Mindfulness
February 25, 2026
Cate Bailey, Nicholas T. van Dam, Jonathan N Davies et al.
A nationally representative Australian survey compared quality of life, health service use, and costs among meditators, other contemplative practitioners, and non-practitioners. Unadjusted quality-of-life scores were higher for non-practitioners, and this difference persisted after accounting for demographics but disappeared when mental health service use was included. Unmet mental-health service need was highest among meditators (13.9%) versus non-practitioners (2.4%). The average annual cost of contemplative practice was $1,281 per person. The findings provide preliminary data for future economic evaluations of contemplative practices.
Mindfulness
February 24, 2026
Larissa Bartlett, Rohan Puri, Amanda L. Neil et al.
A new 9-item scale, the Observed Mindful Behaviours (OMB), measures how attentive, aware, and accepting a person appears to someone who knows them. Based on data from 190 pairs of raters and targets, the scale shows good reliability and validity. Observed mindful behavior aligns moderately with self-reported trait mindfulness and interpersonal mindfulness, and correlates positively with empathy and psychological capital, and negatively with psychological inflexibility, distress, and anger reactivity. It does not relate to prosocial intentions. The OMB can complement self-report measures in mindfulness research.
Mindfulness
November 24, 2025
Liudmila Gamaiunova, Nicolas Pellerin
Two brief meditations—focused and deconstructive—administered before a social stress task increased heart rate variability prior to the stressor, indicating reduced physiological activation, compared to an active control condition. However, this effect did not persist during the stress task itself. Anticipatory cognitive threat appraisal decreased across all conditions, showing no specific meditation benefit. The findings suggest that even a single, short meditation session can lower physiological arousal before a stressful event, and that deconstructive meditations may offer stress-reducing potential similar to better-studied attentional meditations.
Mindfulness
November 1, 2025
Alex K. Gearin, Chantelle W. M. Suen, Frances K. Y. Ng
A survey of 164 meditators in Hong Kong found that 21% reported negative effects from meditation, yet 63% believed the practice is entirely risk-free, revealing a gap between experience and perception. Two motivational profiles emerged: "Utilizers" meditate mainly for stress and anxiety relief, practice fewer hours, expect immediate benefits, and view thoughts and feelings as private; "Cultivators" prioritize self-awareness and spiritual growth, practice longer, have lower expectations of immediate improvement, and more often perceive nature as healing. Qualitative responses described learning difficulties, technique confusion, and physical, psychological, and spiritual distress, though some participants reframed these as growth opportunities. The findings suggest tailoring meditation programs to different motivational profiles may enhance safety and effectiveness.
Mindfulness
October 1, 2025
Francesco Tormen, C. Mascarello
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the path to liberation involves recognizing that all phenomena lack inherent existence. This paper reframes that concept using contemporary psychological and cognitive-science terms, introducing 'critical meta-awareness' as a parallel to the traditional notion of wisdom (prajñā). Wisdom is central to reducing suffering, which stems from identifying with a self and treating cognitive models as objective reality. The paper reviews contemplative research to examine how meditation develops critical meta-awareness and how that awareness relates to well-being. It identifies three Tibetan Buddhist contemplative practices that cultivate such awareness but have been overlooked by research due to their metaphysical framing. The author argues that, secularly reframed, these practices could advance metacognition research and have broader societal applications.
Mindfulness
April 1, 2024
Brentyn J. Ramm, Anna‐lena Lumma, Terje Sparby et al.
Twelve of twenty adults who had never practiced the Headless Way exercises reported a void-like experience after being guided through them, and five reported an experience of awareness itself. These experiences were categorized as subsets of perceptual absences and the sense of not being person-like. The exercises can effectively induce experiences of emptiness and awareness in participants without prior meditation experience. The findings suggest that such experiences can be elicited outside a traditional meditation context, and that the sense of not being person-like and perceptual absences may be precursors to recognizing awareness itself and the void-like nature of the mind.