leveraging contemplative science to promote positive social action
In today’s contentious political climate, we must identify pathways that promote positive social action. Collective political action (e.g., voting, volunteering), in particular, can powerfully shape society for the better – but what can individuals do to promote collective action? We propose that the contemplative strategy of emotional acceptance should allow individuals to harness the power …
Interoception and Contemplative Practice
Organizer Participants Interoception can be broadly defined as the sense of signals originating within the body. As such, interoception is critical for our sense of embodiment, motivation, and well-being. And yet, despite its importance, interoception remains poorly understood within modern science. This paper reviews interdisciplinary perspectives on interoception, with the goal of presenting a unified …
Testing a compassionate community actively living mindfulness (CCALM) intervention: elucidating individual and dyadic pathways to PEACE character virtues
The project will examine how Prosociality, Empathy, Altruism, Compassion, and Ethics (PEACE) character virtues may change with transitions to assisted living arrangements among older adults and their romantic partners. The project will employ a novel contemplative practices intervention program we developed called Compassionate Community Actively Living Mindfulness (CCALM) into the healthcare system. We will strategically …
Sustainable Compassion Training’s effects on neural threat and social support
Social support is empirically linked to health and well-being, but the mechanisms of this link remain speculative along with target interventions that maximize social support during stressful times. Knowledge of these mechanisms and interventions is needed for a full understanding of the receipt and provision of care, particularly among those working in high stress environments …
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From barriers to bridges: Investigating contemplative approaches to social justice
Fostering meaningful dialogue about racism and other social justice issues is an urgent need in our increasingly polarized society. We hypothesized that kindness meditation (KM) may help participants maintain social connection, develop compassion, positive affect and altruism, while enabling them to manage the stress, negative affect and bias that can arise and derail these conversations. …
CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) at the hospital bedside
Although hospital chaplains play a critical role in delivering emotional and spiritual care to a broad range of both religious and non-religious patients, there is remarkably little research on the best-practices of chaplaincy training or “active ingredients” of chaplain spiritual consults. CBCT® (Cognitively-Based Compassion Training) is a secularized compassion meditation program that improves empathic accuracy …
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