This month, we’ll look at the connection between mindfulness and emotion regulation.  Several studies have demonstrated that mindfulness meditation training results in an increase in emotion regulation.  Emotion regulation, in general, refers to a person’s ability to effectively experience emotions.  Skills related to emotion regulation include: knowing when an emotion is present, accurately identifying emotions, nonjudgmental acceptance of emotions, and effectively soothing and down-regulating painful emotions.  People with low emotion regulation skills might find themselves swept away and hijacked by their emotions, or on the flip side, excessively avoiding emotions leading to a sense of emotional numbness.

The study we’re looking at today looks at neural mechanisms (aka what’s going on in your brain!) that might explain why mindfulness meditation leads to better emotion regulation.  Brain areas of interest in this study include the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC).  In general, when the amygdala is activated, emotions like anger and fear are generated.  When the VMPFC is activated, emotions are regulated, leading to less emotional reactivity and a quicker return to baseline.

This study found that long-term meditators demonstrated less amygdala activation than short-term meditators or non-meditators.  So, in response to situations that might trigger an emotion like fear or anger, long-term meditators were less likely to experience those reactions at all.  This was especially true for long-term meditators with a lot of meditation retreat hours.

Short-term meditators in this study were defined as people who recently completed an MBSR course.  The study found that short-term meditators showed higher levels of amygdala-VMPFC connectivity than non-meditators.  Meaning, when short-term meditators become emotionally triggered, those emotions are more quickly regulated when the VMPFC comes online.  Which leads to thinking more clearly, responding more effectively, and stepping off the emotionally reactive treadmill early and often.  Yet another example of how mindfulness meditation training, truly is brain training.

The link for the article we discussed today is:

Kral, T .R. A., Schuyler, B. S., Mumford, J. A., Rosenkranz, M. A., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2018). Impact of short- and long-term mindfulness meditation training on amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli. NeuroImage, 181, 301-13. https://doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.07.013

And a few other studies related to mindfulness and emotion regulation:

Goldin, P.R, Gross, J.J., 2010.  Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on emotion regulation in social anxiety disorder. Emotion 10, 83-91. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018441.

Ortner, C.N.M., Kilner, S.J., Zelazo, P.D., 2007. Mindfulness meditation and reduced emotional influence on a cognitive task. Motiv. Emot. 31, 271-283.  https://doil.org/10.1007/s11031-007-9076-7.

Hofmann, S.G., Sawyer, A.T., Witt, A.A., Oh, D., 2010.  The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: a meta-analytic review. J. Consult. Clin. Psychol. 78, 169-183. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018555.