Meditation is pro-social, pro-growth, pro-empathic

If you want to dig into the truth about Christian Meditation, you first have to look beyond the superficial, and sweep away certain misunderstandings swirling in the popular mindset. Meditation practice, in general, attracts much negative attention because it is often associated with the following three false assumptions:

Misunderstanding #1: Meditation makes you anti-social

Visions of religious elites cloistered behind fortress walls in remote, out-of-the-way hermitages capture the popular imagination. While introverted personalities are more easily drawn to the ascetic life of silence, stillness and solitude, meditation in fact fosters extraversion. Scientific studies have recently correlated meditation practice with pro-social behaviour. For example, experiments have documented interpersonal benefits arising from meditation interventions in therapy. Meditation doesn’t make you anti-social. Meditation is not an escape from social reality. It is not meant to entice you to avoid difficult social encounters and conversations. Instead, its regular practice improves your capacity to pay attention to others and deepen the quality of your relationships. Meditation practice provides the basis, the grounding, for an authentic and healthy engagement with social reality. Meditation is fundamentally pro-social.

Misunderstanding #2: Meditation keeps you stuck in your ways

Being still during prayer conjures the false perception that meditation abets physiological, emotional, and spiritual stasis. While meditation practice slows down our physical, mental and emotional activity, it doesn’t stop those natural processes. Meditation practice does not lead to inertia. In fact, because we are conditioned for hyper-activity in our culture, it’s more difficult for us to slow down. In meditation, we discover a more natural, simpler cadence for living. Again, scientific studies have recently linked meditation practice with physiological change in regulating heart rate. New neural pathways are forged in our brains. With ongoing meditation practice, the body changes in ways that promote mature growth in relationship with ourselves, to our world and those around us. Our basic physical, emotional and spiritual motivations adapt and change. Meditation practice ultimately promotes continual personal development and growth.

Misunderstanding #3: Meditation makes you selfish and self-centred

In my Lutheran tradition the words of Martin Luther first come to mind. He defined sin as being “turned in on oneself”. Navel-gazing is a popular criticism leveled at meditation. It is therefore rejected as a true prayer practice, especially in Protestant circles. It is easy to categorize meditation with ‘new age’, narcissism and self-preoccupation. In light of scientific findings, blanket assertions that meditation keeps you turned-in on yourself are no longer defensible. In fact, researchers have shown that meditation promotes an other-centred frame of mind. This frame of mind is accomplished by building our capacity for empathy. One study, referenced below, correlated meditation with increased motivation to care for those who suffer. Meditation, if anything, promotes loving concern for others.

John Main famously said that meditation creates a community of love. If anyone wants to belong to such a community in whatever context and grow in compassionate care for others, it is sound advice to start with a meditation practice.

For more information about the practice of Christian Meditation in Canada, please visit www.wccm-canada.ca

References

King, B. G., Zanesco, A. P., Skwara, A. C., & Saron, C. D. (2023). Cultivating concern for others: meditation training and motivated engagement with human suffering. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 152(10), 2897-2924. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001431

Lee, M. Y., Eads, R., & Hoffman, J. (2022). “I felt it and I let it go”: Perspectives on meditation and emotional regulation among female survivors of interpersonal trauma with co-occurring disorders. Journal of Family Violence, 37(4), 629-641.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-021-00329-7