Developing acceptance and equanimity skills can enhance positive emotions, social interactions, and stress management.
Equanimity fosters non-reactivity and curiosity, improving stress management and overall well-being.
Mindfulness meditation brings about brain changes that improve emotion regulation and reduce stress responses, leading to better health outcomes.
Digital platforms offer opportunities to scale mindfulness training, but successful ecosystems are needed to support individuals in their practice.
Understanding the interplay between biology and subjective experience is essential in studying mindfulness interventions and their transformative impact on well-being.
Deep dives
Learning acceptance and equanimity skills can lead to catching more positive emotional moments
Learning how to be non-reactive and open to one's experience can enhance the ability to capture positive emotional moments in daily life. It can also increase meaningful social interactions and reduce loneliness. These acceptance and equanimity skills can help manage stress effectively and provide social and emotional benefits.
The importance of equanimity in mindfulness interventions
Equanimity, described as meeting one's experience without judgment or reaction, has been the focus of recent research. By fostering non-reactivity and curiosity, it allows individuals to better manage stressors and react to challenging situations effectively. Equanimity skills have measurable effects on emotions and physiological stress responses, ultimately leading to improved well-being.
The brain changes through mindfulness mediation
Mindfulness meditation has been shown to bring about two significant brain changes. It alters activity and functional connectivity of the prefrontal cortex, facilitating goals, planning, and emotion regulation. Additionally, it suppresses the brain's stress alarm system, lowering activity and connectivity of the amygdala, thus reducing stress responses. These brain changes are associated with improved health outcomes.
The potential of app-based mindfulness interventions
Digital platforms, like meditation apps, offer opportunities to scale mindfulness training and reach a broader audience. However, there is still a need to create successful ecosystems that support individuals in their practice. Interactive training experiences and biometric tracking can enhance engagement and help individuals overcome challenges. The goal is to create scalable and effective mindfulness training programs that meet people's needs and produce positive outcomes.
The interconnection between biology and subjective experience
Understanding the interplay between biology and subjective experience is essential in studying mindfulness interventions. Both the physiological and psychological perspectives contribute to the overall understanding of how mindfulness practices affect well-being. Looking at the brain, biology, and subjective experience holistically allows for a better comprehension of the transformative nature of mindfulness and its impact on individuals.
In this episode, Wendy speaks with social psychologist and contemplative researcher David Creswell. David has been studying the effects of meditation on stress and resilience for over a decade, and has conducted some of the most rigorous studies to date investigating which aspects of mindfulness interventions bring benefit. This conversation covers many topics, including:
integrating psychology and Buddhism since high school;
understanding stress and resilience;
acceptance and equanimity in mindfulness;
bringing scientific rigor to the study of mindfulness through dismantling trials;
effects of equanimity on the stress response and positive emotions;
how contemplative skills spill over from the cushion into daily life;
how practice changes the brain and why those changes matter;
a risky study with a president's daughter;
the promise of apps to deliver mindfulness;
how acceptance differs from passive resignation;
and viewing biology and psychology as two sides of the same coin.
