home
RSS
Meditation reduces stress, instills compassion
October 18th, 2010
12:36 PM ET

Meditation reduces stress, instills compassion

A meditation practice invented more than 1,000 years ago may have real health benefits for people today, researchers at Emory University say.

These scientists are looking at how an ancient Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice called Lojong may help reduce stress itself, as well as improve the immune system's response to stress, said Dr. Charles Raison, principal investigator of the study at Emory and CNNHealth mental health expert.

Raison planned to present preliminary results of the study to the Dalai Lama, who attended the Compassion Meditation Conference on Monday. The project is called the Compassion and Attention Longitudinal Meditation Study (CALM).

"Lojong" means "mind training," and this specific practice is aimed at making a person more compassionate toward others, including friends and enemies. This is the type of meditation that the Dalai Lama primarily practices, Raison said.

"It tries to train people to rethink and reimagine their relationships with other people," Raison said. "It's a series of visualizations and mental challenges where you use meditation to challenge why you feel the way you do about people."

Participants are taught to look at all people equally as being valuable and important, and then attempt to develop strong feelings of compassion. They first examine compassion toward people they already care about, then toward people about whom they feel neutral, and then finally enemies.

"In its purest form, it's a way of practicing, of learning to become very thankful for your enemies because they help teach patience and caring," he said.

Raison and Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, lecturer in Emory's religion department have been working on methods of testing the effects of this meditation practice on the human body. They have preliminary results from a group of Emory University students as well as a more recent study on teenagers in foster care in Georgia.

In both groups, researchers found that the more a person practices, the more stress-reduction benefits he or she receives. It appears that just going to the six or eight weeks of classes is not enough, however; those who showed the best outcomes had meditated on their own time as well, Raison said. The available data suggest that you can get stress-related benefits from meditating three to four times a week, he said.

"It’s not necessarily something that would require a complete change of life. You don’t have to go off and go to a monastery," he said.

A challenge for both groups - college students and teenagers in foster care - is finding a quiet place to do meditation outside of class, Raison said. In general, the best venues for meditation are quiet places where the person feels peaceful, which may be somewhere outside, he said.

Besides looking at stress responses, the researchers are also trying to measure whether the meditation has a real effect on the participants' behavior. They did a small test of this by having participants wear an electronically activated recorder before beginning and after finishing the meditation interventions,

The recorder is used to evaluate the effect of the study interventions on the participants’ social behavior by periodically recording bits and pieces of ambient sounds from participants’ daily lives. Ambient sounds of the person's daily interactions are recorded.

Preliminary data suggest that indeed the meditation did make participants more compassionate in their interactions, but more study needs to be done to confirm this, Raison said.

The project will, in the future, also look at the effect of meditation on brain structure, by taking images of the brains of participants, he said.

Here's a guide to compassion meditation from Oprah.com.


soundoff (997 Responses)
  1. how can i order cialis from a canadian pharmacy

    canadian generic cialis 20mg https://canadacialisstore.com/ canadian generic cialis safe

    April 17, 2021 at 23:48 | Report abuse | Reply
  2. 토토사이트

    https://pastebin.pl/view/d36df673

    April 17, 2021 at 23:56 | Report abuse | Reply
  3. tadalafil

    tadalafil 40 mg daily https://elitadalafill.com/ generic tadalafil

    April 18, 2021 at 07:33 | Report abuse | Reply
  4. 우리카지노

    https://www.openlearning.com/u/rocketkale1/blog/BiomarkingDataTheImportanceOfDbeTechnologies

    April 19, 2021 at 04:28 | Report abuse | Reply
  5. 먹튀

    https://www.illustratedfaith.com/members/pajamafelony59/activity/685116/

    April 19, 2021 at 05:22 | Report abuse | Reply
  6. Superheater tubing size

    Steel Pipe – Seamless Pipe – ERW Pipe – Galvanized Pipe | Stainless Steel Pipe, Nickel Alloy Pipe, A106B, Tube

    http://contek.com.ua/user/floyd18crews/

    April 19, 2021 at 07:40 | Report abuse | Reply
  7. 먹튀검증사이트

    Hi! I could have sworn Iíve visited this website before but after looking at some of the posts I realized itís new to me. Nonetheless, Iím certainly delighted I stumbled upon it and Iíll be bookmarking it and checking back often!

    https://pastebin.fun/JOSTUBSMjx

    April 19, 2021 at 15:09 | Report abuse | Reply
  8. 카지노사이트

    https://squareblogs.net/tablewood04/texas-holdem-and-the-evolution-involving-a-popular-game

