A nine-week compassion meditation program reduced mind wandering to neutral topics and increased self-directed caring behaviors among 51 adults. More frequent meditation practice was linked to less mind wandering to unpleasant topics and more mind wandering to pleasant topics, and both changes were associated with increased caring behaviors for oneself and others. Overall, mind wandering did not mediate the relationship between meditation frequency and caring behaviors when all topics were combined, but topic-specific mind wandering did play a role.
A randomized clinical trial compared Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) with supportive psychotherapy for people with both chronic pain and opioid misuse. Participants who received MORE showed greater increases in self-transcendence during a mindfulness task, which led to stronger feelings of universal love. Those increased feelings of love, in turn, predicted lower opioid craving and reduced odds of opioid misuse over follow-ups up to nine months. The findings suggest that mindfulness practices may work partly by fostering self-transcendent experiences that enhance love and compassion, with potential benefits for reducing addictive behavior.