Self-compassion, meaning in life, and experiential avoidance explain the relationship between meditation and positive mental health outcomes.
Journal of Clinical Psychology January 24, 2020 J. R. Yela, A. Crego, M. Gómez-Martínez et al.
Meditation is positively associated with better mental health, and the regularity of practice matters. Self-compassion, a sense of meaning in life, and reduced experiential avoidance appear to be active components that help explain how meditation improves mental health. These three factors together accounted for 58% of the variance in mental health scores among meditators and nonmeditators.