Early childhood is an especially sensitive period in life, and a time when the brain undergoes rapid development. As such, training during this period has the potential for significant and lifelong impact. Educators of young children play a pivotal role in shaping student outcomes and success. Therefore, we are harnessing mental training techniques that have …
Continue reading “Concurrent Session 2 – Mindfulness in Education for Teachers and Students”
In light of a growing interest in contemplative practices such as meditation, the emerging field of contemplative science has been challenged to describe and objectively measure how these practices affect health and well-being. We recently proposed that equanimity could serve as a measurable outcome of contemplative practices, both in basic science investigations and in clinical …
As the field of contemplative education in higher education enjoys unprecedented growth and more and more faculty across disciplines are integrating contemplative pedagogical practices in their classrooms, it is vital to continue building the relatively new theoretical foundations for the field. This panel brings together five of the most innovative academics who are developing new …
Mindfulness meditation practices can be conceptualized as a set of attention-based, regulatory, and self-inquiry training regimes cultivated for various ends, including the training of well-being and psychological health. This panel discusses conceptual issues related to the construct of mindfulness in psychological research and reviews recent, nonclinical work in this area. Instead of proposing a single …
This presentation introduces the contemplative thought of Plotinus (c. 205-270 CE), the Greek philosopher who has been called the father of the Western contemplative tradition. Plotinus’s philosophy — today described as ‘Neo-Platonism’ — influenced Christian, Jewish, and Islamic mystics as well as Renaissance humanists and scientists, touching thinkers as diverse as St. Augustine, Rumi, and …
The founding of the Contemplative Sciences Center at the University of Virginia provided an opportunity for institutional transformation across all schools in teaching and learning, research, engagement, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The approach has been to assess the organizational culture, intellectual norms, pedagogical practices, and gaps in student outcomes to consider how contemplative ideas, values, and …
Several neurocognitive processes have been implicated in addiction, including motivated attention, reward processing, emotion regulation, stress reactivity, delay discounting, and inhibitory control. These processes appear to depend on functionally integrated cortico-limbic-striatal circuits whose dysfunction supports the acquisition, maintenance, and reinstatement of addictive behaviors. Novel interventions that target the neurocognitive processes underlying addictive behavior may hold …
Meditation training is presumed to influence individuals’ emotional engagement with others’ suffering. Although evidence is accumulating for the prosocial effects of intensive practice in meditation, little is known about how training may alter primary cognitive representations of compassion-eliciting stimuli. We assessed individuals’ remote (six-year) incidental memory for emotional images viewed both before and after a …
A self-report scale measuring perceived compassion, in its embodied and functional aspects, will be presented, including preliminary psychometric validation results. There has been some debate as to whether compassion can be measured through self-report. Neff’s Self-Compassion Scale, possibly the most widely used instrument, operationalizes compassion in terms of mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness. Others (e.g., …
Continue reading “Concurrent Session 1 – Validation of the Perceived Compassion Scale”
Interpersonal violence is a significant threat to public health with serious ramifications to family and society. Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), originally designed for those dealing with chronic illnesses, is now being offered to individuals with histories of surviving interpersonal violence. Yet, to be optimally effective, MBSR should be modified to address the unique needs …
