TEORIA DO APEGO E MEDITAÇÃO DA (AUTO)COMPAIXÃO: COMO A SUA PRÁTICA PODE AFETAR A FORMA DE SE RELACIONAR COM O OUTRO?

Resumo: O presente artigo procura, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica, entender se a prática da meditação da compaixão pode ser uma ferramenta útil para alcançar um estilo de apego seguro. A busca pelo último se justifica por corroborar com um indivíduo mais resiliente, explorador do mundo exterior, autoconfiante, complacente e prestativo em situações aflitivas, cooperativo e possuidor de ligações relacionais mais fortes. Em paralelo, têm-se os benefícios da prática da meditação da compaixão, que incluem o aumento da conexão social, a geração de diversas emoções positivas e a redução da evitação de pensamentos e/ou sentimentos difíceis. Vale ressaltar que lidar com as vivências subjetivamente classificadas como negativas impede seu acúmulo e, portanto, a multiplicação dessas sensações postas como indesejadas. Foram consultadas, nas plataformas Google Acadêmico, Portal do CAPES e Portal da Biblioteca PUC-Rio, em português e inglês, as expressões “meditação bondade amorosa e teoria do apego”, “meditação da compaixão e teoria do apego”, “compassion meditation and attachment theory” e “attachment security and meditation”. Não foram identificadas pesquisas associando, especificamente, meditação da compaixão e teoria do apego. Contudo, a hipótese de a primeira influenciar a última não foi refutada, tendo indícios de confirmação ainda insuficientes. A meditação é cientificamente respaldada e estudada, porém possui pesquisas iniciadas recentemente, que não exploraram integralmente o assunto, sendo recomendáveis estudos experimentais e nos moldes científicos, para maior validação da prática e seus benefícios. Dentre eles, incluem-se as interseções e interferências entre meditação da compaixão e estilo de apego seguro.Palavras-chave: Meditação. Compaixão. Autocompaixão. Teoria do apego. Abstract: This paper seeks, through a bibliographic review, to understand whether the practice of compassion meditation can be a useful tool to achieve a secure attachment style. The search for the latter is justified by corroborating with a more resilient individual, explorer of the outside world, self-confident, complacent and helpful in distressing situations, cooperative and possessing stronger relational connections. In parallel, there are the benefits of practicing compassion meditation, which include increasing social connection, generating several positive emotions and reducing avoidance of difficult thoughts and/or feelings. The Google Scholar platforms, CAPES Portal and PUC-Rio Library Portal were consulted, in Portuguese and English, the expressions “loving kindness meditation and attachment theory”, “compassion meditation and attachment theory”, “compassion meditation and attachment theory” and “attachment security and meditation”. No research has been identified specifically associating compassion meditation and attachment theory. However, the hypothesis of the former influencing the latter has not been refuted, and there is still insufficient evidence of confirmation. The practice of meditation is scientifically supported and studied, but it has recently started research, which has not fully explored the subject, being interesting experimental and scientific studies to further validate the practice and its benefits. These studies include the intersections and interferences between compassionate meditation and secure attachment style.Keywords: Meditation. Compassion. Self-compassion. Attachment theory.

Enjoying Every Moment: Improving Adolescent’s Subjective Well-Being Through Adolescent Mindfulness Program

Adolescents often deal with pressures either from the internal or external environment that might trigger psychological issues related to behavior, emotion, academic achievement, and interpersonal relation. Specific intervention is particularly needed to improve adolescents’ subjective well-being in such situations. This research aimed at measuring the effectiveness of the Adolescent Mindfulness Program (Program Mindfulness Remaja, known as PRIMA) on adolescent subjective well-being. This research employed an experimental study with a switching replication design. Twenty-eight late adolescents aged 17-21 years-old previously identified with low or moderate subjective well-being participated in the study and received 9 sessions of the Mindfulness Program. Kentucky Inventory Mindfulness Scale (KIMS) was used to measure mindfulness and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SwSL) and Positive Affect & Negative Affect (PANAS) were used to measure subjective well-being. Results depicted significant improvement in adolescent subjective well-being (p= 0.000; p<0.001) after the intervention, with a therapeutic effect lasting for more or less than 2 weeks. The result of qualitative analysis indicated that self-compassion meditation was the most meaningful meditation for participants.

