Meditation as an Intervention for Health: A Framework for Understanding Meditation Research

Abstract

We propose a framework for understanding meditation that can support greater scientific rigor in reporting meditation research, and selecting meditation health interventions. There is no consistent and thorough framework for describing meditation research interventions. This impedes rigor of meditation research design and interpretation of findings. This also limits meaningful comparisons across research studies. The audience for this article includes researchers, meditation experts, healthcare professionals, and those with interest in meditation. The framework describes the key components of a meditation intervention. We also discuss how meditation can effect individuals differently, and provide suggestions for describing the qualifications of the expert who designed the meditations in an intervention. The meditation framework supports (1) comparing different meditation interventions, and (2) understanding how meditation interventions lead to outcomes. We provide examples from a Yoga Therapy perspective of meditation (our domain of expertise), and from published research on meditation to illustrate applications of the meditation framework. The meditation framework provides a way of characterizing meditation interventions by distinguishing seven essential components. The first four components describe the meditation session (individual, object, experience, and immediate effects).

Feasibility, Acceptability, and Outcomes of a Yoga-Based Meditation Intervention for Hospice Professionals to Combat Burnout

“…To support rigorous interpretation of meditation research findings, researchers must precisely define the characteristics of the meditation intervention and the expertise of the intervention developers (27). The meditation intervention in this study was designed by study authors Allbritton and Heeter, who are experts in meditation and trained researchers with PhDs.…”

What Do Meditators Do When They Meditate? Proposing a Novel Basis for Future Meditation Research

“…It is, thus, essential to describe the specific techniques that meditators are using during meditation in detail. In response to this issue, some researchers have developed taxonomies and frameworks to help researchers and practitioners describe what they are doing during meditation (Allbritton & Heeter, 2018;Lutz et al, 2015;Nash & Newberg, 2013;Schmidt, 2014).…”

Beyond Scientific Mechanisms: Subjective Perceptions with Viniyoga Meditation

“…A search of the PubMed online database conducted by the authors in May 2019 found that more than 500 scientific articles about yoga and/or meditation interventions for health, and more than 700 reviews and meta-analyses have been published in the last 5 years. Published research on meditation interventions for health often fails to include adequate description of the meditation intervention being studied [16]. Meta-analyses of the effects of yoga and meditation can further impede scientific understanding by grouping studies of disparate meditation interventions together in their analysis [16].…”

“…Published research on meditation interventions for health often fails to include adequate description of the meditation intervention being studied [16]. Meta-analyses of the effects of yoga and meditation can further impede scientific understanding by grouping studies of disparate meditation interventions together in their analysis [16]. Readers of scientific research about meditation interventions cannot begin to understand the intervention being studied if the intervention is not clearly described.…”