International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
September 17, 2022
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
17 citations
All four 8-week treatments—mantra meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined—similarly improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance in adults new to yoga and meditation. These benefits persisted at 2- and 12-month follow-ups despite declining home practice. Mantra meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, while adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The findings suggest that mantra meditation is the central component driving improvements in interoception, self-awareness, and embodied processing, even though it negatively influenced affect on its own.
Journal of Clinical Medicine
May 31, 2023
Karin Matko, Meike Burzynski, Maximilian Pilhatsch et al.
5 citations
An 8-week yoga-based mind-body intervention, Meditation-Based Lifestyle Modification (MBLM), reduced pain intensity and improved quality of life and pain self-efficacy in most of 17 women with chronic back pain, fibromyalgia, or migraines. The largest improvement was in pain self-efficacy, followed by average pain intensity and quality of life, with a smaller effect on most severe pain. Responses varied among participants, suggesting the intervention helps many but not all. The authors call for larger controlled trials and further exploration of yoga's ethical and philosophical aspects.
Current Opinion in Psychology
February 1, 2026
Karin Matko, Nicholas T. van Dam
4 citations
Mindfulness and meditation can cause adverse effects, including anxiety, depression, and traumatic re-experiencing, with 25-87% of practitioners reporting such effects and 3-37% experiencing functional impairment like inability to work. It is unclear whether these effects are temporary or lasting. Retreat attendance and pre-existing mental health conditions may increase risk, though causality is not established. The review recommends thorough screening, informed consent, and ongoing monitoring in clinical practice, along with setting clear expectations, offering psychoeducational support, and adapting interventions when appropriate to balance benefits and risks.
September 15, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
3 citations
preprint
A single-case multiple-baseline study with 57 healthy, inexperienced yoga practitioners tested how different combinations of yoga components—mantra meditation, physical postures, and ethical teachings—affect body awareness, emotion regulation, affectivity, self-compassion, and distress tolerance. All four treatments (meditation alone, meditation plus physical yoga, meditation plus ethical education, and all three combined) improved body awareness, emotion regulation, self-compassion, and distress tolerance to a similar extent. Meditation alone had the least favorable effect on daily affect, whereas adding ethical education enhanced positive valence most, and adding physical yoga best prevented negative affective responses. The authors suggest mantra meditation is the core driver of improvements in interoception and self-awareness, despite its negative influence on daily affect.
Scientific Reports
May 19, 2026
Karin Matko, Cate Bailey, Julieta Galante et al.
Seventy percent of adults in Australia and New Zealand engaged in contemplative practices such as meditation, yoga, or breathing techniques in the past year, most commonly meditation (31%). Practitioners reported higher psychological distress and greater use of mental healthcare than non-practitioners. After adjusting for sociodemographic differences, the association with distress disappeared for yoga and relaxation practitioners but remained for breathing techniques, which were linked to increased distress in all models. Among those with unmet healthcare needs, meditators and relaxation practitioners reported less distress than non-practitioners with unmet needs. The findings suggest contemplative practices may serve as complements to mental healthcare, but their complex relationships with mental health require further study.
October 20, 2025
Karin Matko, Cate Bailey, Julieta Galante et al.
preprint
A nationally representative survey of 2,640 Australians and New Zealanders found that 70% had engaged in contemplative practices over the past year, most commonly meditation, relaxation, breathing techniques, and yoga. Users of these practices reported higher psychological distress and mental healthcare use than non-practitioners. After adjusting for socio-demographic differences, the association with distress disappeared for yoga and relaxation practitioners; for meditators it disappeared when accounting for mental healthcare use. Breathing practice remained linked to increased distress across all models. However, meditators and relaxation practitioners with unmet healthcare needs reported less distress than non-practitioners with unmet needs. The practices may play a complementary or alternative role in managing mental health.
