Abstract
Objectives
Meditative practice and experience increase sensitivity to bodily sensations and improve emotional well-being, but their influence on emotional body sensations has not been directly examined. Therefore, we aimed to measure bodily representations of emotion and relate them to mindfulness-related traits and skills.
Method
Using a sample of both mindfulness-naïve participants and experienced meditators, we applied the bodily maps of emotion task to measure emotional body sensations and relate them to mindfulness, using a preregistered analysis plan. Based on previous research, emotional body sensations were analyzed in terms of their magnitude, detail, and clarity.
Results
We found that mindfulness skills and experience with meditation are related to several aspects of emotional body sensations, including sensation from key organ systems (the heart and stomach), and the level of detail and clarity of body sensations. We found that interpersonally focused mindfulness skills (e.g., empathy, compassion) are related to emotional body sensations across the sample, while intrapersonally focused skills (e.g., body awareness) are related to emotional body sensations only in experienced meditators.
Conclusions
Our results show that mindfulness skills and practice are associated with enriched bodily representations of emotion, providing new insights into how mindfulness may improve self-awareness and emotion regulation.
Preregistration
The study’s analyses were preregistered at https://osf.io/uxcbk/.