Embodiment and Body Awareness in Meditators

Cebolla, Ausiàs; Miragall, Marta; Palomo, Priscila; Llorens, Roberto Ceamanos; Soler, Joaquim; Demarzo, Marcelo; Garcı́a-Campayo, Javier; Baños, Rosa

doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0569-x

Cited by 31 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Nowadays, there is growing consensus among researchers that cognition is shaped by both, top-down (descending pathways from the cerebral cortex) and bottom-up (ascending pathways from the periphery) processes (Clark, 1999; Thompson and Varela, 2001; Wilson, 2002; Barsalou, 2010; Winkielman et al, 2015). This view has also been recently discussed in the context of contemplative science and mindfulness research (Michalak et al, 2012; Kerr et al, 2013; Cebolla et al, 2016; Khoury et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

What Is Meditation? Proposing an Empirically Derived Classification System

Matko

Sedlmeier

2019

Front. Psychol.

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Meditation is an umbrella term, which subsumes a huge number of diverse practices. It is still unclear how these practices can be classified in a reasonable way. Earlier proposals have struggled to do justice to the diversity of meditation techniques. To help in solving this issue, we used a novel bottom-up procedure to develop a comprehensive classification system for meditation techniques. In previous studies, we reduced 309 initially identified techniques to the 20 most popular ones. In the present study, 100 experienced meditators were asked to rate the similarity of the selected 20 techniques. Using multidimensional scaling, we found two orthogonal dimensions along which meditation techniques could be classified: activation and amount of body orientation. These dimensions emphasize the role of embodied cognition in meditation. Within these two dimensions, seven main clusters emerged: mindful observation, body-centered meditation, visual concentration, contemplation, affect-centered meditation, mantra meditation, and meditation with movement. We conclude there is no “meditation” as such, but there are rather different groups of techniques that might exert diverse effects. These groups call into question the common division into “focused attention” and “open-monitoring” practices. We propose a new embodied classification system and encourage researchers to evaluate this classification system through comparative studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

What Is Meditation? Proposing an Empirically Derived Classification System

Matko

Sedlmeier

2019

Front. Psychol.

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“…Long-term meditators (LTMs) reported practicing Vipassana or Zen an average of 9.38 years ( SD = 4.04), although two studies did not report practice length for LTMs. One study 42 included LTMs but also examined trait mindfulness in the same sample. For estimates of the overall omnibus effect, results from trait analyses were excluded to avoid non-independence among the included effect sizes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The participant reports when their knee joint reaches a target angle. The difference between the actual angle and target angle is computed.Wooten 2018 28 Proprioceptive DriftParticipant’s proprioceptive mapping is assessed with the rubber hand illusion (Botvinick & Cohen, 1998) 87 Cebolla 2016 42 , Xu et al . 2018 40 Respiratory Load DetectionParticipants breath through a tube, and various levels of resistance are put in the air flow.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between mindfulness and objective measures of body awareness: A meta-analysis

Treves

Tello

Davidson

et al. 2019

Sci Rep

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Although awareness of bodily sensations is a common mindfulness meditation technique, studies assessing the relationship between mindfulness and body awareness have provided mixed results. The current study sought to meta-analytically examine the relationship between mindfulness operationalized as a dispositional trait or a construct trained through short- (i.e., randomized controlled trials [RCTs]) or long-term mindfulness meditation practice with objective measures of body awareness accuracy. PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Scopus were searched. Studies were eligible if they reported the association between mindfulness and body awareness, were published in English, and included adults. Across 15 studies (17 independent samples), a small effect was found linking mindfulness with greater body awareness accuracy (g = 0.21 [0.08, 0.34], N = 879). When separated by study design, only RCTs continued to show a significant relationship (g = 0.20, [0.02, 0.38], k = 7, n = 505). Heterogeneity of effects was low (I2 < 25%), although with wide confidence intervals. Effects were not moderated by study quality. Low fail-safe N estimates reduce confidence in the observed effects. Results suggest a small but potentially detectable relationship between mindfulness and body awareness accuracy. Future investigations could examine individual differences in body awareness as a mechanism within mindfulness interventions.

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“…The most relevant data show that focused attention practices are associated with more UEs, whereas body awareness practices are associated with fewer UEs. Body consciousness has been described as one of the aetiological mechanisms of mindfulness [ 34 , 35 , 36 ], and it has been found to be related to psychological and medical health [ 37 ]. Body awareness, along with detachment and acceptance of emotions, has been linked to the associations of meditation and mindfulness with depression and anxiety [ 38 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unwanted effects: Is there a negative side of meditation? A multicentre survey

et al. 2017

Self Cite

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ObjectivesDespite the long-term use and evidence-based efficacy of meditation and mindfulness-based interventions, there is still a lack of data about the possible unwanted effects (UEs) of these practices. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of UEs among meditation practitioners, considering moderating factors such as the type, frequency, and lifetime duration of the meditation practices.MethodsAn online survey was developed and disseminated through several websites, such as Spanish-, English- and Portuguese-language scientific research portals related to mindfulness and meditation. After excluding people who did not answer the survey correctly or completely and those who had less than two months of meditation experience, a total of 342 people participated in the study. However, only 87 reported information about UEs.ResultsThe majority of the practitioners were women from Spain who were married and had a University education level. Practices were more frequently informal, performed on a daily basis, and followed by focused attention (FA). Among the participants, 25.4% reported UEs, showing that severity varies considerably. The information requested indicated that most of the UEs were transitory and did not lead to discontinuing meditation practice or the need for medical assistance. They were more frequently reported in relation to individual practice, during focused attention meditation, and when practising for more than 20 minutes and alone. The practice of body awareness was associated with UEs to a lesser extent, whereas focused attention was associated more with UEs.ConclusionsThis is the first large-scale, multi-cultural study on the UEs of meditation. Despite its limitations, this study suggests that UEs are prevalent and transitory and should be further studied. We recommend the use of standardized questionnaires to assess the UEs of meditation practices.

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Embodiment and Body Awareness in Meditators

Abstract: AUTHOR'S PROOF

Cited by 31 publications

References 44 publications

What Is Meditation? Proposing an Empirically Derived Classification System

What Is Meditation? Proposing an Empirically Derived Classification System

The relationship between mindfulness and objective measures of body awareness: A meta-analysis

Unwanted effects: Is there a negative side of meditation? A multicentre survey

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