3-Doors Compassion Project: Examining the longitudinal effects of a nine-month Tibetan mind-body meditation program

A structured nine-month meditation program, the 3 Doors Compassion Project (3DCP), which teaches Tibetan mind-body practices, was associated with significant improvements in mindfulness, stress, and depression among twenty-seven medical and mental health professionals. Improvements occurred incrementally each month. The frequency of meditation practice (days per month), but not the total time spent meditating (minutes per month), was significantly linked to these improvements. This suggests that consistent, regular meditation may be more beneficial than longer, less frequent sessions.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Abundant research supports the benefits of participating in mindfulness meditation training programs including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy. However, these well researched programs include a narrow range of meditation practices and research to date has minimally examined how home practice associates with favorable outcomes. The present study evaluated the 3 Doors Compassion Project (3DCP), a structured 9-months meditation program that teaches Tibetan Mind-Body practices and examined how frequency and duration of home practice associated with favorable outcomes. Twenty-seven medical and mental healthcare professionals completed assessments prior to, during, and following participation in the 3DCP program and recorded daily meditation practices. Study aims were to test general effectiveness of the 3DCP program and to test the hypotheses that frequency and duration of meditation home-practice would associate with improvements on mindfulness, stress, and depression. General linear mixed modeling demonstrated significant improvements throughout the duration of the 3DCP program for mindfulness, depression ( p < .001) and stress ( p < .05), with each variable evidencing incremental monthly improvements. Frequency of meditation (i.e., days practiced per month), but not time (i.e., minutes per month) was significantly associated with improvements throughout the 3DCP program. Results provide support for the benefits of the 3DCP while offering clinically useful information that can inform current guidelines for meditation home practice. As predicted, the 3DCP was associated with significant improvements on all outcomes. Favorable outcomes were linked to frequency, but not total time of meditation practice, which suggests that consistent meditation may be more helpful than extended meditation.