Augmented Virtual Reality Meditation

In a novel experimental setting, we augmented a variation of traditional compassion meditation with our custom-built VR environment for multiple concurrent users. The presence of another user’s avatar in shared virtual space supports social interactions and provides an active target for evoked compassion. The system incorporates respiration and brainwave-based biofeedback to enable closed-loop interaction of users based on their shared physiological state. Specifically, we enhanced interoception and the deep empathetic processes involved in compassion meditation with real-time visualizations of: breathing rate, level of approach motivation assessed from EEG frontal asymmetry, and dyadic synchrony of those signals between two users. We manipulated these interventions across eight separate conditions (dyadic or solo meditation; brainwave, breathing, both or no biofeedback) in an experiment with 39 dyads (N=8), observing the effect of conditions on self-reported experience and physiological synchrony. We found that each different shared biofeedback type increased users’ self-reported empathy and social presence, compared to no-biofeedback or solo conditions. Our study illustrates how dyadic synchrony biofeedback can expand the possibilities of biofeedback in affective computing and VR solutions for health and wellness.

Integrating the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm with Buddhist-Inspired Compassion Meditation

While Ignatian pedagogy is distinctive in Jesuit education, scholarly attention on its applications is scanty. This article demonstrates the relevance of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) to compassion cultivation through showing how it integrates into a Buddhist-inspired contemplation program, Cognitively-Based Compassion Training® (CBCT®). Using a case study of a CBCT® course at a Jesuit University that developed students’ “whole person” and ethical discernment, this research analyzes how CBCT® works with the IPP’s five elements: context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation. This study evaluates participants’ changes in their emotional well-being and ethical concerns by employing psychological measurements such as the Compassionate Love for Humanity Scale. The discussion concludes by elucidating how I have adapted this integrative pedagogical method to teach an undergraduate credited course, “Buddhist Meditation and Practice.” Broadly, this study contributes to a larger conversation about how educators can create an environment that supports both cognitive and affective learning.

Compassion As an Intervention to Attune to Universal Suffering of Self and Others in Conflicts: A Translational Framework

As interpersonal, racial, social, and international conflicts intensify in the world, it is important to safeguard the mental health of individuals affected by them. According to a Buddhist notion “if you want others to be happy, practice compassion; if you want to be happy, practice compassion,” compassion practice is an intervention to cultivate conflict-proof well-being. Here, compassion practice refers to a form of concentrated meditation wherein a practitioner attunes to friend, enemy, and someone in between, thinking, “I’m going to help them (equally).” The compassion meditation is based on Buddhist philosophy that mental suffering is rooted in conceptual thoughts that give rise to generic mental images of self and others and subsequent biases to preserve one’s egoism, blocking the ultimate nature of mind. To contextualize compassion meditation scientifically, we adopted a Bayesian active inference framework to incorporate relevant Buddhist concepts, including mind (buddhi), compassion (karuna), aggregates (skandhas), suffering (duhkha), reification (samaropa), conceptual thoughts (vikalpa), and superimposition (prapañca). In this framework, a person is considered a Bayesian Engine that actively constructs phenomena based on the aggregates of forms, sensations, discriminations, actions, and consciousness. When the person embodies rigid beliefs about self and others’ identities (identity-grasping beliefs) and the resulting ego-preserving bias, the person’s Bayesian Engine malfunctions, failing to use prediction errors to update prior beliefs. To counter this problem, after recognizing the causes of sufferings, a practitioner of the compassion meditation aims to attune to all others equally, friends and enemies alike, suspend identity-based conceptual thoughts, and eventually let go of any identity-grasping belief and ego-preserving bias that obscure reality. We present a brain model for the Bayesian Engine of three components: (a) Relation-Modeling, (b) Reality-Checking, and (c) Conflict-Alarming, which are subserved by (a) the Default-Mode Network (DMN), (b) Frontoparietal Network (FPN) and Ventral Attention Network (VAN), and (c) Salience Network (SN), respectively. Upon perceiving conflicts, the strengthening or weakening of ego-preserving bias will critically depend on whether the SN up-regulates the DMN or FPN/VAN, respectively. We propose that compassion meditation can strengthen brain regions that are conducive for suspending prior beliefs and enhancing the attunements to the counterparts in conflicts.