Promote Engagement in Mindfulness Training with Self-Compassion and Attachment Security
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“The relentless search for high self-esteem has become a virtual religion; and a tyrannical one at that. Our competitive culture tells us we need to be special and above average to feel good about ourselves, but we can’t all be above average at the same time. There is always someone richer, more attractive, or successful than we are. And even when we do manage to feel self-esteem for one golden moment, we can’t hold on to it. Our sense of self-worth bounces around like a ping-pong ball, rising and falling in lock-step with our latest success or failure.” – William Morrow
Mindfulness training has been shown to have a myriad of positive benefits for the physical and psychological health of the individual. It has also been shown to be beneficial for those suffering from a wide range of physical and mental diseases. But, it cannot produce it’s benefits unless the individual actually engages in the practice. One of the biggest problems in all of medicine is compliance. Although, treatments are prescribed, few actually follow the recommendations. So, it is extremely important to investigate the factors that promote and prevent compliance. In the case of mindfulness trainings, it is important to study what increases the likelihood of engaging in the practices and what impedes it.
In today’s Research News article “Attachment Security and Self-Compassion Priming Increase the Likelihood that First-time Engagers in Mindfulness Meditation Will Continue with Mindfulness Training.” See:summary below or view the full text of the study at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4859852/
Rowe and colleagues investigate the role played by two factors, self-compassion and attachment security in influencing the willingness of individuals to engage in future mindfulness training.
They recruited young, 18-35 years of age, healthy, participants who did not practice mindfulness techniques and randomly assigned them to receive either primes that elicit self-compassion, or elicit attachment security, or a neutral prime. The participants were measured for perceived stress and mindfulness and then were simply asked to visualize one of three situations. In the self-compassion condition, they were asked to ‘visualize and write about being completely compassionate and warm towards yourself’. In the secure attachment prime condition, they were instructed to take some time to ‘visualize and write about a person with whom you have, or have had, a close secure relationship’. In the neutral condition, they were instructed to visualize a recent and unaccompanied shopping trip. Participants then wrote about the theme of the prime for 10 minutes. They were then instructed on mindfulness and given a 7-minute guided mindful breathing meditation. Afterwards, they were measured for felt security, compassion towards self, compassion towards others, mindfulness, subjective energy, and their willingness to engage in further mindfulness training.
They found that both the self-compassion and the attachment security primes resulted in a greater felt security, compassion towards self. They both also significantly increased the participants’ willingness to engage in further mindfulness training in comparison to the neutral condition. But the two differed in the method by which they affected the participants’ willingness. The attachment security prime affected willingness directly while the self-compassion prime affected mindfulness which in turn affected willingness.
These are interesting results that indicate that attachment security and self-compassion may be factors affecting the participants’ willingness to engage in further mindfulness training. This is a step forward in investigating the factors affecting compliance with mindfulness practice. It would appear that developing self-compassion and attachment security might be effective in promoting compliance. There is obviously much more work to do. But, this is an interesting start to improving the likelihood that participants will engage in mindfulness practice.
So, promote engagement in mindfulness training with self-compassion and attachment security.
“The main predictor of how well your child will do in school and in life is the strength of the relationship he or she has with you, the parent or primary caretaker. This relationship impacts your child’s future mental, physical, social, and emotional health. It is not founded on quality of care or parental love, but on the nonverbal emotional communication between child and parent known as the attachment bond.” – Jeanne Segal
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
This and other Contemplative Studies posts are also available on Google+ https://plus.google.com/106784388191201299496/posts and Twitter @MindfulReseaarch
Study Summary
Rowe, A. C., Shepstone, L., Carnelley, K. B., Cavanagh, K., & Millings, A. (2016). Attachment Security and Self-compassion Priming Increase the Likelihood that First-time Engagers in Mindfulness Meditation Will Continue with Mindfulness Training. Mindfulness, 7, 642–650. http://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-016-0499-7
Abstract
Mindfulness practice has many mental and physical health benefits but can be perceived as ‘difficult’ by some individuals. This perception can discourage compliance with mindfulness meditation training programs. The present research examined whether the activation of thoughts and feelings related to attachment security and self-compassion (through semantic priming) prior to a mindfulness meditation session might influence willingness to engage in future mindfulness training. We expected both of these primes to positively influence participants’ willingness to continue with mindfulness training. We primed 117 meditation-naïve individuals (84 female; mean age of 22.3 years, SD = 4.83) with either a self-compassion, attachment security, or a neutral control prime prior to an introductory mindfulness exercise and measured their post-session willingness to engage in further training. Both experimental primes resulted in higher willingness to engage in further mindfulness training relative to the control condition. The self-compassion prime did so indirectly by increasing state mindfulness, while the attachment security prime had a direct effect. This study supports theoretical links between self-compassion and mindfulness and reveals a causal role for these factors in promoting willingness to engage in mindfulness training. Our findings have implications for improving compliance with mindfulness intervention programs.