Scott Fenton knew he had to do something when his anxiety began interrupting his sleep during the final stage of his training to become a psychologist. In search of an alternative to medication, he turned to meditation, and within four weeks, he said he began to see an improvement in his life.
[Meditation] was a simple concept - being with your own breath ... I found it relaxing,"" Fenton said.
Now, six years since he first began experimenting with meditation, Fenton works as a University Health Services psychologist and meditation instructor, where he regularly witnesses how meditation can improve a person's outlook on life.
""We all have [opinions about] how we should be and what our grades should be, and when they don't happen, we think we did something wrong,"" Fenton said. ""Meditation is simply the practice of being with what is and letting go of all thoughts and judgments ... [it is] the practice of self-compassion.""
Although meditation begins by focusing one's thoughts internally, UW-Madison researchers recently discovered meditation can also lead people to become more compassionate toward others.
In the first study of its kind, Richard Davidson, UW-Madison professor of psychiatry and psychology, and Antoine Lutz, UW-Madison associate scientist, found trained practitioners of compassion meditation have a higher sensitivity toward the emotions of others than novice meditators. The scientists reported their findings online March 25 in the scientific journal Public Library of Science One.
Compassion, or loving kindness, meditation is a form of Tibetan meditation that focuses on the virtuous wish of happiness for all people.
""The point of our study was to see if loving kindness can be learned like chess,"" Lutz said. Just like training to become a doctor or baseball player sharpens the regions of the brain fundamental to an expert's profession, Lutz explained scientists also believed the brain could be trained to be more compassionate.
Using an fMRI - a technique that allows researchers to track the brain's response in real-time - Lutz compared the brain activity of individuals with more than 10,000 hours of compassion meditation practice to individuals with only one week of practice.
Compassion meditation begins with meditators concentrating on their wishes of ""well-being and freedom from all suffering"" for a person they love, Lutz explained. After visualizing loved ones, meditators then expand their wishes of compassion for a person they don't know or even dislike.
During the experiment, participants were asked to practice compassion meditation while listening to emotionally charged sounds, such as a baby laughing and a ""distressed"" woman.
Compared to novice meditators, experts demonstrated higher brain activity in the insula and the temporo-parietal juncture (TPJ) in response to the emotional cues - two regions that Lutz calls the ""empathy regions of the brain.""
According to Lutz, the insula is involved in ""sharing the emotions of others"" and the TPJ ""helps humans to try to understand someone else.""
""Our results suggest we can train [our] culture in compassion and kindness ... and areas of the brain play an important role in empathy and perspective taking,"" Lutz said. ""This now opens the door to study how meditation itself will change brain circuitry in individuals.""
The ability to train individuals to be more compassionate through meditation may be able to be used as a therapy to help people with depression or anger problems, Lutz added.
""Let's face it, our culture celebrates anger and violence,"" said Greta Guenther, UHS psychiatric nurse practitioner and meditation instructor. Instead, compassion meditation offers a way for people to find peace through nonviolence and freedom from anger, she added.
Guenther experienced the healing nature of compassion meditation in her own life when, after 17 months of meditation, she was able to put a 15-year-old feud behind her.
""Practicing compassion doesn't make you stupid or a doormat or weak; it only fills you with love and wisdom and makes you stronger,"" Guenther said.
Although the healing effects of compassion meditation vary between individuals, Guenther said students in her meditation classes often report improved sleep, study and attitude.
For Fenton, the true test of a person's compassion for others must start by developing a love for oneself.
""We can't take care of others without first taking care of ourselves,"" Fenton said. ""Once we find peace and contentment, we can offer it to others.""
Both Fenton and Guenther offer non-credit meditation classes at UW-Madison through UHS.
