Loving-kindness meditation: a field study

Participants at two metta meditation retreats reported significant increases in happiness and compassionate love, along with reductions in avoidance motivation, revenge motivation, and depression, anxiety, and stress scores. These changes were observed from the beginning of the retreat to two weeks after its conclusion.

Study at a glance

Abstract

AbstractSurveys were conducted at two metta meditation retreats in order to examine the psychological effects of metta meditation. Participants were invited to complete the survey at the beginning of the retreat, at the end of the retreat, and two weeks after the end of the retreat. Participants completed the same scales at each time phase, which included measures of happiness, compassionate love, revenge and avoidance motivation, gratitude, and a depression, anxiety and stress scale. Significant increases were found in happiness and compassionate love, reductions in avoidance and revenge, and reductions on the depression, anxiety and stress subscales. AcknowledgementsThank you to Bhante Sujato who kindly allowed this study to be conducted at his retreats, and for being supportive of this research. Thank you to Professor Ladd Wheeler for valuable advice, for supporting this research and for reading drafts of this paper. Thank you to Mike Jones for statistical advice and to Dania Percy for assisting with data collection for the second study. Finally, thank you to all the participants who generously took the time to participate in this research.Additional informationNotes on contributorsBeatrice AlbaBeatrice Alba is a second-year PhD student at Macquarie University, under the supervision of Ladd Wheeler and Doris McIlwain. She is currently undertaking her doctoral research in the area of social and personality psychology.