Mindfulness and Loving-Kindness Meditation

Abstract

An experiment involving 115 undergraduate students (74.8% females; mean age = 20.5 years, SD = 4.3) was conducted to explore effects of meditation on social connectedness, nature connectedness, and affect. Participants listened to one of three brief guided meditation Mp3 recordings via the internet, which involved mindfulness meditation (MM), loving-kindness meditation (LKM), or progressive muscle relaxation (active control group). Participants in the MM and LKM groups reported greater social and nature connectedness at post-test than those in the control group. There were no significant differences in connectedness between the MM and LKM groups, suggesting they are both effective for enhancing connectedness. There were no significant changes in negative or positive affect at post-test due to the interventions. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Practice Matters: Pro-environmental Motivations and Diet-Related Impact Vary With Meditation Experience

“…Yet in our sample, happiness and CWN showed to be greater even for those with limited mindfulness practice, somewhat moderating the assumption that the development of greater psychological well-being depends on the extent of engagement with the practice (Carmody and Baer, 2008). Our results also reflect experimental research by Aspy and Proeve (2017) who showed that even after a short meditation exercise, CWN increased significantly. Overall, our results indicate that mindfulness, subjective happiness and CWN might be interrelated and practice dependent (Howell et al, 2011).…”

“…Yet, we could show that the weak relationship between mindful compassion practice and GHG emission reductions was partially mediated by relational factors, particularly by CWN but also a more internalized motivation for PEB. While previous studies have shown a reciprocal relationship between dispositional mindfulness and CWN (Schutte and Malouff, 2018), little evidence exists regarding the impact of the practice of mindfulness on CWN (Aspy and Proeve, 2017). Furthermore, our mediation analysis indicates that mindful compassion practice could be effective as an experiential strategy that strengthens the relational pathway of PEB and therefore deepens the motivation toward the environment (Thiermann and Sheate, 2020a).…”

“…In summary, these studies suggest that changes in sustainable eating and other PEB potentially develop with mindfulness practice over time (Mason et al, 2016;Geiger et al, 2019b). Furthermore, the relationship between mindfulness and sustainable behaviors seems to be indirect and mediated by a variety of factors such as sustainability values and beliefs, connectedness with nature (CWN), spirituality, subjective well-being, health awareness and emotional self-control (Jacob et al, 2009;Barbaro and Pickett, 2016;Aspy and Proeve, 2017;Park and Dhandra, 2017;Geiger et al, 2018Geiger et al, , 2019bHunecke and Richter, 2019;Werner et al, 2020).…”

Nature exposure and positive body image: (Re-)examining the mediating roles of connectedness to nature and trait mindfulness

“…Unpacking this further, it is possible that greater time spent in nature provides recurrent and sustained opportunities to develop greater trait mindfulness (see Duvall, 2011aDuvall, , 2011bPassmore & Holder, 2017). In turn, the non-judgemental awareness that is a core component of mindfulness may allow individuals to more fully engage with nature and thus develop greater connectedness to nature (Aspy & Proeve, 2017;Hanley et al, 2020;Schutte & Malouf, 2018;Unsworth et al, 2016). That is, the ability to regulate attention on present-moment experiences -rather than the capacity to observe experiences non-judgementally -appears to be key in terms of the relationships between nature exposure, connectedness to nature, and body image.…”

“…In turn, greater trait mindfulness has been shown to be significantly associated with connectedness to nature (weighted effect size of r = .25; Schutte & Malouf, 2018). In particular, the non-judgemental awareness that is central to trait mindfulness may allow individuals to fully engage with nature, thus helping to promote greater connectedness to nature (e.g., Aspy & Proeve, 2017;Hanley, Bettmann, Kendrick, Deringer, & Lynn Norton, 2020;Unsworth, Palicki, & Lustig, 2016). In short, there are reasons to think that the relationship between nature exposure and positive body image may be serially mediated by trait mindfulness and connectedness to nature, respectively.…”