We are delighted to share some special news: the first scientific study of Deepening Mindfulness and Mindful Communication (DMMC) has been published in the academic journal Counselling and Psychotherapy Research.
The study explored the feasibility and acceptability of DMMC, as well as potential changes among participants. The initial findings are promising: participants showed improvements in areas including body awareness, mindfulness, self-compassion and the ability to remain mindfully present in interactions with others.
Bringing mindfulness into everyday life
Many people take part in an eight-week mindfulness or compassion course. Afterwards, they often feel a need to continue practising and to integrate the skills they have learned more firmly into everyday life.
Feeling calm and attentive during meditation is one thing. But how do you stay present when someone says something that affects you? How do you recognise what is happening in your body before you react automatically? And how can you listen and speak with awareness when a conversation becomes challenging?
These questions inspired Frits Koster and me to develop the follow-on programme Deepening Mindfulness and Mindful Communication. The programme focuses both on deepening mindfulness and compassion and on applying these qualities in our interactions with others.
The study
A total of 55 participants took part in the pilot study. They completed several scientifically validated questionnaires before and after the course.
The course was delivered to several groups by a total of five different teachers.
What changed for participants?
Following the course, statistically significant improvements were found in:
- body awareness;
- the ability to regulate attention through the body;
- general mindfulness skills;
- self-compassion;
- interpersonal mindfulness.
A particularly strong improvement was found in participants’ ability to bring and sustain attention to bodily experiences. This is relevant because the body is often the first place where we notice that we are becoming tense, emotionally affected or reactive. Recognising these signals earlier may create more space to respond consciously.
Interpersonal mindfulness also increased. This refers to the ability to remain consciously present in interactions with others: listening attentively, noticing one’s own reactions and being less likely to act automatically.
What did participants notice themselves?
In addition to completing the questionnaires, participants were asked what they themselves had experienced as a result of the course. They described, among other things:
- greater calm and presence;
- a stronger connection with their body;
- an improved ability to care for themselves;
- less automatic reactivity;
- more conscious listening and communication;
- a greater sense of connection with themselves and others.
These experiences closely reflect the aim of the course: not only to practise mindfulness on the meditation cushion, but to bring it into the moments in which we live, work together, encounter conflict and try to connect with one another.
A significant milestone
For us, the publication of this study is a significant milestone. The programme grew out of many years of experience with mindfulness, compassion and communication. It is therefore deeply meaningful to see that what participants and teachers have experienced in practice has now been systematically studied for the first time.
The study was conducted by Maya Schroevers and Jun Wang.
The full English-language article was published under the title:
Feasibility and Acceptability of a Newly Developed Mindfulness Follow-On Group Program ‘Deepening Mindfulness and Mindful Communication’: A Pilot Study.
Read the full article here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/capr.70182