Brief Meditation Interventions: Mindfulness, Implementation Instructions, and Lovingkindness

Study 1 evaluated whether a single-session mindfulness meditation with implementation intention (II) instructions would elicit gains in psychological functioning across 2 weeks that exceeded comparison conditions (meditation with no II, sitting quietly [SQ]). Study 2 evaluated whether a 2-session lovingkindness meditation (LKM), which directed compassion toward oneself, others, or both oneself and others, would produce greater positive outcomes than SQ. Participants in all conditions across both studies improved over trials on multiple measures. We succeeded in replicating previous findings that brief mindfulness meditation is associated with enhanced positive affect. Moreover, as we expected, LKM was related to greater self-reported compassion for others compared with controls. However, more generalized effects, indexed by a variety of measures (e.g., acceptance, mindfulness, anxiety, emotion regulation, behavioral measure of volunteerism), did not emerge, thereby indicating a high degree of specificity for effects associated with very brief meditation.