Jazaieri, H., Lee, I. A., McGonigal, K., Jinpa, T., Doty, J. R., Gross, J. J., & Goldin, P. (2015). A wandering mind is a less caring mind: Daily experience sampling during compassion meditation training. Journal of Positive Psychology. doi:10.1080/17439760.2015.1025418
The effects of the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) program, a 9-week, twice daily compassion meditation, was found to reduce mind wandering towards neutral thoughts and increased caring behaviors for oneself. Further path analysis indicated that compassion meditation was associated with reduced mind wandering for unpleasant thoughts and increased mind wandering to pleasant thoughts, and that both were associated with increased caring behavior for oneself and others. This is the first known study to lend partial support that formal compassion training reduces mind wandering while increasing caring behavior not only for oneself but also for others.
[…] he also works with psychologists on scientific research. In 2015, he co-authored a study titled “A wandering mind is a less caring mind,” which found that reducing mind-wandering through meditation was associated with increased […]