Self-transcendence

Mindfulness May Produce Its Benefits by Improving Self-Related Processes

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Mindfulness May Produce Its Benefits by Improving Self-Related Processes

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“Mindful people might be happier because they have a better idea of who they are.” – Kira M. Newman

 

“Meditation leads to concentration, concentration leads to understanding, and understanding leads to happiness” – This wonderful quote from the modern-day sage Thich Nhat Hahn is a beautiful pithy description of the benefits of mindfulness practice. Mindfulness allows us to view our experience and not put labels on it, not make assumptions about it, not relate it to past experiences, and not project it into the future. Rather mindfulness lets us experience everything around and within us exactly as it is arising and falling away from moment to moment including the self and psychological processes related to the self.

 

mindfulness training has been shown to increase psychological well-being and happiness and help to relieve mental illness. A number of mechanisms of how mindfulness produces these benefits have been proposed. Many of the proposed mechanisms involve self-relate processes which require “one to evaluate or judge some feature in relation to one’s perceptual image or mental concept of oneself,” such as self-efficacy, decentering, and self-regulation. There has accumulated a large volume of research. So, it is important to examine the findings and what has been learned.

 

In today’s Research News article “From Self-Esteem to Selflessness: An Evidence (Gap) Map of Self-Related Processes as Mechanisms of Mindfulness-Based Interventions.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8645694/ ) Britton and colleagues review and summarize the published research on the role of self-related processes in the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions. They examine 3 categories of self-related processes, self-regulation skills, and embodied self-regulation processes.

 

They report that the published research found that alterations self-related processes in part mediate the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions. These include reductions in negative self-evaluations including rumination and dysfunctional attitudes and increases in positive self-evaluations including self-compassion and self-esteem. Self-regulation skills also appear in part to mediate the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions. These include increases in self-efficacy and decentering. Finally, embodied self-regulation processes appear in co-occur with the beneficial effects of mindfulness-based interventions but have not been conclusively established as mediators. These include increases in interoception, selflessness, and self-transcendence.

 

These findings suggest that mindfulness-based interventions produce beneficial effects by at least in part altering how the individual views and processes ideas of the self. Mindfulness training involves focusing on the present moment and this focus may reduce the influence of the past and projections of the future on the individual’s psychological well-being. Most negative views of the self are past and future based. So, mindfulness training may improve the ideas of self by focusing on the present and seeing the self as processes occurring in the now, a more grounded and realistic view of the self. Obviously more research is needed on this promising area of potential mindfulness mediators.

 

So, mindfulness may produce its benefits by improving self-related processes.

 

“[Mindfulness] encourages people to simply observe the contents of their mind. In this way, I think that mindfulness allows for greater self-insight.” – Rimma Tepper

 

CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies

 

This and other Contemplative Studies posts are available on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Britton, W. B., Desbordes, G., Acabchuk, R., Peters, S., Lindahl, J. R., Canby, N. K., Vago, D. R., Dumais, T., Lipsky, J., Kimmel, H., Sager, L., Rahrig, H., Cheaito, A., Acero, P., Scharf, J., Lazar, S. W., Schuman-Olivier, Z., Ferrer, R., & Moitra, E. (2021). From Self-Esteem to Selflessness: An Evidence (Gap) Map of Self-Related Processes as Mechanisms of Mindfulness-Based Interventions. Frontiers in psychology, 12, 730972. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.730972

 

Abstract

Self-related processes (SRPs) have been theorized as key mechanisms of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), but the evidence supporting these theories is currently unclear. This evidence map introduces a comprehensive framework for different types of SRPs, and how they are theorized to function as mechanisms of MBIs (target identification). The evidence map then assesses SRP target engagement by mindfulness training and the relationship between target engagement and outcomes (target validation). Discussion of the measurement of SRPs is also included. The most common SRPs measured and engaged by standard MBIs represented valenced evaluations of self-concept, including rumination, self-compassion, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Rumination showed the strongest evidence as a mechanism for depression, with other physical and mental health outcomes also supported. Self-compassion showed consistent target engagement but was inconsistently related to improved outcomes. Decentering and interoception are emerging potential mechanisms, but their construct validity and different subcomponents are still in development. While some embodied self-specifying processes are being measured in cross-sectional and meditation induction studies, very few have been assessed in MBIs. The SRPs with the strongest mechanistic support represent positive and negative evaluations of self-concept. In sum, few SRPs have been measured in MBIs, and additional research using well-validated measures is needed to clarify their role as mechanisms.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8645694/

 

Mindfulness Training Moves Participants toward Self-Transcendence

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Mindfulness Training Moves Participants toward Self-Transcendence

 

By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.

