Meditation strengthens gratitude and love
According to a new study, there’s a correlation between traits associated with mindfulness and positive attitudes. And the latter can be strengthened by meditating.
Mindfulness and positive character traits go hand in hand. | Image: shutterstock/rame435
Mindfulness has been shown to aid the treatment of depression, stress reduction and pain management. “But we still don’t fully understand why and how it works”, says Dandan Pang, a psychology researcher. “I wanted to offer some answers in my doctoral thesis at the University of Zurich”. Pang analysed the relationship between an attitude of mindfulness and character strengths – 24 positive traits occurring to varying degrees.
Her first analysis was based on 1,335 responses to an online questionnaire. It identified 16 character strengths that correlated with traits of mindfulness (observing, not judging or reacting, etc.). The second analysis explored whether there is any development of these traits (e.g., creativity, curiosity and perseverance) when mindfulness is practised. Pang compared changes between a group of control subjects and a group following an eight-week programme of mindfulness meditation.
“We observed significant increases in four character strengths: love, appreciation of beauty, gratitude and spirituality”, says Pang. “Curiosity, perspective, vitality and bravery also showed an increase, but it was less marked”. These results show that certain character strengths can therefore be bolstered through the practice of mindfulness.
