Skip to main content Skip to search
Affect and Motivation Are Critical in Constructive Meditation
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Format: Journal Article
Publication Date: 2016/03/01/
Pages: 159 - 160
Sources ID: 39366
Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2015.11.004
Collection: Theory of Mind
Visibility: Public (group default)
Abstract: (Show)
In a recent TICS opinion article [ 1 ], Dahl et al. discuss the psychological mechanisms involved in different types of meditation practice. While we applaud and to a large extent agree with their systematization, we disagree with their suggestion that cognitive reappraisal and perspective taking are core processes of all constructive practices. Rather, we suggest that for an important subset of such practices, loving-kindness and compassion meditation, both behavioral and neural evidence points to the importance of self-generation of motivational and emotional states over the regulatory processes implicated by Dahl et al.