    April 19, 2021 at 17:37 | Report abuse | Reply
  9. 먹튀검증업체

    https://www.rcrc-resilience-southeastasia.org/members/agendapatio97/activity/371506/

    April 20, 2021 at 08:22 | Report abuse | Reply
  10. canada 20 viagra

    canada 20 viagra https://canadaviagrastore.com/ is it safe to get viagra from canada

    April 20, 2021 at 08:24 | Report abuse | Reply
  11. canadian pharmacy tadalafil viagara cialis

    canadian pharmacy no perscription generic cialis https://canadacialisstore.com/ canadian viagra cialis

    April 20, 2021 at 17:30 | Report abuse | Reply
  12. 먹튀검증

    I was very happy to find this web site. I want to to thank you for your time for this particularly fantastic read!! I definitely liked every bit of it and I have you bookmarked to see new stuff on your website.

    https://vinhomessaigon.net/forum/profile.php?section=personality&id=951134

    April 21, 2021 at 00:02 | Report abuse | Reply
  13. 먹튀검증사이트

    https://games2nguoi.com/forum/profile.php?section=personality&id=465526

    April 21, 2021 at 01:05 | Report abuse | Reply
  14. purchase vardenafil online

    vilitra 60mg vardenafil https://vegavardenafil.com/ warnings for vardenafil maximum dose

    April 21, 2021 at 01:36 | Report abuse | Reply
  15. canada pharmacy viagra

    is it safe to get viagra from canada https://canadaviagrastore.com/ canada pharmacy viagra

    April 21, 2021 at 03:52 | Report abuse | Reply
  16. 먹튀사이트

    http://appdev.163.ca/dz163/home.php?mod=space&uid=3181231

    April 21, 2021 at 10:46 | Report abuse | Reply
  17. xo so chu nhut

    What’s Going down i'm new to this, I stumbled upon this I've discovered It positively helpful and it has aided me out loads. I'm hoping to give a contribution & aid other users like its helped me. Good job.

    https://www.instapaper.com/p/8918667

    April 21, 2021 at 11:48 | Report abuse | Reply
  18. 먹튀검증

    Good post. I definitely appreciate this website. Stick with it!

    http://dc-kapelka.ru/user/selectrabbit85/

    April 21, 2021 at 15:05 | Report abuse | Reply
  19. jual kaos distro

    hi!,I like your writing so much! share we communicate more about your post on AOL? I require a specialist on this area to solve my problem. Maybe that's you! Looking forward to see you.

    http://louiswbcee.bleepblogs.com/5167819/si7-yang-membuat-kaos-distro-terbaik

    April 21, 2021 at 17:43 | Report abuse | Reply
  20. 40 mg tadalafil

    tadalafil max dose https://elitadalafill.com/ tadalis sx

    April 21, 2021 at 21:52 | Report abuse | Reply
  21. https://www.laweekly.com/5-best-cbd-oil-companies-to-buy-from-in-2019/

    Just bookmarked this blog post as I have actually found it rather practical.

    https://www.laweekly.com/5-best-cbd-oil-companies-to-buy-from-in-2019/

    April 22, 2021 at 00:43 | Report abuse | Reply
  22. 먹튀검증커뮤니티

    Itís hard to find well-informed people about this subject, however, you sound like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks

    https://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/PageRedirect.aspx?redirectedurl=https://anotepad.com/notes/3n8aceec

    April 22, 2021 at 04:56 | Report abuse | Reply
  23. sildenafil 25

    sildenafil 20 mg discount https://eunicesildenafilcitrate.com/ canadian pharmacy sildenafil

    April 22, 2021 at 11:50 | Report abuse | Reply
  24. buy sildenafil online us

    cheap sildenafil tablets uk https://eunicesildenafilcitrate.com/ sildenafil 50mg tablets uk

    April 23, 2021 at 02:17 | Report abuse | Reply
  25. GvdbCrulk

    tadalafil 20mg review http://boxtadafil.com/ – generic tadalafil 2018 tadalafil patent expiry

    April 23, 2021 at 05:30 | Report abuse | Reply
  26. 먹튀사이트

    Wonderful post! We will be linking to this great article on our site. Keep up the great writing.

    https://yogaasanas.science/wiki/Online_casino_Gambling_Strategies_plus_Techniques_for_you_to_Win

    April 23, 2021 at 06:10 | Report abuse | Reply
  27. 먹튀검증

    https://www.pcb.its.dot.gov/PageRedirect.aspx?redirectedurl=https://pbase.com/topics/cornetroof36/a_succinct_background_of_tai