 

“The sense of time changes, the sense of space around one changes, and the sense of self changes. I think we can learn a lot about the presence of these aspects of consciousness by studying instances in which they’re altered or absent, like during experiences of self-transcendence.” – David Yaden

 

The common, central feature of transcendent experiences is a sense of oneness, that all things are contained in a single thing, a sense of union with the universe and/or God and everything in existence. This includes a loss of the personal self. What they used to refer to as the self is experienced as just a part of an integrated whole. People who have had these experiences report feeling interconnected with everything else in a sense of oneness with all things. Although transcendent experiences can vary widely, they all contain this experience of oneness. Contemplative practices are thought to lead to mindfulness and to eventual self-transcendent experiences. Unfortunately, there is very little systematic research on self-transcendence and its relationship to mindfulness.

 

In today’s Research News article “Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Self-Transcendent States: Perceived Body Boundaries and Spatial Frames of Reference.” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7968136/ )  Handley and colleagues recruited adults from a large American University who were meditation naïve and randomly assigned them to receive 5 sessions of either mindfulness or active listening training. They were measured before and after each training session for perceived body boundaries, where participants assess how strong is the boundary between themselves and the world, and spatial frame of reference, where participants assess how far their field of awareness extends beyond their body.

 

They found that after each mindfulness training session but not active listening there was a significant decrease in perceived body boundaries and significant increases in spatial frame of reference. Further they found that the greater the decrease in perceived body boundaries the greater the increase in spatial frames of reference. They also found that the increase in spatial frames of reference produced by mindfulness training were mediated by decreases in perceived body boundaries.

 

These results suggest that mindfulness training relaxes the boundaries between self and the world and extends the size of the field of awareness beyond the body. This suggests that the experience of self is highly malleable and expanded by mindfulness training. Since, transcendent experiences involve a dissolution of the boundaries between of the self, producing the experience of everything as one, mindfulness training appears to lead in that direction. Hence, the results suggest that mindfulness training can lead in the direction of self-transcendence.

 

So, mindfulness training moves participants toward self-transcendence.

 

“mindfulness training can cultivate self-transcendent experiences through the process of decentering from internal phenomena.” – Adam Handley

 

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 on Twitter @MindfulResearch

 

Study Summary

 

Hanley, A. W., Dambrun, M., & Garland, E. L. (2020). Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Self-Transcendent States: Perceived Body Boundaries and Spatial Frames of Reference. Mindfulness, 11(5), 1194–1203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01330-9

 

Abstract

Objectives:

Mindfulness training is believed to encourage self-transcendent states, but little research has examined this hypothesis. This study examined the effects of mindfulness training on two phenomenological features of self-transcendence: 1) perceived body boundary dissolution, and 2) more allocentric spatial frames of reference.

Methods:

A sample of healthy, young adults (n=45) were randomized to five sessions of mindfulness training or an active listening control condition.

Results:

Results indicated mindfulness training decreased perceived body boundaries (F4,172=6.010, p<.001, η2=.12) and encouraged more allocentric frames of reference (F4,168=2.586, p=.039, η2=.06). The expected inverse relationship was observed between perceived body boundaries and allocentric frames of reference ((β=−.58, p=.001)), and path analysis revealed the effect of mindfulness training on allocentric frames of reference was mediated by decreased perceived body boundaries (β=.24, se=.17, CI: 0.11 to 0.78).

Conclusions:

Taken together, study results suggest that mindfulness training alters practitioners’ experience of self, relaxing the boundaries of the self and extending the spatial frame of reference further beyond the physical body. Future studies are needed to explore the psychophysiological changes that co-occur with phenomenological reports of self-transcendence and the behavioral consequences following self-transcendent experiences.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7968136/