Do mindful people feel better in their bodies? Does mindfulness make you kinder? Researchers are diving into these questions and uncovering the benefits of mindfulness.
People come to mindfulness practice for many reasons. They may need help dealing with stress, or want a way to help improve their sleep. There are also many questions, such as: What does research say about mindfulness and physical health? Does it really matter how often you meditate? Does mindfulness make you truly kind, or is it mostly just what people say?
While the studies are numerous and ongoing, and of course not every question can be definitively answered—we can look to some of the research collected from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School, and the American Mindfulness Research Association to help explore some of these questions in more depth.
Feeling good in your own skin
Do mindful people feel better about their bodies? Researchers asked 115 female college students about their mindfulness, physical responses, body shame and overall health. Women who reported greater awareness and who were nonjudgmental and nonreactive—important mindfulness skills—had less body shame, were more in tune with their bodies, and were healthier overall. The researchers say it’s not yet clear whether mindfulness increases physical satisfaction or vice versa.
Building your meditation muscle
Compared to adults who did 13 minutes of guided meditation or listened to podcasts per day, researchers found that meditators experienced greater benefits. For example, after eight weeks meditators felt less anxiety and reported less negative mood. And their performance on a set of computerized tests showed they developed better attention and memory skills than podcast listeners.
The brain networks that work to keep us in the present moment and remember information are like brain muscles: they need exercise to work fast and well, and meditation can provide that exercise. The study also found that people in the meditation group were better at regulating their emotions, which was associated with less negative mood.
But before you think this was a quick fix, think again. When the researchers checked to see if these benefits could be detected after four weeks, they came up empty-handed. Most of the benefits didn’t show until after eight weeks of consistent practice. As with exercising a physical muscle, it takes time, patience and repetition to make changes take effect.
Does mindfulness make you kinder to yourself and others?
Self-compassion can make aging easier. A review of research shows that adults over age 65 who practiced self-compassion were less anxious and depressed, and had a greater sense of well-being than those who did not. (Tip: It probably doesn’t hurt to start exercising when you’re young.)
Mental menopause
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota surveyed nearly 1,800 women between the ages of 40 and 65 to find out whether those who are more mindful may experience fewer menopausal problems. In fact, people with higher mindfulness scores were less stressed and had fewer symptoms like mood swings, hot flashes, insomnia and fatigue—encouraging results for the millions of women experiencing this middle age transition.
Brain waves
Does mindfulness make you kinder? That’s the question researchers asked when they reviewed 31 studies on mindfulness and social behavior. They found that people who are mindful and who have completed some form of mindfulness training are more compassionate and helpful. Being non-judgmental, empathetic, having a positive outlook on life, and knowing how to control emotions also led to behavior that benefited others.
There were a few catches. Adults tend to be more social than teenagers, and those who rated themselves higher in mindfulness were more helpful to people they knew than to strangers.
This does not apply to those who have attended formal mindfulness training. He was as kind to those he did not know as to those he knew. A big surprise was that people who received mindfulness training and had compassion-based instruction were just as social, dispelling the myth that the benefits of mindfulness are limited to the individual. In other words, just being mindful can be enough to increase your kindness.
