Scientific Research On Mindfulness & Compassion
Science on mindfulness and compassion can be put in four main categories: (1) Symptom reduction, (2) biological markers, (3) neuroplasticity, (4) compassion. While it is impossible to cover all mindfulness research here, below are a selection of findings.
#1 Symptom reduction
Symptoms have been measured across a wide variety of mental and physical conditions by self-reporting scales, and it has been found that mindfulness:
- decreases depression, anxiety, pain, illness-related distress, suicidal ideation,
- increases quality of life measures such as sleep and decreases fatigue.
Mindfulness has been studied in many disease areas to show it helps cope with stress. Some of these disease areas are oncology, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, AIDS, irritable bowel syndrome, organ transplant.
Mindfulness has also been studied in healthy populations and it has been found that it reduces stress, rumination, anxiety, negative affect (experience of negative emotions), and increases empathy, self-compassion, positive affect (experience of positive emotions).
#2 Biological markers
Studies show that mindfulness reduces the levels of cortisol, the primary stress hormone.
Epigenetics (the ability of our genes to turn on or off based on behavioral or environmental triggers) research found a clear relationship between loneliness and the onset of the genetic expression of pro-inflammatory genes, and those in the meditation group experienced measurable epigenetic changes in their genome. Eight weeks of meditation was sufficient to show a change in how their genes were expressed.
Cellular aging research shows that cognitive stress and rumination creates stress and increases cellular aging by shortening telomere strength. (Telomeres are the caps on the ends of chromosomes where our genes reside. They keep our chromosomes from aging.) Mindfulness had a positive impact on telomere length by reducing stress. So mindfulness has even been shown to help decrease cellular aging!
#3 Neuroplasticity - the brain’s ability to change in response to life
Our brain changes based on our behaviors, mental habits or physical injuries. Studies have found structural brain changes only after 4 weeks of daily mindfulness practice. Some of these structural changes are (1) in the white matter in the brain, (2) in the neural tract in the anterior cingulate, which is responsible for self-regulation, (3) in the gray matter density, (4) the number of brain cells in the hippocampus, (5) cell volumes in the right prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for emotional regulation.
When it comes to the brain neuroplasticity, the most important thing to understand is this:
In the brain, when cell A is near enough to excite cell B, and it excites cell B repeatedly and persistently, a growth process takes place, and that cell A’s efficiency in exciting cell B is increased. In other words, this pathway in the brain from cell A to cell B gets stronger. We refer to this phenomenon as “cells that fire together wire together.”
Imagine in your brain there is a pathway that is “boredom” > “eating”. If you start practicing a new pathway that is “boredom” > “take a deep breath”, and you keep practicing it, this new pathway will get stronger over time, and will become the new automatic response.
This is why we recommend a daily mindfulness practice. It isn’t our intellectual understanding of mindfulness that changes our brain. It is our practice. Even when we don’t think we had a good mindfulness practice, we are still practicing, and the pathways of mindfulness in our brain are strengthening.
A good analogy is physical exercise. Even when we don’t think we had a good exercise, we are strengthening our muscles. So each time, we come back to the present moment with kindness, we can presume we did a “rep” of a physical exercise. :)
#4 Compassion
Research shows we are hardwired for compassion - infants too young to know social rules of politeness show the same emotional response of compassion. We all have this capacity. Compassion is part of our mammalian care-giving system. Compassion is essential for our connections and has been essential for our survival as human species.
Compassion research has linked compassion to lower levels of inflammation and longer life. Self-compassion has been linked to stopping or reducing tobacco use, alcohol use, lower stress, anxiety, shame, also linked with biomarkers measuring aging and disease.
We often say things like “Oh, I am not a very compassionate / kind person,” but research also shows compassion and self-compassion can be enhanced over time. Compassion too, is a practice.
Some misconceptions about self-compassion are that compassion 1. is a form of self-pity, 2. is weak, 3. will undermine motivation, 4. will lead to self-indulgence, 5. is selfish. Research shows the opposite of all of this. Scientific studies show that self-compassion leads to 1. less rumination and self-focus, 2. more strength, coping and resilience, 3. more motivation and persistence, 4. more health behaviors, 5. more giving relationship behavior.
You can find more on compassion and self-compassion here.
Sources:
- A Clinician’s Guide To Teaching Mindfulness. Christiane Wolf & Greg Serpa. 2015.
- Mindfulness Teacher Training Certification Program by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. 2019.