    April 23, 2021 at 09:42 | Report abuse | Reply
  28. FbsfEncox

    Biltricide https://uspharmus.com/ Bystolic

    April 23, 2021 at 12:40 | Report abuse | Reply
  29. india sildenafil

    sildenafil discount coupon https://eunicesildenafilcitrate.com/ sildenafil citrate buy

    April 23, 2021 at 14:58 | Report abuse | Reply
  30. alprostadil use after heart surgery

    injectable drugs for ed https://alprostadildrugs.com/ iilegal sales of alprostadil

    April 23, 2021 at 16:45 | Report abuse | Reply
  31. RfvbZisse

    cialis c800 https://cileve.com/ – cialis express delivery australia cialis brand no prescription needed

    April 24, 2021 at 00:05 | Report abuse | Reply
  32. Click Here To See The Best CBD Oil

    Love the way you cover this subject.

    https://www.laweekly.com/5-best-cbd-oil-companies-to-buy-from-in-2019/

    April 24, 2021 at 11:07 | Report abuse | Reply
  33. FbsfEncox

    Lopressor https://uspharmus.com/ Micronase

    April 24, 2021 at 16:09 | Report abuse | Reply
  34. 메이저사이트

    There is definately a lot to learn about this issue. I like all of the points you made.

    http://www.vvdy.com/home.php?mod=space&uid=398969

    April 24, 2021 at 17:32 | Report abuse | Reply
  35. 먹튀검증

    The very next time I read a blog, Hopefully it won't fail me as much as this one. I mean, Yes, it was my choice to read through, but I genuinely thought you would have something helpful to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something that you can fix if you were not too busy looking for attention.

    http://d992387h.bget.ru/user/s4iapjm500

    April 24, 2021 at 19:39 | Report abuse | Reply
  36. tadalafil dosage

    buy tadalafil us https://elitadalafill.com/ generic tadalafil united states

    April 24, 2021 at 20:33 | Report abuse | Reply
  37. BbdfMile

    how viagra works http://gensitecil.com/ how to get viagra

    April 24, 2021 at 22:15 | Report abuse | Reply
  38. alprostadil cream on ebay

    buy alprostadil cream online https://alprostadildrugs.com/ alprostadil for sale online

    April 24, 2021 at 22:29 | Report abuse | Reply
  39. AbdgEncox

    Dilantin https://canadianeve21.com/ Imitrex

    April 25, 2021 at 04:47 | Report abuse | Reply
  40. 메이저사이트

    http://ezproxy.cityu.edu.hk/login?url=https://www.openlearning.com/u/baccarat2meatafrica5/blog/OriginABreakDownOfCrysis20

    April 25, 2021 at 04:49 | Report abuse | Reply
  41. 먹튀검증

    Itís hard to find experienced people in this particular topic, however, you seem like you know what youíre talking about! Thanks

    https://ruralglobal.com/user/profile/24250

    April 25, 2021 at 10:58 | Report abuse | Reply
  42. how long do the effects of vardenafil last

    generic vardenafil 20mg india https://vegavardenafil.com/ how does vardenafil work

    April 25, 2021 at 13:21 | Report abuse | Reply
  43. LhdvZisse

    cialis (lillys) https://asciled.com/ howard stern commercial cialis

    April 25, 2021 at 13:42 | Report abuse | Reply
  44. JbsdEncox

    Flexeril buying drugs canada canadian drugstore online

    April 25, 2021 at 14:31 | Report abuse | Reply
  45. canada viagra scam

    viagra sale canada https://canadaviagrastore.com/ viagra canada over the counter

    April 25, 2021 at 15:29 | Report abuse | Reply
  46. BbdfMile

    get viagra online https://gensitecil.com/ how much is generic viagra

    April 25, 2021 at 19:00 | Report abuse | Reply
  47. LrbsEncox

    levitra pill size https://uslevitraanna.com/ best price for levitra

    April 25, 2021 at 19:14 | Report abuse | Reply
  48. JbsdEncox

    online pharmacy no prescription birth control anti fungal

    April 26, 2021 at 06:01 | Report abuse | Reply
  49. AbdgEncox

    buy generic viagra online http://canadianeve21.com/ Lincocin

    April 26, 2021 at 07:01 | Report abuse | Reply
  50. 토토사이트

    https://gameshanhdong.com/forum/profile.php?section=personality&id=536524

    April 26, 2021 at 07:22 | Report abuse | Reply
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Leave a Reply to 먹튀검증


 

CNN welcomes a lively and courteous discussion as long as you follow the Rules of Conduct set forth in our Terms of Service. Comments are not pre-screened before they post. You agree that anything you post may be used, along with your name and profile picture, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and the license you have granted pursuant to our Terms of Service.

Advertisement
About this blog

Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love.