Focus on Caring May Tether Drifting Minds

Meditation is a way to observe all of yourself in a compassionate, non-judgmental way. Illya Vinogradov/iStock/Thinkstock

Compassion meditation be a way to focus a wandering mind, new research shows.

Compassion meditation focuses on benevolent thoughts toward oneself and others, as the researchers note. It is different in this aspect than most forms of meditation in the sense that participants are “guided” toward compassionate thoughts.

“This is the first report that demonstrates that formal compassion training decreases the tendency for the mind to wander, while increasing caring behavior not only towards others but towards oneself,” says James Doty, a coauthor of the study, neurosurgeon at Stanford University, and the founder and director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.

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• Mindfulness: How to Be in the Moment, Right Here, Right Now

“Mind-wandering” is the experience of having your thoughts not remain on a single topic for long. Prior research suggests that people spend as much as 50 percent of their waking hours in mind-wandering, often without realizing it.

Doty says that mindfulness is extremely useful in today’s world with its myriad of distractions, as humans are often overwhelmed and can find it difficult to attend to necessary tasks.

“By closing one’s eyes and engaging in attention training through a mindfulness practice, not only does it diminish the negative physiologic effects of distraction, which can result in anxiety and fear, but it can increase one’s ability to attend to important tasks and not have an emotional response to the often negative dialogue which is frequent in many individuals,” he says.

Focus on Easing Suffering

One way to thwart mind-wandering is through practices that enhance “mindfulness,” or the state of paying attention in a nonjudgmental way to the present moment, the researchers say.

Distinct from other forms of meditation, compassion meditation training involves the recognition of, and wish to relieve, suffering in others and oneself. As such, there is an emphasis on the focus of one’s attention on a particular person, object, or situation, rather than engaging in meditation where there is no specific object of meditation.

“This difference in technique may in turn lead to changes in mind-wandering that are different from what is observed with mindfulness training,” the researchers write.

As the researchers note, compassion is defined by an awareness of suffering, sympathetic concern, and a wish to see the relief of that suffering, and a responsiveness or readiness to help relieve that suffering.

Training in Compassion Meditation

The study examined 51 adults during a compassion meditation program, measuring their various states of mind-wandering (neutral, pleasant, and unpleasant topics) and caring behaviors for themselves and others. Participants took a secular compassion meditation training program developed at Stanford that consists of nine two-hour classes with a certified instructor.