Mindfulness and compassion as the foundations of well-being Saturday 7 October 2017 9am Felicia A. Huppert Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Director of the Well-being Institute, University of Cambridge, UK and Professor, Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney
Percentage of population The mental health spectrum Common mental disorder Languishing Moderate mental health Psychological resources Flourishing Huppert
Mindfulness A way of paying attention to what is going on right now in the mind, the body, and the world around us. Listening deeply, seeing clearly Slowing down, simplifying Leading to greater understanding Better choices, better decisions.
Mindfulness as mental training Training covers some very basic skills: Awareness Attention Perceptual shift - stepping back Non-reactivity Emotion regulation
Mindfulness can be defined as a psychological capacity What to do How to do it Pay attention Notice Observe Be aware With friendly curiosity, Openness, acceptance Non-judgement Kindness Ruth Baer, Oxford Mindfulness Centre Summer School, 2016
Benefits of Mindfulness Training Review of high quality research Creswell, Annual Reviews Psychology, 2017 Mental and physical health depression, anxiety substance abuse chronic pain stress response Cognitive and affective processes sustained attention, working memory problem solving positive mood emotion regulation Interpersonal outcomes relationship quality perspective taking pro-social behaviour
Brain regions involved in the components of mindfulness meditation attention control (the anterior cingulate cortex and the striatum) emotion regulation (multiple prefrontal regions, limbic regions and the striatum) self-awareness (the insula, medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex and precuneus) Tang et al., Nature 2015.
Structural brain changes after mindfulness training A standard 8 week MBSR course lead to increased grey matter density in brain regions associated with: attention, learning and memory emotion regulation self-awareness interoception (bodily awareness) compassion Hölzel et al., Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 2011
Effects of mindfulness in students Reviews by Meiklejohn et al, Mindfulness, 2012; and Weare, in The Psychology of Meditation: Research and Practice, 2016 Training students in mindfulness has shown benefits in: cognitive skills - attention and working memory academic skills social skills emotion regulation self-esteem improvements in mood decreases in anxiety, stress and fatigue
Mindfulness and Critical Thinking Dispositional mindfulness is correlated with executive functions that underlie critical thinking. Noone et al, Frontiers in Psychology,2015
Mindfulness as the foundation of flourishing
The role of self-compassion
Effects of self-compassion training or induction Prevents depression relapse Kuyken et al., Behaviour Research & Therapy, 2010 Increased happiness Shapiro & Mongrain, Journal of Positive Psychology,2010 Increased motivation to change for the better Breins & Chen, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2012
Compassion towards others What is the relationship between empathy and compassion?
Empathy vs Compassion In contrast to empathy, compassion does not mean sharing the suffering of the other: rather, it is characterised by feelings of warmth, concern and care for the other, as well as a strong motivation to help. Compassion is feeling for and not feeling with the other. Singer & Klimecki, Current Biology, 2014
Findings from studies of social emotions Empathy Compassion Negative feelings e.g. stress Self-oriented responses Withdrawal Poor health, burnout Positive feelings e.g. love Other-orientated responses Approach, helping behaviour Good health Based on Singer & Klimecki, Current Biology, 2014
Neuroscience of social emotions Empathy Compassion Activation of: mirror neurons and networks involved in theory of mind Areas associated with negative affect Areas associated with the integration of interoception, affect and cognition Activation of regions associated with: Affiliation positive affect reward processing Based on Singer & Klimecki, Current Biology, 2014
Benefits of compassion training Shonin et al., Mindfulness, 2015 Systematic review and meta-analysis. Significant improvements across 5 domains: positive and negative affect psychological distress positive thinking interpersonal relations empathic accuracy
Enhancing self-regulation and pro-social behaviour in young children The Kindness Curriculum RCT with 68 pre-school children. 12 week mindfulness-based pro-social skills training versus waitlist control. Benefits of kindness curriculum: social competence cognitive flexibility delayed gratification Flook et al., Developmental Psychology, 2015.
Mindfulness-based compassion training reduces outgroup prejudice Call to Care Israel (C2C-I) 323 Israeli elementary school students, 24 lessons Willingness to interact with p<.0001 Arabs Pre 3.6 Negative thoughts about p<.0001 the other Pre 2.2 2 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 C2C Control 3.4 3.2 3 2.8 2.6 C2C Control 3.9 3.7 3.5 3.3 3.1 2.9 2.7 Emotional prejudice Pre p<.0001 C2C Control Berger, R., Brenick, A., & Tarrach, R., 2017 (under review)
Percentage of population The effect of shifting the mean of the mental health spectrum Common mental disorder Languishing Moderate mental health Psychological resources Flourishing
Wise action Open mind Open heart Individual Well-being Relational Well-being Institutional well-being Societal well-being Planetary well-being