Abstract
ObjectivesSeveral studies have investigated the relationship between contemplative approaches and psychobiological stress response; however, this area of research is still new, the mechanisms of the relationship between the stress response attenuation and contemplative training have not been fully delineated, and little is known about the effects of contemplative practice on the ways psychological stress is experienced. This study aimed to explore the first-person experience of psychological stress in meditation practitioners.MethodsWe conducted short semi-structured interviews with twenty-five meditation practitioners and twenty meditation-naïve controls immediately after they had undergone a laboratory task (the Trier Social Stress Test). A mixed-method approach was used to analyze the interviews. Thematic analysis was combined with descriptive statistics of the qualitative information that had been converted to quantitative data.ResultsExperiences instantiating main themes were identified as follows: (1) primary experiences encountered, describing the most salient experiences associated with the task; (2) reasons for stress, delineating the analyses of why the task was stressful; (3) affect, dealing with emotional experiences during the task; (4) emotion regulation; and (5) attention allocation describing regulatory strategies employed by the participants. Responses to subjective stress experience in meditation practitioners included use of humor, presence of positive affect, combinations of different types of emotion regulation strategies, and adaptive attention allocation.ConclusionsThis study elucidates particularities of meditators’ subjective experience of psychological stress, provides new insights on the mechanisms of meditation effect on the stress response, and proposes new directions for research.
Highlights
This paper presents the results of qualitative comparisons of the psychological stress experience by long-term meditation practitioners and meditation-naïve participants
The results of our analysis indicate that certain features of subjective experience during a highly controlled stressinducing task are similar between meditators and meditation-naïve individuals: several participants in both groups reported feeling challenged by the task and had experienced motivation and enthusiasm
The experience of threat and avoidance and the desire to leave the experiment was reported only by non-meditators. These findings are in line with previous studies that have suggested contrasting responses to stress: mindfulness, characterized by awareness, openness, and acceptance of the experience (Bishop et al, 2004), versus experiential avoidance, which refers to attempts to avoid or alter undesired experiences (Hayes et al, 2004)
Summary
Participants were recruited for a larger study investigating the relationship between long-term meditation practice and psychobiological stress response (Gamaiunova et al, 2019). The meditation practitioner (MP) group included individuals who had been practicing meditation derived from Buddhist traditions, for at least 3 years at a frequency of at least 3 h/week. Participants were excluded if they had prior experience performing a similar task, had current psychiatric or somatic conditions, used certain medications, or were women taking hormonal contraceptives. Fifty-two participants performed the stress task, and 45 were interviewed (25 in the MP group and 20 in the MN group)
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