Mindfulness
December 1, 2023
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier
Body awareness, decentering, and emotion regulation improved reliably and continuously over time for all four meditation techniques—concentrative, humming, observing-thoughts, and walking—suggesting these processes are common mechanisms for novice meditators. Walking meditation produced the smallest improvements in decentering and mind-wandering but the largest in body awareness and emotion regulation. Classic techniques (concentration, observing-thoughts) led to more consistently positive response patterns and better outcomes for participants high in neuroticism, while those high in extraversion benefited more from humming and walking meditation. Motivation and personality also interacted with technique effectiveness.
Journal of Clinical Medicine
August 4, 2022
Karin Matko, Anne Berghöfer, Michael Jeitler et al.
People differ in how much they benefit from mind-body practices like meditation and yoga. In an eight-week study of 57 healthy beginners, those with high anxiety, high absorption, low spirituality, low openness, and younger age showed greater improvements in wellbeing and decentering and less mind wandering. Adding ethical education consistently boosted wellbeing, while adding physical yoga reduced mind wandering. Cluster analysis revealed that participants with more maladaptive personality traits improved their emotion regulation skills the most. These findings suggest that tailoring mind-body interventions to individual characteristics may enhance their effectiveness.
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
June 29, 2021
H. Bringmann, Jill Vennemann, Julianne Gross et al.
Depressive patients who participated in Meditation-Based Lifestyle Modification (MBLM), a mind-body intervention rooted in classical yoga that integrates ethical living, physical yoga, and meditation, reported three main benefits: reappraising past and present life patterns, experiencing serenity through calm and acceptance, and living more mindfully with increased self-awareness and conscious interactions. The ethical component was key to empowerment and appreciating personal strengths. These outcomes were sustained after six months.
Frontiers in Psychology
January 1, 2021
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger C Bringmann
Adding ethical education to mantra meditation produced the largest increases in well-being, while combining meditation with physical yoga reduced stress the most. In an eight-week program with 42 healthy adults who had no regular yoga or meditation practice, those who received meditation plus ethical education showed well-being gains (Tau-U = 0.30/0.23), followed by meditation plus physical yoga (Tau-U = 0.12). Meditation alone showed no change in well-being (Tau-U = 0.07). Stress decreased most with meditation plus physical yoga (Tau-U = -0.40) but increased slightly with meditation alone (Tau-U = 0.17). These results indicate that combining meditation with other yoga components produces differential and incremental benefits.
Mindfulness
November 30, 2020
Karin Matko, U. Ott, P. Sedlmeier
Meditation covers a wide range of contemplative practices, and earlier attempts to categorize them have been incomplete. To create a comprehensive list, researchers first identified 309 meditation techniques from literature and interviews with 20 expert meditators, then reduced these to 50 basic techniques. In a second study, 635 experienced meditators from diverse traditions rated their experience with each technique, confirming the list was adequate with only two additions needed. Statistical analyses revealed preferences for specific techniques within and across traditions, and sets of techniques commonly practiced together. Body-centered techniques were especially important across all meditators. The resulting set of 50 basic techniques may aid future scientific research.
Frontiers in Psychology
October 15, 2019
Karin Matko, P. Sedlmeier
Meditation encompasses many different practices, and earlier classification systems failed to capture their diversity. Experienced meditators rated the similarity of 20 popular techniques. Multidimensional scaling revealed two key dimensions—activation and body orientation—that group techniques into seven clusters: mindful observation, body-centered meditation, visual concentration, contemplation, affect-centered meditation, mantra meditation, and meditation with movement. These clusters challenge the common division into focused attention and open-monitoring practices. The findings suggest there is no single "meditation" but rather distinct groups that may produce different effects, and the authors propose a new embodied classification system for future comparative research.
Karin Matko, Peter Sedlmeier, Holger Carl Bringmann
preprint
Adding ethical education or physical yoga to meditation practice enhances well-being and stress reduction more than meditation alone. In an 8-week program with 42 healthy adults, nearly all participants who combined meditation with ethical education, physical yoga, or both reported increased well-being, while those practicing only meditation did not. The largest well-being gains occurred in groups receiving ethical education. Stress decreased across all conditions, but the most marked reduction appeared in the yoga-plus-meditation group. The findings suggest that the components of traditional yoga—postures, ethics, and meditation—have incremental and differential effects.