This project examined the extent to which meditation can promote compassion and well-being, even in the face of conflict. Specifically, we examined whether compassion and mindfulness training can produce compassionate tendencies that act as an enduring inoculation against the negative effects of anger, using measures of subjective experience (e.g., anger, compassion, well-being) in daily life …
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Assessing dynamic brain connectivity patterns and the phenomenology of autobiographical remembering as a function of specificity and perspective taking manipulations
Remembering autobiographical memories of personal past experiences is very common during our daily life. When remembering these memories, the lack of contextual specificity (where and when the event happened) because of an exacerbated self-absorption by overwhelming feelings may lead to increased emotional distress. In contrast, increasing specificity by promoting a focus on contextual aspects instead …
Exploring the uptake and potential efficacy of brief mindfulness meditation for underserved female tobacco smokers
Mindfulness is associated with positive psychosocial, physical and mental health outcomes prompting research to investigate mindfulness as a tool for smoking cessation. However, there remains sparse evidence on the acceptability and effectiveness of mindfulness interventions in underserved populations, such as low-income, female smokers, who often have elevated levels of daily stress and greater barriers to …
Can meditation practice ameliorate the consequences of early life adversity on telomere regulation?
Encountering social, economic, or family adversity early in life can exert lifelong consequences on stress systems that contribute to health and well-being. On the cellular level, early life adversity can negatively impact telomeres, which are repetitive DNA sequences that protect chromosomes from instability and degradation. Telomeres typically shorten slowly with age, but are shorter in …
Cultivating mindful schools to promote an equitable climate of learning
Despite decades of school reform, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disproportionality in student academic opportunities and discipline continues to be a significant concern throughout the education system. The University of Southern California (USC), the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), and Mindful Schools (MS) are collaborating on bringing mindfulness training to K-5 teachers/staff to foster an …
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A meditation intervention for repetitive subconcussive head impact exposure in youth sports
The goal of this project is to attempt to create a safe “non-invasive” intervention for adolescents that counteract changes in blood flow seen in the brain that are associated with cumulative and repetitive non-concussive head impacts after participating in a year of American football. There is concern that accumulation of a lifetime of participation could …
Effects of Mindful Compassion Training on social emotion regulation in daily life
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. …
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Is knowing the body knowing the mind? Mind-body coherence, interoception, and contemplative training
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 …
Linking embodiment with the neural circuitry of mindfulness and reward
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 …
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Mindfulness-to-Meaning theory and eudaimonic appraisals of positive autobiographical events
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 …
