How Meditation Promotes Well‐Being: Applying a Dual‐System Theory

Mindfulness meditation and Buddhist-informed contemplative practices improve health and well-being partly by helping practitioners adopt a less immersed perspective on present-moment reality. These practices build meta-awareness and psychological distance from mental activity, reducing negative emotions and craving while increasing mental flexibility. The dual-system model contrasts cool, analytic processes with emotional, hot system processes; contemplative practices facilitate adaptive coping by reducing hot and promoting cool system activation. Buddhist philosophies emphasizing present-moment awareness, the futility of self-focused striving, and the self-perpetuating nature of negative emotions explain how these practices shift activation from hot to cool systems over time.

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Abstract

ABSTRACT Mindfulness meditation and Buddhist‐informed contemplative approaches promote health and well‐being in part by helping meditators view present‐moment reality from a less immersed perspective. Contemplative practices build meta‐awareness and help practitioners psychologically distance from mental activity, thereby reducing negative emotions and craving while promoting mental flexibility. Metcalfe and Mischel's dual‐system model contrasts cool analytic processes with more emotional hot system processes. Contemplative practices facilitate adaptive coping in part by reducing hot and promoting cool system activation. Buddhist philosophies emphasizing the importance of present‐moment awareness, the futility of striving for self‐focused goals (worldly concerns), and the self‐perpetuating nature of negative emotions are used to explain how contemplative practices deter hot system activation and promote cool system activation over time.