An eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) workshop increases regulatory choice flexibility.
Emotion June 1, 2019 Alon Alkoby, Ruthie Pliskin, E. Halperin et al.
People differ in their ability to flexibly choose between engaging and disengaging emotion regulation strategies depending on the situation, a skill called regulatory choice flexibility that is linked to better mental health and well-being. An 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program increased this flexibility in college students compared to a waitlist control group. After the workshop, MBSR participants were more likely than controls to choose reappraisal (an engaging strategy) for low-intensity emotional stimuli and distraction (a disengaging strategy) for high-intensity stimuli, indicating more adaptive regulatory choices.