Objectives

Research suggests meditation may increase empathy and emotional engagement. Whilst this may be beneficial in professions where empathy results in greater effectiveness (e.g. psychotherapy), emotional engagement may also produce emotional burnout. This study aims to determine whether mindfulness and/or compassion meditation can prime empathy prior to connecting with another’s emotions, and facilitate emotional stability afterwards.

Methods

University students (N = 156) listened to recordings of compassion meditation, mindfulness meditation or a control, then watched videos depicting sadness, happiness or anxiety, then listened to compassion, mindfulness or control recordings again. This produced five groups: Compassion-compassion (i.e. compassion meditation before and after videos), mindfulness-mindfulness, mindfulness-compassion, compassion-mindfulness and a control. State emotions and empathy were assessed throughout.

Results

Compassion and mindfulness meditation resulted in greater empathy than the control (p = .03). Prior to watching videos, mindfulness meditation produced greater sadness and anxiety, and compassion meditation produced greater sadness and happiness (p = .001). After watching videos, happiness was greater in the mindfulness-mindfulness and compassion-compassion condition (p = .03).

Conclusions

Both types of meditation resulted in greater self-reported distressing emotions prior to videos (and happiness in compassion condition), and empathy during presentation compared to the control. Afterwards, there was an increase in positive emotions in the compassion-compassion and mindfulness-mindfulness conditions. This indicates that meditation may allow for individuals to process emotional content in a way that is conducive to wellbeing. Whilst compassion meditation is often combined with mindfulness, these results suggest using a consistent approach of either mindfulness or compassion is most beneficial to wellbeing.

中文翻译：

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正念和慈悲冥想对状态移情和情绪的影响

目标

研究表明，冥想可能会增加同理心和情感投入。虽然这可能对同理心产生更大效果的职业（例如心理治疗）有益，但情感投入也可能导致情感倦怠。本研究旨在确定正念和/或慈悲冥想是否可以在与他人的情绪联系之前激发同理心，并在之后促进情绪稳定。

方法

大学生（N  = 156）听了慈悲冥想、正念冥想或控制的录音，然后观看描述悲伤、快乐或焦虑的视频，然后再次听慈悲、正念或控制的录音。这产生了五组：慈悲-慈悲（即视频前后的慈悲冥想）、正念-正念、正念-慈悲、慈悲-正念和控制。在整个过程中评估了状态情绪和同理心。

结果

同情心和正念冥想比对照组产生了更大的同理心 ( p  = .03)。在观看视频之前，正念冥想会产生更大的悲伤和焦虑，而慈悲冥想会产生更大的悲伤和幸福 ( p  = .001)。观看视频后，正念-正念和慈悲-慈悲条件下的幸福感更高（p  = .03）。

结论

与对照组相比，这两种类型的冥想在观看视频之前都会导致更大的自我报告的痛苦情绪（以及在同情条件下的快乐），以及在演示过程中的同理心。之后，在慈悲和正念状态中的积极情绪有所增加。这表明冥想可能允许个人以有利于幸福的方式处理情感内容。虽然慈悲冥想通常与正念相结合，但这些结果表明，使用一致的正念或慈悲方法对幸福最有益。