The effects of loving-kindness and compassion meditation on life satisfaction: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Applied psychology. Health and well-being August 1, 2022 Xiaodan Gu, Wenting Luo, Xinran Zhao et al.
Loving-kindness and compassion meditation (LKCM) appears promising for increasing life satisfaction, but evidence from rigorous studies is weak. A meta-analysis of 23 studies found that LKCM significantly improved life satisfaction in pre-post comparisons (15 studies, 451 participants), but this effect disappeared when only randomized controlled trials were analyzed (6 studies, 404 participants). LKCM outperformed waitlist conditions but was less effective than active control groups. Self-compassion and positive emotions may explain how LKCM works. Practice time was only indirectly linked to life satisfaction. More well-designed studies are needed to clarify whether LKCM changes actual life circumstances or people's perceptions of their lives.